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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
Valuable, timely reminder for women to advocate for women’s health issues and women’s voices. Style - odd.
I listened to the audiobook. Very well done. I recommend this book to anyone who has an autoimmune disease, knows someone with an autoimmune disease, is a woman, is a sensitive man, is in the medical profession or has ever wondered about the care they received from a doctor or even why they felt like crap after eating processed foods exclusively for a few days. Her story is heartbreaking and the bodily processes are not shied away from. Worth every hour of listening.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
DNF--I was looking for something that would help me come to terms with my own struggles with a "mysterious illness" and maybe come out of it learning something or getting a little hope. All I saw, though, was just... a lot missing. There's no question that our healthcare system has failed in diagnosing many, many people, but she focuses on one: the cisgendered woman. Or, rather, the rich white cisgendered woman. What she's been through has been horrifying and it is a bit disheartening to see that, even being born into privilege, she still couldn't find many of the answers she was seeking. And there were points where she pointed out how unsustainable certain solutions of hers were, so I'll give her some credit for that. But she failed to mention that not everyone with a vagina or uterus is a woman and that they, too, get misdiagnosed or worse. And the fact that there hasn't been any mention of POC AT ALL is just glaringly obvious. Maybe there's something later, but I don't really want to go through this anymore. There were some quotes in the bits I read that resonated with me, but continuing reading doesn't sit right with me and I have better things to read/do with my time.
I won't be rating this--as it IS a memoir and I don't really know how to go about rating someone's personal experience?--but I wouldn't recommend it.
I won't be rating this--as it IS a memoir and I don't really know how to go about rating someone's personal experience?--but I wouldn't recommend it.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
Never before has a person put into words the strange, sometimes frustrating, and sometimes devastating journey to diagnose a chronic medical condition like this author has. It is a journey I know well. And before reading this book, one I thought I was doing alone. As it turns out there are a whole host of people, largely women, struggling with a medical system that is ill-equipped to treat chronic illness. Please read this book if you or anyone you love has is suffering from a chronic medical condition. It was a crucial resource for me, and I hope it will be for you too.
Hard to rate - I want everyone to read this book, despite its flaws. I highly, highly recommend it for anyone who's been to a doctor and was told you're fine, it's all in your head, it's just stress, only for the condition to worsen overtime until they prescribe antidepressants, you difficult patient, you.
This is especially for people (and friends and family of people) who've had 3 or more of the following: IBS/IBD, chronic fatigue, hypothyroid, fibromyalgia, post-treatment Lyme disease, hormonal imbalances, eczema and other skin conditions, heart palpitation and abnormal rhythm, joint and muscle pains, chemical sensitivity, recurring UTIs/yeast infections, and autoimmune conditions.
This book is incredibly eye-opening and potentially life-changing. Ramey has been through a LOT as a patient, and halfway into the book I was screaming internally in recognition of what she was experiencing.
Here's the summary - They're definitely not all the same condition, but there's a very strong and compelling case for the fact that they are all connected. The commonality is that they happen in people who are sensitive to stimuli and their environment. Yes there is a universal theory, but that's not as important as the fact that patients need to be treated as a whole, that their entire history needs to be considered, and that you as a patient have a right to be heard - you know your body more than anyone. And guess what. Sleep, exercise, and your gut microbiome are everything, folks.
...
Now for the problems.
1 - I would have rated this book 5/5 if it wasn't for the femininity/masculinity garbage. I recommend skipping chapters 19-21 altogether, and ignoring everything she says about this being a woman's condition. Of course these issues happen more to women, and of course that's worth exploring - but instead of taking the chance to question gender roles, Ramey doubles down and enforces literally ancient ideas about what is feminine and what is masculine. Sensitivity is feminine? Sorry but I don't like that at all. Brain differences, boo hoo - these are demonstrably caused by socialization. Why is it not considered masculine to be sensitive and emotional, when that's, you know, a human trait? Isn't that exactly where toxic masculinity comes from, where men are forced to transform every emotion into anger? I don't think it's right at all to call sensitive men "feminine men". She also mentions in passing that this cluster of issues is also studied in soldiers with PTSD, so why isn't that significant? Are we really going to say that vets are feminine men? I know she was trying to go for a Pinkola Estés thing here, but that really took away from the message for me.
