In the Kingdom of the Sick: A Social History of Chronic Illness in America

[Sly Saint]

In the Kingdom of the Sick: A Social History of Chronic Illness in America - by Laurie Edwards

Interview with the Author here:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...the-kingdom-the-sick-interview-laurie-edwards

"When patients are sick with symptoms that aren’t easily managed or don’t fit neatly into diagnostic boxes, this often opens up room for skepticism and doubt. I know this firsthand since it happened to me: when my lungs and immune system didn’t respond the way doctors presumed they would, the doctors began to question me. Was I taking my medication properly? Was I just a stressed out, anxious college student and was that why I couldn’t breathe? I was in the ICU with very low oxygen levels and these were the queries I received."

"Women are disproportionately affected by many chronic illnesses, particularly chronic pain conditions, which affect twenty-five percent of Americans. Consider just some of the numbers: women are three times more likely than men to develop autoimmune diseases, two and a half times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis, and nine times more likely to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia. As many as 50 million American women live with a neglected pain disorder, that which is poorly understood and poorly researched."

"An estimated 133 million patients live with chronic illness, and by 2025, that number is expected to reach 164 million. It is responsible for 7/10 deaths, as well as ¾ of all health care spending. It is not something that happens to other people—it will happen to most of us, and there are still many lingering stereotypes about patients with chronic illness as weak or somehow deserving of their illnesses that I wanted to explore and confront."

The Book:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=R_BtExEDfI8C&pg=PA112&lpg=PA112&dq=iconic+women+with+chronic+illness&source=bl&ots=F2usnkX1Fo&sig=WNWpwTFnMHPmZG6awUv0rspUD6Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjkz7nchZnZAhWnLMAKHbQbA5s4ChDoAQgtMAA#v=onepage&q=iconic women with chronic illness&f=false

a lot about CFS, CFIDS, ME

 

[ahimsa]

Thanks for the post, @Sly Saint . I've never read that book but I do remember reading the article by Toni Bernhard.

It's somewhat of a tangent but that phrasing - in the kingdom of the sick - reminds me of this quote by Virginia Woolf:

We cease to be soldiers in the army of the upright; we become deserters. They march to battle. We float with the sticks on the stream; helter-skelter with the dead leaves on the lawn, irresponsible and disinterested and able, perhaps for the first time for years, to look round, to look up—to look, for example, at the sky.

And I recently read another book coming out soon called Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick. The author, Maya Dusenbery, was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and that led to her looking into the problems in the medical system.

Her analysis progresses into greatly misunderstood issues of chronic pain, migraine disorders, endometriosis, and chronic fatigue syndrome, all supported with engaging stories of women who wound up either being considered “hysterical” or had their suffering categorized as psychosomatic.

(emphasis mine)

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/maya-dusenbery/doing-harm-dusenbery/

Sorry if this post is a bit rambling. These are some thoughts that didn't seem worth creating a new thread. This one seemed an appropriate place to put them. Hope that's okay!