Medical Illnesses

Patti Davis, the daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, writes about losing her father to Alzheimer's disease, saying goodbye in stages, and watching the progression of a disease that steals what is most precious: a person's memory. Past and present come together in this illuminating portrait of grief, of a man, a disease, and a girl and her father.

In Mercies in Disguise, acclaimed New York Times reporter and best-selling author Gina Kolata tells the story of the Baxleys, an upstanding family in small-town South Carolina. Many of them were doctors, but still, they are struck down by an inscrutable illness. Finally they discover the cause of the disease after a remarkable sequence of providential events. Meanwhile science, progressing for 50 years along a parallel track, handed the Baxleys a question - not a cure but a blood test that would reveal who had the gene for the disease.

Playwright, author, and activist Eve Ensler has devoted her life to the female body - how to talk about it, how to protect and value it. Yet she spent much of her life disassociated from her own body - a disconnection brought on by her father’s sexual abuse and her mother’s remoteness. “Because I did not, could not inhabit my body or the Earth,” she writes, “I could not feel or know their pain.” But Ensler is shocked out of her distance.

In 1992, Marilyn French was told she had one year to live. A smoker of 48 years she was diagnosed as having cancer of the oesophagus, a cancer which is almost always fatal. Five years on, having battled with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, a heart attack and her back breaking, she is very much alive. And - astonishingly - her body shows no sign of cancer.

In Just Show Up, Kara and her close friend, Jill Lynn Buteyn, write about what friendship looks like in the midst of changing life seasons, loads of laundry, and even cancer. Whether you are eager to be present to someone going through a difficult time or simply want inspiration for pursuing friends in a new way, this eloquent and practical audiobook explores the gift of silence, the art of receiving, and what it means to just show up.

Backbone is a life-fulfilling message about managing chronic pain and living a life of purpose. For two decades, Karen Duffy, New York Times bestselling author, former MTV VJ, Revlon model, and actress, has managed to live an enriching life despite living in a state of constant pain. In this powerful, inspirational, funny, and important manual for surviving pain, Duffy draws on her experience as a patient advocate, trained recreational therapist, and hospice chaplain to illuminate gratifying methods people can use to cope with chronic pain.

In 1918, a world war raged, and a lethal strain of influenza circled the globe. In the midst of all this death, a bizarre disease appeared in Europe. Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, it spread worldwide, leaving millions dead or locked in institutions. Then, in 1927, it disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. Asleep, set in 1920s and '30s New York, follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and asylums as they try to solve this epidemic and treat its victims - who learned the worst fate was not dying of it, but surviving it.

Lost in My Mind is a stunning memoir describing Kelly Bouldin Darmofal's journey from adolescent girl to special education teacher, wife and mother - despite severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Spanning three decades, Kelly's journey is unique in its focus on TBI education in America (or lack thereof).

Julie Flygare was on an ambitious path to success, entering law school at age 22, when narcolepsy destroyed the neurological boundaries between dreaming and reality in her brain. She faced terrifying hallucinations, paralysis, and excruciating sleepiness, aspects of dream sleep taking place while wide awake. Yet, narcolepsy was a wake-up call for Julie. Her illness propelled her onto a journey she never imagined, from lying paralyzed on her apartment floor to dancing euphorically at a nightclub; from the classrooms of Harvard Medical School to the start line of the Boston Marathon.

We are all patients at some time. Is the medical industry giving us the best treatment possible, at the best price? We all know that it isn’t. My book, The Secrets of Medical Decision Making: How to avoid becoming a victim of the Health Care Machine, shows what goes on behind the scenes of the current medical care and how it impacts the patient. I describe actual cases from my clinical practice showing the most common paths that lead to increased patient suffering. I then offer possible solutions. My book covers all the health care settings a reader may encounter: outpatient (the most ...

Living with diabetes can feel like walking a tightrope. One misstep, and you can come crashing down, facing a range of life-threatening complications. From the constant monitoring of blood sugar levels to the pressure of making healthy food choices and losing weight, diabetes can feel overwhelming.

Over the last decade, scientists have discovered the importance and widespread presence in the body of a remarkable family of proteins known as prion proteins. Research links various types of prion proteins to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's—and this has fueled the search for new drugs that could halt the progression of these terrible disorders. Other discoveries have revealed the essential roles prion proteins play in memory and immunity, and the part they may have played in the beginnings of life on our planet.

By turns somber and funny but above all provocative, Elizabeth Benedict’s Rewriting Illness: A View of My Own is a most unconventional memoir. With wisdom, self-effacing wit, and the storytelling skills of a seasoned novelist, she brings to life her cancer diagnosis and committed hypochondria.

### Navigating Chronic Illness in Aging Loved Ones Are you struggling to manage the complexities of chronic illness in elderly family members? "Navigating Chronic Illness in Aging Loved Ones" is your ultimate guide to understanding and supporting your loved ones through every stage of their journey. This comprehensive eBook simplifies the often daunting task of chronic care management with practical advice and expert insights. From recognizing early symptoms in Chapter 2 to developing a tailored care plan in Chapter 3, this book equips you with the tools to provide proactive, compassionate ...

A hopeful look at coping with the ravages of serious chronic illness by an accomplished journalist, a contributing columnist for the New York Times, and former senior producer of the CBS Evening News.

Once they enter the secret corridor . . . they don't come back out. After a controversial law is put into place, anyone that is deemed even remotely suspicious of having a mental illness is sent to their local asylum. When Thomas Baxter is committed to his local asylum, a patient informs him that a section of the facility is being kept a secret for unknown reasons. When Thomas tries to follow up with him about the secret section of the building at a later time, the patient denies having mentioned anything about such a place. Thomas begins to feel his own sanity beginning to slip, as if the ...

In his early 20s, Mindy Greiling's son, Jim, was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder after experiencing delusions that demanded he kill his mother. At the time, and for more than a decade after, Greiling was a Minnesota state legislator who struggled, along with her husband, to navigate and improve the state's inadequate mental health system. Fix What You Can is an illuminating and frank account of caring for a person with a mental illness, told by a parent and advocate.

Jessica Zitter became a doctor because she wanted to be a hero. She elected to specialize in critical care - to become an ICU physician - and imagined herself swooping in to rescue patients from the brink of death. But then during her first code she found herself cracking the ribs of a patient so old and frail it was unimaginable he would ever come back to life. She began to question her choice. Extreme Measures charts Zitter's journey from wanting to be one kind of hero to becoming another - a doctor who prioritizes the patient's values and preferences.

Saving Meghan is a riveting new thriller full of secrets and lies from author D.J. Palmer. The Gerard family has lived a charmed life. Carl is a highly successful residential developer with millions in the bank who married his high school sweetheart, Becky, and they have a beautiful daughter, Meghan. But when Meghan is suddenly struck with a mysterious illness that starts out as chronic headaches and joint pain but progresses rapidly to affect her cognitive ability, the family begins to fracture as they search desperately for a diagnosis and a cure for Meghan’s suffering.

National Book Award winner Jonathan Kozol is best known for his 50 years of work among our nation's poorest and most vulnerable children. Now, in the most personal book of his career, he tells the story of his father's life and work as a nationally noted specialist in disorders of the brain and his astonishing ability, at the onset of Alzheimer's disease, to explain the causes of his sickness and then to narrate, step by step, his slow descent into dementia.