What Doesn't Kill You
Ratings4
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings4
Average rating3.8
What Doesn’t Kill You is the riveting account of a young journalist’s awakening to chronic illness, weaving together personal story and reporting to shed light on living with an ailment forever.
Tessa Miller was an ambitious twentysomething writer in New York City when, on a random fall day, her stomach began to seize up. At first, she toughed it out through searing pain, taking sick days from work, unable to leave the bathroom or her bed. But when it became undeniable that something was seriously wrong, Miller gave in to family pressure and went to the hospital—beginning a yearslong nightmare of procedures, misdiagnoses, and life-threatening infections. Once she was finally correctly diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, Miller faced another battle: accepting that she will never get better.
Today, an astonishing three in five adults in the United States suffer from a chronic disease—a percentage expected to rise post-Covid. Whether the illness is arthritis, asthma, Crohn’s, diabetes, endometriosis, multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, or any other incurable illness, and whether the sufferer is a colleague, a loved one, or you, these diseases have an impact on just about every one of us. Yet there remains an air of shame and isolation about the topic of chronic sickness. Millions must endure these disorders not only physically but also emotionally, balancing the stress of relationships and work amid the ever-present threat of health complications.
Miller segues seamlessly from her dramatic personal experiences into a frank look at the cultural realities (medical, occupational, social) inherent in receiving a lifetime diagnosis. She offers hard-earned wisdom, solidarity, and an ultimately surprising promise of joy for those trying to make sense of it all.
Reviews with the most likes.
A raw and honest look at living with a chronic illness in modern day America and the wear and tear that comes with facing the bureaucratic terror of dealing with a medical system which is pretty much entirely subservient not to the best standard of care but to the whims of insurance providers.
This book also explores with a beautiful vulnerability the fact that illness doesn't happen in a vacuum, family tensions and shortcomings are still there and can even be further complicated by the sudden need to rely on or be relied on by someone with whom you already have a fraught relationship.
There is a lot of advice in there, some of it will be familiar if you've spent time in any kind of support group in the past 5 years but if you're just beginning a journey with chronic illness (be it your own or someone else's) you might find some very valuable insight.
