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The article is based on a PhD study: The fight for a life worth living: the process of working towards a meaningful life following a traumatic spinal cord injury. Twelve people with recent spinal cord injury were followed up over the first two years post injury. The study design was based on narratives from Ricouer's phenomological-hermeneutic theory. Data were obtained from field observations and interviews. The study showed a process which increas-ed feelings of meaning in life in six phases: The patients regained a sense of meaning in life following a fight for a future worth living. This process was demonstrated in three patterns. In the first, the patients fought a meaningful fight with themselves, together with the health care professionals. If consensus over the aims and method of achieving this was lost and could not be re-established, the patient's fight (pattern two) changed into a fight against the health care professionals and the patient. The third pattern involved the patient instead turning away from the professionals and attempting to fight alone. Because patterns two and three both had negative consequences for the patient's well-being and rehabilitation, it was crucial to use dialogue to obtain the patient's perspective.In this way, the health care professionals could also support the patient's search for meaning in life.

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