The Struggle with Time in Chronic Illness

• Authors: Ostrowska A.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

It is worth looking at chronic illness with its pain, suffering and increasing limitations from the perspective of time. By time we mean subjective time relating to the perception and dynamics of the malady in the patient's impressions and the role which time plays in the structuring of the patient's life and experience. The main focus of this article is the experience of progressive kidney failure (uraemia), a condition which requires regular dialysis or kidney transplantation. Due to its specific crises, hopes and periods of waiting, painstaking medical procedures lasting many hours and turning points in the disease's trajectory, time and its passage are a particularly adequate instrument with which to analyse the experiences of patients with uraemia. These experiences are discussed against the backdrop of selected elements of health care and attitudes towards transplantation which provide the social context for patients' struggle with illness.

Keywords

EN

CHRONIC DISEASE; DIALYSIS; DISEASE'S TRAJECTORY; TIME; TRANSPLANTATION

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Polskie Towarzystwo Socjologiczne
• Journal: Polish Sociological Review
• Year: 2008
• Issue: 1(161)
• Pages: 25-37
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Ostrowska A.

• A. Ostrowska, Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii PAN, ul. Nowy Swiat 72, 00-330 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

08PLAAAA04749041