In this vulnerable, insightful memoir, the New York Times columnist
tells the story of his five-year struggle with a disease that
officially doesn't exist, exploring the limits of modern medicine
and the narratives we tell ourselves in order to live. In the
summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family from Washington,
D.C., to the picturesque town of Ridgefield, Connecticut, when he
acquired a mysterious, devastating sickness that left him
sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain--a shell of himself. After
months of seeing doctors without result and descending ever deeper
into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease that
according to existing CDC definitions does not actually exist: the
chronic, persistent form of Lyme disease, a hotly contested
condition that devastates the lives of ten of thousands of people
but has no official recognition, and no medically approved cure.
Douthat's search for a cure took him off the map of official
medicine, into territory where miracle cures and conspiracies
abound, and patients are forced to take control of their own
treatment. Slowly, reluctantly, against all his instincts and
assumptions, he realizes that the 'weirdos' searching for a cure
are right and the 'hypochondriacs' are victims of terrible medical
malpractice. 'In a Dark Wood' is a story about what happens when
you are terribly sick and realize that even the doctors who are
willing to treat you can only do so much. Along the way, Douthat
describes his struggle to survive with wit and candor, portraying
sickness as the most terrible of gifts. It teaches you to
appreciate the grace of ordinary life by taking that life away from
you. It reveals the deep strangeness of the world, the possibility
that the reasonable people might be wrong, and the necessity of
figuring out things for yourself. And it proves, day by dreadful
day, that you are stronger than you ever imagined, and that even in
the darkest wilderness there is still hope.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!