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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I gave up after reading all of Part 1. I really wanted to like this book, because I’m always fascinated by medical mysteries, and I’ve gone through my own share of health stuff to understand a fraction of what she went through. (But just a fraction - I can’t even imagine having to deal with her constant pain!) However, I found this very dry and difficult to read. I perked up every time she went back to describing her own particular journey, but there was too little of that. It was mostly about her research, and it became more or less the same. Decided not to finish.
I wanted to give this book a higher rating, if just because the subject matter is serious and the author's story should be known. As someone who also has an invisible, not obvious, illness I felt like this would be up my alley, to read the story of another person who has been suffering.
The book is mainly about the story of Sarah Ramey's lack of good health, and how the current form of modern medicine failed her, and other women she encountered with similar stories to her own. And what happened to her is terrible.
*But* I think her writing style got in the way of her story for me. It was too creative (and I say this because she mentions her MFA in creative non-fiction writing), it seemed to trivialize the subject in such a way that it seemed she was trying too hard to connect to the reader. To lessen how horrible the situation was. It was like reading a season of Sex and the City, but instead of fashion and relationships, she was discussing pain and a lack of relationships.
I still finished it, and her story is important. She makes a lot of good points about the state of medicine, who gets taken seriously by doctors. How to advocate for yourself, that you should shop around for the best doctors for yourself. A lot of things can be helped if we all took better care of ourselves in the first place, but to a certain degree that is a bigger problem than just the medical system.
I can also completely understand other peoples objections to her treatment of gender. While she does put some nuance into it, she sees things in a very binary way. Similar to a lot people, that things might be *male* and *female* even when she is saying things are not that simple. And if there has been anything science has been learning these past hundred years, it actually isn't that simple.
The book is mainly about the story of Sarah Ramey's lack of good health, and how the current form of modern medicine failed her, and other women she encountered with similar stories to her own. And what happened to her is terrible.
*But* I think her writing style got in the way of her story for me. It was too creative (and I say this because she mentions her MFA in creative non-fiction writing), it seemed to trivialize the subject in such a way that it seemed she was trying too hard to connect to the reader. To lessen how horrible the situation was. It was like reading a season of Sex and the City, but instead of fashion and relationships, she was discussing pain and a lack of relationships.
I still finished it, and her story is important. She makes a lot of good points about the state of medicine, who gets taken seriously by doctors. How to advocate for yourself, that you should shop around for the best doctors for yourself. A lot of things can be helped if we all took better care of ourselves in the first place, but to a certain degree that is a bigger problem than just the medical system.
I can also completely understand other peoples objections to her treatment of gender. While she does put some nuance into it, she sees things in a very binary way. Similar to a lot people, that things might be *male* and *female* even when she is saying things are not that simple. And if there has been anything science has been learning these past hundred years, it actually isn't that simple.
I read this like IYKYK: POTS, ME/CFS, neurocardiogenic syncope, CRPS, dysautonomia, fibromyalgia… story of my life.
Feminist Healthcare Manifesto/Memoir. Gets a little ranty at times but an important read if you or someone you care about struggles with the modern medical industrial complex.
An interesting read, for sure. This is one of those books that I would love to have read for a book club conversation, because I really would love to hear other people's thoughts on this book. I only rated it 3 stars because it uses profanity (a lot of profanity, but understandably to make a point). The author is clearly coming from an all-inclusive point of view, but occasionally uses Biblical sounding references inaccurately and sounds sacrilegious at times. At the half-way point in the book, she breaks down her position on gender (which includes nonbinary), but all of these points build on each other to some thoughtful concepts on the current healthcare system and the American way of life, to name a few. All in all, I don't know if I can recommend the book, but I selfishly want my friends to read it so that we can talk about the author's points.
I'm 100% sure I picked up this book because of it's unique title. I was also pretty sure that it was chick lit. But, when I read the jacket, it was anything but. And still sounded intriguing.
Sarah Ramey presents herself as a case of one mysterious illness that turned into a lifelong battle with doctors, friends, and the world. Except, as her studies showed, her mysterious illness was NOT a case one. It was not even remotely unique.
And her memoir goes down a LOT of rabbit holes to her final points in the novel about health, wellness, the American medical system, and feminism.
An incredibly well thought out book with so much NEW information about women and health. But the writing style at the beginning (and throughout the book) of very short paragraphs and writing like speaking almost put me off the whole thing. I decided to stick it out and I was glad I did. However, I can see some people not getting beyond her first few chapters because of it.
Sarah Ramey presents herself as a case of one mysterious illness that turned into a lifelong battle with doctors, friends, and the world. Except, as her studies showed, her mysterious illness was NOT a case one. It was not even remotely unique.
And her memoir goes down a LOT of rabbit holes to her final points in the novel about health, wellness, the American medical system, and feminism.
An incredibly well thought out book with so much NEW information about women and health. But the writing style at the beginning (and throughout the book) of very short paragraphs and writing like speaking almost put me off the whole thing. I decided to stick it out and I was glad I did. However, I can see some people not getting beyond her first few chapters because of it.
A lot of this book seriously hit home, which I liked and I also enjoyed the overall message. Unfortunately, it was definitely a bit LONG winded. I think the story could have been told much quicker and more effectively.
At the beginning of the book the author's doctors tell her that she needs psychological help, which she ignores. By the end of the book, she seeks psychological help but doesn't connect the dots.
