It has been estimated that by the year 2014 there will be a 12 per cent increase in the number of adults with at least one chronic illness condition (Carrier, 2009). The turn to caring for those with a chronic illness at home has resulted in carers having an increased risk of developing health problems (Ohman & Soderberg, 2004). As such there is a need to understand how families manage and cope with illness at home. This study has examined the effect chronic illness had on not only the woman with illness, but also the immediate family closely involved with her care. Additionally the study has sought to address the effect chronic illness had on the 'self' and 'identity' of these three women and to determine what extent and impact the illness process had on the relationships within this family. The study used open-ended biographic narrative interviews to elicit data. The research revealed that each woman experienced change and loss to both 'self' and 'identity' albeit in different ways. Interestingly and of significance is the way these women in their narrative accounts revisited their past lives in implicating and accounting for the present and the future (Freeman 2010). It was discovered that the past history and past relationships of these women affected how they each responded to illness and each other in their present circumstances.

This mixed-media memoir uses a variety of forms from short epigrammatic essays to straightforward stories and graphic narratives to explore the author’s coming-of-age experiences augmented by chronic illness. Trying to succeed in the film industry, romance, and family situations, the young female narrator navigates the often unexpected or disappointing consequences of having an autonomic nervous system disorder. Relationships between conflicting identities emerge—between healthy versus sick self, projected/envisioned versus actual self, and tough versus vulnerable self—as the narrator journeys toward a more complete and accepting self-understanding.