2 - The one sentence she said that made me angry. Women in the developing world don't suffer from this as much because they eat less grains/sugar and have a lower toxic load. I don't know how on earth this got overlooked by editors, because this is so BEYOND absurd. Seriously, what? I'll try to explain as someone who grew up in the "developing world" without getting furious. Do you know how much rice the developing world eats? Rice is a grain. Also white bread. Lots of bread. Oh did I mention the developing world literally grows sugarcane and some people grow up drinking a 50:50 mix of milk and SUGAR for breakfast? No? Did you not realize we eat a fuckton of sugar all the time? Oh how about this - people are exposed to all sorts of shit chemicals at work because there are no worker protections, because chemicals that are banned in Europe and North America are still used abundantly in the developing world? That people grow up literally slathered in DDT and there isn't even any clean drinking water anywhere? Maybe people don't take antibiotics for every cold but do you know how many powerful nasty meds we take for worms, parasites, malaria? Ug. Just. Delete that one sentence in the next edition, please.
Immediatley after, she says "maybe" people in developing countries just aren't going to the Dr as much for these conditions, so at least there's a glimmer of a clue in there. And hey how about considering that maybe this applies to the reason why doctors don't see many male "mystery illness" patients - They. Just. Don't. Go. To. The. Doctor. A lot of guys will self-medicate, do drugs, die early and/or kill themselves before they go to the doctor for a stomach ache. And maybe calling them "feminine men" is PART OF THE PROBLEM. Ask your nearest pothead if he smokes because of stomach aches, you'll be surprised how many say yes.
So sorry Sarah Ramey, I actually really loved this book!
This is especially for people (and friends and family of people) who've had 3 or more of the following: IBS/IBD, chronic fatigue, hypothyroid, fibromyalgia, post-treatment Lyme disease, hormonal imbalances, eczema and other skin conditions, heart palpitation and abnormal rhythm, joint and muscle pains, chemical sensitivity, recurring UTIs/yeast infections, and autoimmune conditions.
This book is incredibly eye-opening and potentially life-changing. Ramey has been through a LOT as a patient, and halfway into the book I was screaming internally in recognition of what she was experiencing.
Here's the summary - They're definitely not all the same condition, but there's a very strong and compelling case for the fact that they are all connected. The commonality is that they happen in people who are sensitive to stimuli and their environment. Yes there is a universal theory, but that's not as important as the fact that patients need to be treated as a whole, that their entire history needs to be considered, and that you as a patient have a right to be heard - you know your body more than anyone. And guess what. Sleep, exercise, and your gut microbiome are everything, folks.
...
Now for the problems.
1 - I would have rated this book 5/5 if it wasn't for the femininity/masculinity garbage. I recommend skipping chapters 19-21 altogether, and ignoring everything she says about this being a woman's condition. Of course these issues happen more to women, and of course that's worth exploring - but instead of taking the chance to question gender roles, Ramey doubles down and enforces literally ancient ideas about what is feminine and what is masculine. Sensitivity is feminine? Sorry but I don't like that at all. Brain differences, boo hoo - these are demonstrably caused by socialization. Why is it not considered masculine to be sensitive and emotional, when that's, you know, a human trait? Isn't that exactly where toxic masculinity comes from, where men are forced to transform every emotion into anger? I don't think it's right at all to call sensitive men "feminine men". She also mentions in passing that this cluster of issues is also studied in soldiers with PTSD, so why isn't that significant? Are we really going to say that vets are feminine men? I know she was trying to go for a Pinkola Estés thing here, but that really took away from the message for me.
2 - The one sentence she said that made me angry. Women in the developing world don't suffer from this as much because they eat less grains/sugar and have a lower toxic load. I don't know how on earth this got overlooked by editors, because this is so BEYOND absurd. Seriously, what? I'll try to explain as someone who grew up in the "developing world" without getting furious. Do you know how much rice the developing world eats? Rice is a grain. Also white bread. Lots of bread. Oh did I mention the developing world literally grows sugarcane and some people grow up drinking a 50:50 mix of milk and SUGAR for breakfast? No? Did you not realize we eat a fuckton of sugar all the time? Oh how about this - people are exposed to all sorts of shit chemicals at work because there are no worker protections, because chemicals that are banned in Europe and North America are still used abundantly in the developing world? That people grow up literally slathered in DDT and there isn't even any clean drinking water anywhere? Maybe people don't take antibiotics for every cold but do you know how many powerful nasty meds we take for worms, parasites, malaria? Ug. Just. Delete that one sentence in the next edition, please.
Immediatley after, she says "maybe" people in developing countries just aren't going to the Dr as much for these conditions, so at least there's a glimmer of a clue in there. And hey how about considering that maybe this applies to the reason why doctors don't see many male "mystery illness" patients - They. Just. Don't. Go. To. The. Doctor. A lot of guys will self-medicate, do drugs, die early and/or kill themselves before they go to the doctor for a stomach ache. And maybe calling them "feminine men" is PART OF THE PROBLEM. Ask your nearest pothead if he smokes because of stomach aches, you'll be surprised how many say yes.
So sorry Sarah Ramey, I actually really loved this book!