You Do Not Look Sick?

You Don't Look Sick chronicles one person's true-life story of illness and her physicians compassionate commentary as they journey through the four stages of chronic illness-Getting Sick, Being Sick, Grief and Acceptance and Living Well. The authors address such practical aspects as hiring a doctor, managing chronic pain, coping with grief and loss of function, winning battles with health and disability insurers, countering the social bias against the chronically ill, and recognizing the limitations of chronic illness care and charting a path for change and more. This warmhearted resource helps you focus on building a meaningful life as opposed to a life of frustration and fear.

What I Think Of The Book 

I think this is a good book on living with chronic illness for a lot of chronically ill people. This book was written by Joy and her rheumatologist Dr. Overman. Joy's chronic illnesses started in the 1980's steadily worsening over time. Joy has multiple chronic illnesses like most of us. Joy and Dr. Overman came up with the Four Phases of Invisible Chronic Illness. I found that most of them overlapped in one way or another. Good advice was given throughout the book a lot of it useful for everyone that is chronically ill. Joy has multiple chronic illnesses like most of us. Joy also felt that a holistic like type of approach was better for her which I had trouble understanding when Dr. Overman gave her medication that helped her but she felt a stigma against taking. I liked the part of the book about grief and acceptance of your illness. That you have to mourn for your old life like a death and find a new path that your body can handle. I feel stuck in many of the phases portrayed in this book but this one is the worst for me. I started to get sick in my late teens and it got progressively worse until I have become completely disabled. I mourn for a life I never got to have. That is something very hard to get past. A part of the book I do not agree with is that Joy believes that she has gotten sick for a reason and that her illnesses are a blessing. I would not wish what I have on my worst enemy and it feels very far from a blessing. This is a good read. I think it will be helpful for a lot of people. I do not think you have to believe in all of the book for it to be helpful to you. I will be rereading it this book. The second time through I think you can take even away more from a book of this kind.

Links:

http://www.chronicinvisibleillness.com

Joy's Blog