“I Was Like an Autumn Leaf That Looks Pretty From the Outside, but Would Break Once You Touched It”: A Case Study of the Lived Experience of Breast Cancer Survival

Abstract

In this hermeneutic phenomenological case study, we explored the lived experiences of one Saudi Arabian woman, Sahara, living with breast cancer and after, identifying her culture’s impact on the “meaning-making” process. We derived the data from a semi-structured interview and analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). The themes were: (1) “discourse”: being a breast cancer patient; (2) “sociality”: the complex sense of living with visibility and invisibility; and (3) “selfhood”: regaining the sense of being normal. The study benefits healthcare providers, who need to understand women’s life-world, the impact of culture when designing a program of survival care, and the response to their needs.