Perceção dos pais sobre o futuro da criança com cancro

Cancer in the child affects the whole family, which experiences the uncertainty of the prognosis, projecting itself into an unpredictable future. Parents come to live with the disease, the treatments and their effects, in a sinuous path lined by the uncertainty of the next day. The aim was to identify parents’ perceptions regarding the future of children / adolescents with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and transversal study was developed. Eleven parents of children with cancer who underwent chemotherapy after their homecare were enrolled. Data were collected by semi-structured interview and analyzed according to Bardin. From the content analysis emerged the domain “Future Uncertain”, which integrates the category “Syndrome of Damocles” and the subcategories “Fear” and “Unpredictability of the Future”. Fear is a negative emotion experienced by parents of children with cancer, from the time of diagnosis and throughout the course of the disease. The unpredictability of the future is a constant in the life of parents, generating a continuous concern, so they resort to the strategy of thinking and living only in the present. However, uncertainty can catalyze psychological growth, leading them to value small moments, and to incorporate uncertainty as an integral part of life. Nurses must carry out interventions aimed at better management of uncertainty, as they help in the process of adaptation and management of stress. These interventions should lead to a “new normality” in family life, in which confrontation with adversity leads to a whole new meaning of existence.