Abstract

This study involved asking women from the Endometriosis Association to write a vivid description or poetry about a time in their life, a time that they will never forget that reminds them of what it is like to live with endometriosis. I received 33 written texts and have included them in this dissertation as an appendix. This is a hermeneutical qualitative study utilizing general hermeneutical scholarship as a basis for a theoretical framework. The methods of Paul Ricoeur, a philosopher of language were a guide for the gathering of texts as written works and not interviews, analysis and interpretation of the texts. ;The findings indicated that when written text is used instead of ordinary discourse the descriptions become vivid and imaginative. The written texts gave the women an opportunity to write their deepest feelings about the every-day-ness of living with this disease. The inclusion of the texts in the dissertation will allow for further analysis and a deeper understanding of the themes. In keeping with Guba and Lincoln an audit trail and the preservation of the data will allow others to carefully read and analyze the texts for themselves and for the women who wrote about their most intimate life stories. ;The meaning of living with the disease is discussed in the literature review, the texts, the themes from the texts, and the congruence of the literature review to the themes from the texts. The study was taken a step further. After collecting texts from women from many states throughout the United States and identifying themes, I went to my own support group of 15 women to ask them to elaborate about the themes. The experience gave life to the themes as through the women in the support group and the women from the study spoke to each other about their lives and living with endometriosis. ;The use of poetry and vivid descriptions as texts worked allowed me to feel and understand more clearly the experience of living with endometriosis. My hope is that nurses will become more aware of this chronic disease as they read this dissertation and be the health care group to help women who suffer daily with this overwhelming illness