The experience of spousal carers of people with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

This phenomenological-interpretative inquiry explores spousal carers' experience of caring for their partner while confronting many apparent losses. Ten spousal carers of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) participated in the study. The authors collected data using unstructured in-depth interviews and analyzed them using a hermeneutic method. The constitutive pattern, Weaving Through a Web of Paradoxes, that emerged from the data described how these participants' experience in caring for their partner has changed their way of living and their being. The authors present in this article some of the paradoxes that capture carers' experiences of loss and gain, and their feelings of vulnerability and strength. The insight gained from this study adds new understanding of responses to non-death-related losses.