Title: There I am : the journey from hopelessness to healing /
Authors: Lindsey, Ruthie, 1979-
Year: 2020
Subjects: Lindsey, Ruthie,; Lindsey, Ruthie,; Chronic pain Patients United States Biography.; Pain Treatment; Positive psychology.; Chronic pain; Optimism; Self-actualization (Psychology); Conduct of life.; Health.; Chronic Pain; Optimism; Psychology, Positive; Self Concept.; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs.; HEALTH & FITNESS / Pain Management.; SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / Happiness.; Chronic pain Patients; Chronic pain; Conduct of life; Health; Optimism; Pain Treatment; Positive psychology; Self-actualization (Psychology); United States.; United States
Abstract: At seventeen years old, Ruthie Lindsey is hit by an ambulance near her home in rural Louisiana. She's given a five percent chance of survival and one percent chance of walking again. One month later after a spinal fusion surgery, Ruthie defies the odds, leaving the hospital on her own two feet. Just a few years later, newly married and living in Nashville, Ruthie begins to experience debilitating pain. Her case confounds doctors and after numerous rounds of testing, imaging, and treatment, they prescribe narcotic painkillers--lots of them. Ruthie has become bedridden, dependent on painkillers, and hopeless, when an X-ray reveals that the wire used to fuse her spine is piercing her brain stem. Without another staggeringly expensive experimental surgery, she could well become paralyzed, but in many ways, she already is.