Abstract
Background:
Some patients having multiple sclerosis (MS) still report gains from the adversity of suffering from a chronic and debilitating illness.
Aim:
To explore the subjective experiences of quality of life in patients with MS, focusing on possible positive aspects of having to come to terms with MS.
Method:
An inductive approach in the form of latent content analysis was used to analyze the data from 61 MS-patient interviews.
Findings:
Fighting a losing battle but also gradually conquering oneself was the underlying theme that emerged from the following four main categories: Experience of ill-health, Experience of health in spite of illness, Psychosocial consequences of having MS, and Different ways of managing MS. Patients with MS were forced to re-evaluate their life during the course of illness, gaining hard-earned knowledge that became the basis for continually managing their illness.
Conclusion:
Nurses and other health care personnel need to be aware of the impact living with MS has on patients as revealed by the present study in order to be able to help these patients come to terms with and adapt to the deleterious effects of this illness.