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This article presents findings on how survivors of an intensive treatment for cancer-bone marrow transplantation (BMT)- conceptualize and describe their current lives. The presence of 11 themes of loss (e.g., loss of reproductive capability) and 11 themes of recovery (e.g., finding new meaning in life) were rated from statements made by 135 survivors of BMT in response to items from an in-depth, structured questionnaire. No significant differences were found in the frequency of themes of loss versus recovery. A classification of respondents revealed that 26.7 percent focused more on loss, 21.5 percent focused more on recovery, and 51.8 percent had a balanced view of their lives. The frequencies of specific loss and recovery themes were related to gender, age at BMT, marital status, and time since BMT. The authors discuss the possibility that subgroups of survivors, on the basis of life stage, find different routes to recovery.
Curbow et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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