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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
The top review for this book claims that she doesn’t take into consideration people who don’t have the means she has and how they face these issues every day. If that discourages you, listen to @momadvice’s discussion with her on Patreon - they both discuss this at length. I feel like it is first of all, important for you to know she does know this is true.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/66506317
I think this book is important for so many women who feel like Sarah did throughout her journey (with financial means or not), who are unheard, and not only unheard but treated cruelly. What is interesting about her story is that she comes from a family of physicians, both parents and a grandmother. Throughout her medical journey, she tries everything - top medical facilities to alternative therapies.
I felt like a bunch of this could have been edited and condensed, with maybe a summary of what was tried and what worked, what didn’t - because there is a lot. A lot that goes wrong and doesn’t help. So it’s a lot to read, but I think she makes some helpful points along the way.
What she wants readers to know, especially women, is they are not alone:
“… I could not deny: it was getting much worse.
And in the most mysterious ways.
I was on so many medications and getting so sick so fast, it was like a rabbit hole had opened up beneath me—that I was falling slowly past the clocks and the candlesticks, and that my parents and doctors were peering over the edge, quietly watching me float down and away.
~
The entire point of The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is this:
It would have been helpful to know what a well-trafficked rabbit hole that was.
~
The unfortunate but innocuous series of medical events. The gallons of antibiotics and fistfuls of painkillers. The severe digestive issues, gynecologic issues, joint pain, itching, and fatigue. The referrals, the specialists, the puzzlement.” Chapter 1
If you have known people who have these medical conditions and feel exhausted and alone, this is the book that shows them they are not.
“Now my health was a trickster, a shapeshifter, a shroud, a mist.” Chapter 3
This describes a little of the extent she tried, and how she felt:
“And if conventional medicine has no answers, or is making it worse, or is permanently demeaning and dismissive, it is human to try to find help wherever she can get it—no matter how extreme, no matter how woo. This is what sends people to ashrams, and cryogenic freezing tubes, and ayahuasca shamans in the Amazon rain forest. This is what drives people to set up in-home colonic machines, and become zealous about crazy diets, and too-passionate about kale. That is how you get your rectum hooked up to an ozone machine at a stranger’s house in the suburbs of Los Angeles. While these sorts of things are easy to pooh-pooh as a doctor, or a rational skeptic, or anyone on the outside—if you are the patient, the perspective is radically different. How do you say no to a cure? How do you resist the promise of feeling better, even if it sounds a little eccentric?” Ch 11
So then, after you see how many things don’t work, as she hits the bottom, she tells how she got through it. The mental work she did to live with so much pain.
“Somewhere early on, we had all started referring to this decade of my life as the Healing Journey.” Ch 19
- and then the importance of the feminine and the way women feel and are treated
“The Heroine’s Journey, the feminine journey, Murdock explains, is the journey in. Into the psyche, the body, the shadow, the soul.” Ch 19.
“To think about what was right with me, instead of an endless litany of what was wrong with me.” Ch 19
From seeing her parents as physicians, she talks about what modern medicine gets wrong and right:
“Our medicine, put simply, is missing its other half.
The darker half.
The slower half.
The more compassionate half.
The half that is willing to descend, to search and figure out what is truly going
on, no matter how inconvenient it is—so the patient can finally, genuinely ascend.” Ch 21
Chapter 28 finally gives a good list of what she learned she is dealing with and what has worked.
In the end, she learned
“The fostering, the nourishment, the tending to myself, the commitment to daily ritual, the trusting of my own feelings and intuition intuition, the emphasis on connection, the willingness to change, and the acceptance and surrender to the dark aspects of myself, my body, and my psyche—“ ch 31
https://www.patreon.com/posts/66506317
I think this book is important for so many women who feel like Sarah did throughout her journey (with financial means or not), who are unheard, and not only unheard but treated cruelly. What is interesting about her story is that she comes from a family of physicians, both parents and a grandmother. Throughout her medical journey, she tries everything - top medical facilities to alternative therapies.
I felt like a bunch of this could have been edited and condensed, with maybe a summary of what was tried and what worked, what didn’t - because there is a lot. A lot that goes wrong and doesn’t help. So it’s a lot to read, but I think she makes some helpful points along the way.
What she wants readers to know, especially women, is they are not alone:
“… I could not deny: it was getting much worse.
And in the most mysterious ways.
I was on so many medications and getting so sick so fast, it was like a rabbit hole had opened up beneath me—that I was falling slowly past the clocks and the candlesticks, and that my parents and doctors were peering over the edge, quietly watching me float down and away.
~
The entire point of The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is this:
It would have been helpful to know what a well-trafficked rabbit hole that was.
~
The unfortunate but innocuous series of medical events. The gallons of antibiotics and fistfuls of painkillers. The severe digestive issues, gynecologic issues, joint pain, itching, and fatigue. The referrals, the specialists, the puzzlement.” Chapter 1
If you have known people who have these medical conditions and feel exhausted and alone, this is the book that shows them they are not.
“Now my health was a trickster, a shapeshifter, a shroud, a mist.” Chapter 3
This describes a little of the extent she tried, and how she felt:
“And if conventional medicine has no answers, or is making it worse, or is permanently demeaning and dismissive, it is human to try to find help wherever she can get it—no matter how extreme, no matter how woo. This is what sends people to ashrams, and cryogenic freezing tubes, and ayahuasca shamans in the Amazon rain forest. This is what drives people to set up in-home colonic machines, and become zealous about crazy diets, and too-passionate about kale. That is how you get your rectum hooked up to an ozone machine at a stranger’s house in the suburbs of Los Angeles. While these sorts of things are easy to pooh-pooh as a doctor, or a rational skeptic, or anyone on the outside—if you are the patient, the perspective is radically different. How do you say no to a cure? How do you resist the promise of feeling better, even if it sounds a little eccentric?” Ch 11
So then, after you see how many things don’t work, as she hits the bottom, she tells how she got through it. The mental work she did to live with so much pain.
