Three Moving Chronic Illness Memoirs
About endometriosis, incontinence, and Crohn's
Hi, friend.
Welcome to another edition of Crooked Reads, a monthly(ish) collection of bite-sized reviews about books on a theme. The newsletter will always be free to read, but it ain’t free to write. Consider becoming a paid subscriber, buying me a coffee, or sending me a book from my wishlist to support my work!
As I get into the weeds in my memoir writing (!!!) I find myself reading other memoirs on chronic illness and pain to see how the masters do it. It’s both insightful and devastating to see how many of us live in pain every day and just…deal with it.
While writing, I’ve been transporting myself to some of my darkest days and it’s making me more aware of the pain I endure every day without really thinking about it. Every time I go to the gym, the coaches ask if anyone has any sore spots before we get started, but I never say anything. There’s nothing sore that isn’t always sore.
It’s only recently that I acknowledged that what I live with is chronic pain. I always thought it was a descriptor for other people. That it’s normal to work through the pain—a physical therapist once told me eventually your brain tunes it out, otherwise you’d never do anything—and sleep with a heating pad every night.
These books put a spotlight—often with rage behind it—on how abnormal chronic illness really is. Let’s get to it.
The books
What Doesn’t Kill You: A Life with Chronic Illness - Lessons from a Body in Revolt by Tessa Miller
Tessa Miller writes in such a candid way about everything she’s gone through with Crohn’s and other diseases, infections, misdiagnoses, and horrifying experiences that come from her unhappy gastrointestinal system. I am in awe of her strength. What Doesn’t Kill You digs into the reality of chronic illness and its impacts on every facet of a person’s life, as well as just how common incurable illnesses really are. Also, did you know that poop transplants were a thing? Because I did not.
Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women’s Pain by Abby Norman
Abby Norman suffers through undiagnosed endometriosis for years. Her leg goes numb, she loses 30 pounds, and when she goes to a doctor, she’s sent home with antibiotics. She knows her pain is real, so she starts digging through medical journals to find her own diagnosis. Doctors never believe her, thinking she’s too young and naive to really understand her body the way a medical professional can. Ask Me About My Uterus is a truly eye-opening read about gender bias in the medical world.
PMSL: Or How I Literally Pissed Myself Laughing and Survived the Last Taboo to Tell the Tale by Luce Brett
Luce Brett’s life changed after the birth of her first son. There was the glow of new motherhood, of course, as well as the darkness of postpartum depression and another thing: incontinence. She spent years with a bag of extra pants and underwear and diapers, just in case. She went to physical therapy and did all of the things to help, but it only got mildly better. In PMSL, Brett takes a hammer to the taboo, telling her story with snark and candor. And wet pants.
The links
As I read more of them, I’m adding to this brief list of chronic illness and disability memoirs on my Bookshop storefront.
There’s even more titles in this post I wrote for BuzzFeed Books a few years ago (RIP).
The nightstand
Why yes, I do use my cat to hold my place from time to time. And I can’t wait for the world to get their paws on this hilarious little book! How to Piss Off Men comes out Tuesday.
The backlist
In case you missed ’em, or want to peep the archives:
I hope you’re reading something delightful.
xoxo
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What Doesn't Kill you was horrifying and brilliant! I related to it so much, I had to put it down at points because it was bringing up so many memories. I will have to check out the other two.