To Örebro University

Background: Some patients having multiple sclerosis (MS) still report gains from the adversity o f suffering from a chronic and debilitating illness.

Aim: To explore the subjective experiences o f quality o f life in patients with MS, focusing on possible positive aspects o f having to come to terms with MS.

Method: An inductive approach in the form o f 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 o f ill-health, Experience o f health in spite o f illness, Psychosocial consequences o f having MS, and Different ways o f managing MS. Patients with MS were forced to re-evaluate their life during the course o f 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 o f 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 o f this illness.