This is a pretty narrowly cis straight white lady telling, but it also feels like absolutely the only book I’ve ever seen that does the reporting of living with severe difficult-to-treat/diagnose health issues with so much detail and patience. It’s certainly the only book I’ve ever read in this arena that made me feel actually seen and not alone, and I’m so grateful to the author for that! She critiques eastern and western medical approaches alike, and goes through all of the research she does over her years of severe illness in painstaking detail. Perhaps most interestingly, Ramey looks at the diseases she investigates as both issues that primarily affect women and also separately as a category of feminized illnesses. While her analysis of the latter made me often uncomfortable and sometimes felt essentialist, I think she’s going toward some really worthwhile thought paths.
This book was a whole journey. It went a lot of different places and did a lot of things. I loved it. It’s definitely problematic; the author - who has done a massive amount of work to understand and explain the science and societal underpinnings of chronic illness - hasn’t done the work to unpack the ways her whiteness and class privilege influenced her (truly horrific, deeply misogynistic) experience with healthcare as a woman with a mysterious and very severe illness. As result, her analysis of the brokenness of dominant approaches to health is very incomplete. She doesn’t seem connected to disability justice movements, though a lot of her framework is compatible with and/or would benefit from DJ. She includes lots of the casual fatphobia common to health writing. Her gender theory is from a very straight, cis perspective.
All that said, this book is also great. And funny. It does an amazing job exposing medical gaslighting and abuse (that is unrelentingly egregious, even for the author, a compliant straight white woman with doctor parents), and the extreme patriarchy underlying doctors’ mistreatment of patients with chronic illnesses that mainstream medicine can’t understand or fix.
I kept getting a disoriented feeling when the book took different turns. First it was a woman-with-a-chronic-illness-being-repeatedly-dismissed-and-abused-by-doctors memoir. (This is a whole genre that is very important to me.) Then, suddenly, I felt like I was reading...an introduction to a paleo cookbook, or something? Not in a bad way, exactly, although it threw me when the author started breaking down some really specific Chris Kresser-ish health/science writing - it was like The Explanation, suddenly. Mystery Solved! A lot about microglia, inflammation, the endocrine system, gut dysbiosis, microbiome, etc. I mean, it all sounded more or less right to me, it’s just not what I thought I was getting into - rarely do these books break down so much concrete health advice. Which is actually surprising, considering how much intensive research most mysterious-illness-havers are forced to do in order to take care of their own health. And mostly it’s still complicated and mysterious, and what that author is really doing is outlining some of the evidence-based ways to treat the body as if it is *one unified system* (radical!), and include common-sense things like rest, food, social connection, and movement in treatment plans for chronic illness.
And then there was the part where it suddenly became all Jungian feminist archetype mythological Marion Woodman-ish psychology. I did not see that coming. But again, once my eyes adjusted, it made sense - especially as the prism for the author’s feminist awakening. It worked.
This was a very absorbing read for me. I love it when people are able to so compellingly describe common but largely-unspoken experiences, like being a woman with a mysterious illness trying desperately to get help from an almost uniformly hostile medical system that is telling her it’s all in her head. Much of this book is OUTRAGING - the descriptions of the abysmal treatment (often true malpractice) from doctors who hold so much of the power - including the power to describe her in medical records in ways that make it even less likely she’ll be taken seriously by future doctors. She’s way too sick to summon the energy to sue anyone. It’s fucking horrifying, and so, so common. And glad this book exists.
All that said, this book is also great. And funny. It does an amazing job exposing medical gaslighting and abuse (that is unrelentingly egregious, even for the author, a compliant straight white woman with doctor parents), and the extreme patriarchy underlying doctors’ mistreatment of patients with chronic illnesses that mainstream medicine can’t understand or fix.
I kept getting a disoriented feeling when the book took different turns. First it was a woman-with-a-chronic-illness-being-repeatedly-dismissed-and-abused-by-doctors memoir. (This is a whole genre that is very important to me.) Then, suddenly, I felt like I was reading...an introduction to a paleo cookbook, or something? Not in a bad way, exactly, although it threw me when the author started breaking down some really specific Chris Kresser-ish health/science writing - it was like The Explanation, suddenly. Mystery Solved! A lot about microglia, inflammation, the endocrine system, gut dysbiosis, microbiome, etc. I mean, it all sounded more or less right to me, it’s just not what I thought I was getting into - rarely do these books break down so much concrete health advice. Which is actually surprising, considering how much intensive research most mysterious-illness-havers are forced to do in order to take care of their own health. And mostly it’s still complicated and mysterious, and what that author is really doing is outlining some of the evidence-based ways to treat the body as if it is *one unified system* (radical!), and include common-sense things like rest, food, social connection, and movement in treatment plans for chronic illness.
And then there was the part where it suddenly became all Jungian feminist archetype mythological Marion Woodman-ish psychology. I did not see that coming. But again, once my eyes adjusted, it made sense - especially as the prism for the author’s feminist awakening. It worked.
This was a very absorbing read for me. I love it when people are able to so compellingly describe common but largely-unspoken experiences, like being a woman with a mysterious illness trying desperately to get help from an almost uniformly hostile medical system that is telling her it’s all in her head. Much of this book is OUTRAGING - the descriptions of the abysmal treatment (often true malpractice) from doctors who hold so much of the power - including the power to describe her in medical records in ways that make it even less likely she’ll be taken seriously by future doctors. She’s way too sick to summon the energy to sue anyone. It’s fucking horrifying, and so, so common. And glad this book exists.