The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness
A Memoir
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The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness
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Narrated by:
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Eileen Stevens
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Sarah Ramey
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Written by:
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Sarah Ramey
About this listen
"A best memoir of 2020" (BookPage)
The darkly funny memoir of Sarah Ramey’s years-long battle with a mysterious illness that doctors thought was all in her head - but wasn’t. A revelation and an inspiration for millions of women whose legitimate health complaints are ignored.
In her harrowing, defiant, and unforgettable memoir, Sarah Ramey recounts the decade-long saga of how a seemingly minor illness in her senior year of college turned into a prolonged and elusive condition that destroyed her health but that doctors couldn't diagnose or treat. Worse, as they failed to cure her, they hinted that her devastating symptoms were psychological.
The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a memoir with a mission: to help the millions of (mostly) women who suffer from unnamed or misunderstood conditions - autoimmune illnesses, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, chronic pain, and many more. Ramey's pursuit of a diagnosis and cure for her own mysterious illness becomes a pause-resisting medical mystery that reveals a new understanding of today's chronic illnesses as ecological in nature, driven by modern changes to the basic foundations of health, from the quality of our sleep, diet, and social connections to the state of our microbiomes. Her book will open eyes, change lives, and, ultimately, change medicine.
©2020 Sarah Ramey (P)2020 Random House AudioYou may also enjoy...
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What the critics say
"Sarah Ramey’s candor in discussing more than a decade of pain, confusion, and dismissal by countless doctors is matched by compassion for herself and every woman who has been told that her symptoms are only in her head, even when she knows her body is screaming. This is a book for anyone who has ever asked a question that didn’t have an immediate or easy answer, anyone who has worried about themselves or a loved one who isn’t getting better - despite following all the experts’ advice - and anyone interested in their own health, public health, or medicine. In other words, it’s a book with something resonant and useful for all of us. It’s also, not incidentally, a terrific read." (Chelsea Clinton, co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience)
"Sarah Ramey is a person of uncommon wit, bravery, compassion, honesty, and intellect. Every one of those qualities is on full display in this unflinching, important, and stunningly written memoir, which gives voice to millions of women whose experiences and pain have been ignored and minimized." (Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life)
"With brilliant storytelling, Sarah Ramey tells of her experience with a mysterious illness while weaving in a practical roadmap for the woman who is overwhelmed, confused, depressed, desperate, and suffering with confusing symptoms. As she undertakes her heroine’s journey through her relationship with her body, she reclaims her power and comes home to herself - because in the end, it’s getting back into our bodies that allows us to become free. A masterwork and a page-turning, fantastic read." (Alisa Vitti, author of In the FLO and founder of FLO Living)
What listeners say about The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J Bydeley
- 2020-04-26
exceptional
this book is a must listen for chronic illness sufferers and their families and friends. it is such a relatable, all to familiar story for today's increasing chronically ill population, especially women! I highly recommend it
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Elizabeth B.
- 2020-07-19
This book is nothing short of profound.
If you are a medical professional, of any kind, please please read (listen to) this book. While specifically dealing with the experience of those living with autoimmune and related (ish) chronic diseases, Sarah Ramey’s story of her nearly two decade medical journey to find a diagnosis and appropriate medical care, should be mandatory reading for anyone on the non-patient side of the stethoscope.
I promise you, no one book will so fully illuminate the experience of the millions of people (mostly women) desperate to receive care for their “mysterious illnesses”. This is an ethnography, an incredibly well-researched text (from someone who spent years consulting peer-reviewed medical literature and interviewing hundreds of women with autoimmune, CFS/ME and CSS in her own attempt to find answers), and an incredibly compelling enjoinder to just listen to women when they tell you something is not right with their health, even despite outward appearances and normal looking blood test results.
In addition to medical practitioners, this book cannot be recommended enough to the friends and family of those living with complex chronic health disorders. If you have struggled to understand your loved one’s experience, and/or wondered how you can help, you will wish this book was available to you years earlier. Even the first few chapters will be enormously helpful, but I would be surprised if you can stop listening there.
If however, you are, like me, a person with an autoimmune disease, or perhaps you have an undiagnosed “mysterious illness” that you have tried to find answers for to no avail, this is a different book altogether. This is a book of solidarity, a manifesto, and a battlecry. This is the empathetic, kind voice you have likely been searching for. This is a voice with authority, forged from a long personal journey and years of research. This book is not meant as a diagnostic or prescriptive tool, and Ramey does not claim to be a medical expert. She does however share her hard-earned knowledge to convey crucial information about some of the latest information about many “mysterious illnesses”. In addition, she also outlines some of the most up-to-date approaches for improving autoimmune conditions, fibromyalgia/central sensitivity syndrome, CFS/ME and related disorders.
All of this aside, this is also just a riveting story, by an incredible writer, that I think anyone will find difficult to put down. Sarah Ramey is an exquisite writer, and both her and Eileen Steven’s narration is superb.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Health Nut
- 2021-05-24
I could not stop listening!
Sarah could of been writing my story, the soul crushing doctor appointments, the mystery illnesses, the hopes dashed by magic pills that never work...but then she found a fresh way to look at chronic illnesses and become a heroine on her health journey. I listen to the whole book in one day, anyone with ME/CFS this is well worth your time, energy & money!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Monika
- 2021-04-12
A must read for any woman with a mysterious illness (and ideally for doctors too)
I'm struggling to find the right words to encompass and express my deep well of thanks for Sarah and this book. Her book is a desperately needed and oh so sweet warm respite in the shit storm that is being a woman with a mysterious illnesses. It's a life raft to me, truly. It makes me feel less alone, reminds me this illness is not my fault and gave practical suggestions and hope.
At the same time there’s so much compassion to Sarah and all women dealing with a mysterious illness for the absolute agony, struggle and injustice we experience on our journey to find help, answers and healing.
Every doctor should read this book so they can truly glimpse and understand our perspective and the major holes in the system.
And lastly, the narration on the audiobook version is awesome.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Liane
- 2023-10-05
Wow wow wow
An absolute brilliantly written memoir with outstanding narration! I couldn’t stop listening!!!! Such an important message for our time.
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