num_pages: 272
description: In the tradition of Brain on Fire and Darkness Visible an honest beautifully rendered memoir of chronic illness misdiagnosis addiction and the myth of full recovery that details author Porochista Khakpour's struggles with late-stage Lyme disease.For as long as writer Porochista Khakpour can remember she has been sick. For most of that time she didn't know why. All of her trips to the ER and her daily anguish pain and lethargy only ever resulted in one question: How could any one person be this sick? Several drug addictions three major hospitalizations and over $100000 later she finally had a diagnosis: late-stage Lyme disease. Sick is Khakpour's arduous emotional journeyas a woman a writer and a lifelong sufferer of undiagnosed health problemsthrough the chronic illness that perpetually left her a victim of anxiety living a life stymied by an unknown condition.Divided by settings Khakpour guides the reader through her illness by way of the locations that changed her courseNew York LA New Mexico and Germanyas she meditates on both the physical and psychological impacts of uncertainty and the eventual challenge of accepting the diagnosis she had searched for over the course of her adult life. With candor and grace she examines her subsequent struggles with mental illness her addiction to the benzodiazepines prescribed by her psychiatrists and her ever-deteriorating physical health. A story about survival pain and transformation Sick is a candid illuminating narrative of hope and uncertainty boldly examining the deep impact of illness on one woman's life. 
language: None
title: Sick: A Memoir
publisher: Harper Perennial