The Lived Experience of Multiple Sclerosis Relapse: How Adults with Multiple Sclerosis Processed Their Relapse Experience and Evaluated Their Need for Postrelapse Care

Table 1

Basic descriptions of categories and corresponding quotes.

Main category	Subcategory	Definition	Quotes
Description of Relapse Experience	Impact on Physical Health	Descriptions related to physical limitations caused by the most recent relapse	“Excruciating pain through my arms, like that burning, and just feeling – the arms feel really heavy, like I can’t use them, extremely weak.”
	Impact on Cognitive Health	Descriptions related to cognitive limitations caused by the most recent relapse	“It’s just reading sentences or certain things that I will have to keep reading and keep reading and keep reading to completely understand it … something as simple as getting directions to my husband’s job that I know that he’s been working there for 20 years. I know how to get there, but I could not – I just couldn’t understand it. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, so I had to write down verbatim …”
	Impact on Emotional Health	Descriptions related to one’s emotional health being affected and/or changed by the most recent relapse	“This one [relapse], I think, more affected my pride, and it affected me more emotionally because I wasn’t able to function as me.”
Interpretation of Relapse Experience	Minor Event with No Impact	Making reference to having no consequences to or no changes in themselves or their lives as a result of the most recent relapse	“Like I say, it’s [relapse] just been so mild. Other than the optic neuritis, it just – most of the time I forget I even have it. I don’t think of it.”
	Manageable Event with Some Impact	Making reference to having manageable consequences to or changes in themselves or their lives as a result of the most recent relapse	“…I’m still able to do them [daily activities]; it just takes me longer to do them…”; “It [relapse] was easy for me because I felt as though I had already went through this experience right before, and I basically knew what to expect.”
	Major Event with Severe Impact	Making reference to having severe consequences to or major changes in themselves or their lives as a result of the most recent relapse	“Well, how it [relapse] affected my daily life was completely. If I took my daily life before, it was not possible … I had to move out of my house for two-and-a-half months. I couldn’t live here. Everything was different.”
Perceived Need for Postrelapse Care	Necessary	Making reference to requiring/desiring healthcare services to manage the most recent relapse	“I continually say, I have a problem with this [inability to self-care]. And everyone said, just give it time. No, I need help now.”
	Unnecessary	Making reference to not requiring/desiring any healthcare services to manage the most recent relapse	“…the symptoms of optic neuritis, but I really don’t think there’s an awful lot you can do better because it’s not the eyeball. Because it’s the pathway up to the brain.”
	Undetermined	Making reference to undetermined needs/desires for healthcare services to manage the most recent relapse	“…they say that it [vision] will usually come back itself over time, I decided just to try to wait it out this time and see what happens.”