“Somewhere early on, we had all started referring to this decade of my life as the Healing Journey.” Ch 19
- and then the importance of the feminine and the way women feel and are treated
“The Heroine’s Journey, the feminine journey, Murdock explains, is the journey in. Into the psyche, the body, the shadow, the soul.” Ch 19.
“To think about what was right with me, instead of an endless litany of what was wrong with me.” Ch 19
From seeing her parents as physicians, she talks about what modern medicine gets wrong and right:
“Our medicine, put simply, is missing its other half.
The darker half.
The slower half.
The more compassionate half.
The half that is willing to descend, to search and figure out what is truly going
on, no matter how inconvenient it is—so the patient can finally, genuinely ascend.” Ch 21
Chapter 28 finally gives a good list of what she learned she is dealing with and what has worked.
In the end, she learned
“The fostering, the nourishment, the tending to myself, the commitment to daily ritual, the trusting of my own feelings and intuition intuition, the emphasis on connection, the willingness to change, and the acceptance and surrender to the dark aspects of myself, my body, and my psyche—“ ch 31
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
This is a hard one. I think Sarah Ramey has important things to say about our medical system, specifically the misogyny built into it; I think it’s important for able-bodied people to listen to the experiences of people with chronic illnesses. I don’t doubt any of the information the author presents about her experience BUT I just don’t jive with the writing style. Ramey is a songwriter and the style is going for poetic emphasis, but reads as repetitive. This could have benefitted from edits. That said, I can 100% understand the relief of hearing your mysterious illness experience echoed back at you in a loving, accepting way, I think people with similar issues will get a lot from this book. Careful reading if you’re sensitive about medical trauma, illness, depression, and diet talk. If you or someone you love has a mysterious illness, I’d say pick it up, but I personally can only give it 2.5 taters. 🥔🥔🍠/🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma
Moderate: Chronic illness, Mental illness
Minor: Fatphobia
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
As you know, I announced this one as our memoir selection for 2022 and I can't wait to read it with you.
It's a memoir about one woman's fight to be heard and believed about her illness and the unbelievable journey she went through to receive her diagnosis.
I read this entire book with a lump in my throat and, admittedly, had to put it down at times. If you have struggled to get answers to your chronic illness or had moments where you felt disbelieved by physicians, this one will hit some tender spots in your heart.
As with many "secret lady clubs", she discovered that many other women had faced similar circumstances when sharing her story. So why was this such a common theme, and why do we have to work so hard to be believed?
Sarah is a powerhouse for many reasons, this book is just one of them.
Not only is she a gifted writer, but she's a gifted musician and also was a part of the writing team for Obama's campaign in 2008.
I had the chance to sit down with her for an afternoon and talk through her story, and I have to say that this is one of the most powerful interviews that I've ever got to be part of. I'm so excited to share that with our Patreon community this year, and I hope you will read this with me!
Looking for your next great read? Check out all my book reviews on MomAdvice and join our Patreon community for loads of bookish fun.
It's a memoir about one woman's fight to be heard and believed about her illness and the unbelievable journey she went through to receive her diagnosis.
I read this entire book with a lump in my throat and, admittedly, had to put it down at times. If you have struggled to get answers to your chronic illness or had moments where you felt disbelieved by physicians, this one will hit some tender spots in your heart.
As with many "secret lady clubs", she discovered that many other women had faced similar circumstances when sharing her story. So why was this such a common theme, and why do we have to work so hard to be believed?
Sarah is a powerhouse for many reasons, this book is just one of them.
Not only is she a gifted writer, but she's a gifted musician and also was a part of the writing team for Obama's campaign in 2008.
I had the chance to sit down with her for an afternoon and talk through her story, and I have to say that this is one of the most powerful interviews that I've ever got to be part of. I'm so excited to share that with our Patreon community this year, and I hope you will read this with me!
Looking for your next great read? Check out all my book reviews on MomAdvice and join our Patreon community for loads of bookish fun.
3.5 stars. With this book, a lot of the things I've been struggling with for years were put together in a way which made it easier to get my head around and made me feel less alone. The writing is highly relatable and, despite it's horrendous content, often quite funny. Recommended for anyone who's ever been told 'it's all in your head' or 'get a grip' or have felt miffed when people try to tell you how to cure yourself with positive thougts. I liked it less towards the end where I felt that the functional medicine agenda was overly pushed.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Very informative and I really enjoyed it. Discussed it with a group of physicians and Sarah which led to even more insight
Loved this book for the increased information in regards to breaking down the biases inherent within the medical care system. Would’ve rated it higher, but I was a bit unhappy with the dichotomy established between genders, and would’ve appreciated a little bit more recognition of the spectrum of identity interspersed with the reality of intersex and other identities.
Other than that I highly recommend this book. I get really faint with descriptions of medical pain and still pushed through and enjoyed it immensely. Ramey balances narrative and scientific explain action very very well
Other than that I highly recommend this book. I get really faint with descriptions of medical pain and still pushed through and enjoyed it immensely. Ramey balances narrative and scientific explain action very very well