Living and working through health uncertainty: An analytic autoethnography of identity, strain, and future-making

Prolonged health uncertainty extends beyond diagnostic processes and clinical encounters into everyday life, reshaping work, relationships, self-understanding, and the capacity to imagine a stable future. Yet the occupational and relational burden of living under uncertainty often remains hidden when outward functioning is preserved.

This analytic autoethnography examined how prolonged health uncertainty was lived and negotiated across work, family life, and selfhood. The analysis drew on a curated archive of self-authored materials, including contemporaneous written reflections, retrospective accounts, and selected self-narrative documents. Materials were interpreted thematically through the lens of biographical disruption.

Four interrelated themes were identified: 1) health uncertainty beyond the clinic, 2) carrying competence under strain, 3) silence, disclosure, and institutional vulnerability, and 4) rebuilding a livable future. The findings show that uncertainty became embedded in the ordinary structure of life rather than remaining a purely medical issue. Continued functioning at work depended on self-monitoring, emotional containment, selective silence, and repeated efforts to preserve a coherent professional self. Uncertainty remained unresolved, but was incorporated into a more fragile, still livable continuity.

Prolonged health uncertainty should be understood as both a medical problem awaiting clarification and a disruptive occupational and relational condition. This article highlights the hidden labor involved in remaining apparently functional while living and working through uncertainty.