The Ladys Handbook for Her Mysteriou..., Sarah Ramey
The Ladys Handbook for Her Mysteriou..., Sarah Ramey
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The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness
A Memoir

Author: Sarah Ramey

Narrator: Eileen Stevens, Sarah Ramey

Unabridged: 13 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/17/2020

Synopsis

"A best memoir of 2020" —BookPage

The darkly funny memoir of Sarah Ramey’s years-long battle with a mysterious illness that doctors thought was all in her head—but wasn’t. A revelation and an inspiration for millions of women whose legitimate health complaints are ignored.

In her harrowing, defiant, and unforgettable memoir, Sarah Ramey recounts the decade-long saga of how a seemingly minor illness in her senior year of college turned into a prolonged and elusive condition that destroyed her health but that doctors couldn't diagnose or treat. Worse, as they failed to cure her, they hinted that her devastating symptoms were psychological.
     The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a memoir with a mission: to help the millions of (mostly) women who suffer from unnamed or misunderstood conditions--autoimmune illnesses, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, chronic pain, and many more. Ramey's pursuit of a diagnosis and cure for her own mysterious illness becomes a page-turning medical mystery that reveals a new understanding of today's chronic illnesses as ecological in nature, driven by modern changes to the basic foundations of health, from the quality of our sleep, diet, and social connections to the state of our microbiomes. Her book will open eyes, change lives, and, ultimately, change medicine.

About The Author

SARAH RAMEY is a writer and musician (known as Wolf Larsen) living in Washington, DC. She graduated from Bowdoin College in 2003, received an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia in 2007, and worked on President Obama's 2008 campaign.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Maggie on November 27, 2022

This book was recommended to me a long time ago and, today, tidying up my shelves, I rediscovered and read it. This memoir contains a story similar to mine (and my family's) in many ways. It's also a different way to tell the story I told (heavily nestled in metaphor) in the Dreamer Trilogy. I think......more

Goodreads review by Rennie on July 09, 2020

I don't want to get too hyperbolic here but this is life-changing. As a woman with a "mysterious" illness it'll make you feel seen and heard but also I hope it'll be eye-opening for others regardless. It's sometimes hard to read when it feels like parts of it are telling your own life and experience......more

Goodreads review by Jaime on April 20, 2020

In February, before the COVID-19 pandemic really hit the United States, I had a kidney infection. I had never had one before. For four days I suffered through intense, often stabbing pains. I did all my usual things: extra tea, extra sleep, curling into the fetal position and breathing when I could.......more

Goodreads review by Iz on September 22, 2020

Hard to rate - I want everyone to read this book, despite its flaws. I highly, highly recommend it for anyone who's been to a doctor and was told you're fine, it's all in your head, it's just stress, only for the condition to worsen overtime until they prescribe antidepressants, you difficult patien......more

Goodreads review by Cari on February 09, 2020

This book. Phew. Reading it was an experience. Ramey has suffered for many years from a mysterious illness, and she identifies her crowd of women with mysterious illnesses as WOMIs, a term that pops up frequently in the book. Along with Ramey's recollections of the pain she's been through, she also d......more

Quotes

“Sarah Ramey’s candor in discussing more than a decade of pain, confusion, and dismissal by countless doctors is matched by compassion for herself and every woman who has been told that her symptoms are only in her head, even when she knows her body is screaming. This is a book for anyone who has ever asked a question that didn’t have an immediate or easy answer, anyone who has worried about themselves or a loved one who isn’t getting better—despite following all the experts’ advice—and anyone interested in their own health, public health, or medicine. In other words, it’s a book with something resonant and useful for all of us. It’s also, not incidentally, a terrific read.”
—Chelsea Clinton, co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience
 
“Sarah Ramey is a person of uncommon wit, bravery, compassion, honesty, and intellect. Every one of those qualities is on full display in this unflinching, important, and stunningly written memoir, which gives voice to millions of women whose experiences and pain have been ignored and minimized.”
—Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
 
“With brilliant storytelling, Sarah Ramey tells of her experience with a mysterious illness while weaving in a practical roadmap for the woman who is overwhelmed, confused, depressed, desperate, and suffering with confusing symptoms. As she undertakes her heroine’s journey through her relationship with her body, she reclaims her power and comes home to herself—because in the end, it’s getting back into our bodies that allows us to become free. A masterwork and a page-turning, fantastic read.”
—Alisa Vitti, author of In The FLO and founder of FLO Living

“A visceral, scathing, erudite read that digs deep into how modern medicine continues to fail women and what can be done about it.”
—Booklist, Starred Review
 
“Illuminating . . . Though this medical saga is disturbing in the many miscalculations her doctors made, Ramey’s hilarious and upbeat sense of humor lightens even the direst of circumstances . . . Her uncanny grit and fortitude will deeply inspire the multitudes facing similar issues.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Astonishing, thorough and revelatory, a valuable resource for WOMIs and those who seek to understand and treat them. . . This book is a rallying cry to all other women whose illnesses go untreated but also to the general public on the need to make our medical system more responsive to chronic illness. Ramey’s memoir will lift you up by taking you down into the depths of despair that she experienced; you will be as inspired as you are educated about topics such as autoimmune disease, the endocrine system and the ways that society and gender affect them.”
—America

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