Reflections on becoming a person with musculoskeletal pain: A patient diary

Abstract

This paper analyses the solicited diary of one woman who made the transition from a healthy to an ill person. The potential of diaries to examine changes longitudinally is increasingly being recognized and our analysis, using a framework that distinguishes between contingent, moral and core narratives, contributes to this body of work. The story demonstrates the way in which the diarist gives meaning to her trajectory, and in particular, how becoming someone with chronic musculoskeletal pain and disability presents a series of challenges whereby sense has to be made of the past and present identities. Giving meaning to the core events that she believes have caused her pain and disability takes place within the context of her employment and family obligations and shapes her ‘being-in-the-world’. Adopting a tripartite conceptual framework clarifies the narrative aspects of the account and surfaces its multiple forms across time.