Learning to live with illness: experiences of persons with recent diagnoses of diabetes mellitus

Background: The process of learning to live with an illness is complex. By better understanding the learning process for persons with diabetes in the early stage of the illness, the role of the health care can be shown.

Aim: To reach an understanding of how learning to live with diabetes is experienced in the first 2 months after diagnosis.

Method: A qualitative descriptive design was used, and interviews were conducted. Thirteen participants with a recent diagnosis of diabetes were included and asked to narrate about their experience of living with diabetes. Qualitative inductive content analysis was used.

Findings: Four themes emerged: 'taken over by a new reality', 'the body plays a role in life', 'different ways of learning' and 'the healthcare service as a necessary partner'.

Conclusion: People with short-term experience of the illness gained knowledge through personal resources such as their own experience and self-reflection. The learning process includes an inner dialogue between the self, the body and the life. Participants were concerned with grasping a new reality and understanding a different self and body where lifestyle changes and uncertainty were present. When health care was accessible and sensitive to their needs, those with short-term experience of diabetes chose the staff as key players in the early stages of their life with diabetes.