Product Description

"Coming to terms with this reality was a lot like accepting the death of a loved one."

You Don't LOOK Sick!: Living Well with Invisible Chronic Illness chronicles a patient's true-life accounts and her physician's compassionate commentary as they take a journey through the three stages of chronic illness—Getting Sick, Being Sick, and Living Well. This resource helps you focus on building a meaningful life that contains illness as opposed to a life of frustration and fear. Designed for patients in the beginning stages of chronic illness, this book will also be illuminating for caregivers and loved ones.

From the book:
"I've learned that having a chronic illness is not a prison sentence. It does not mean I must spend the rest of my life feeling depressed and angry, locked away from the world inside my little sick box. It does not mean that I am useless and no longer have any gifts to share, but it may mean that I must develop some new ones."

You Don't LOOK Sick! addresses practical aspects of chronic illness, such as:

- hiring a doctor

- managing chronic pain

- coping with grief and the loss of function

- winning battles with health and disability insurers

- countering the social bias against the chronically ill

- recognizing the limitations of chronics illness care and charting a path for change

In You Don't LOOK Sick!: Living Well with Invisible Chronic Illness, you will find stories, dialogue, humor, examples, and analogy of the three stages to illustrate a challenging but navigable journey. You will also find suggested reading materials for learning to live well, medical Internet resources, illness-specific Web sites, names and addresses of national associations, and a bibliography of medical books by topic. The short chapters and straightforward language of the book will be helpful for readers who are weary and dispirited.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45089 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-04
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 145 pages

Bob Crittenden, MD, MPH, Chief of Family Medicine, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle
"This is a POIGNANT, EASY-TO-READ chronicle of the journey of a person afflicted with a chronic illness."

Roberto Patarca-Montero, MD, PhD, HCLD, Author of the Handbook of Cancer-Related Fatigue and the Concise Encyclopedia of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
"Will benefit not only patients with chronic illnesses, but also their health care providers and family members."

Customer Reviews

A nice help
I have an auto-immune disease and often have trouble with folks not understanding that I am ill or how ill I am .... because "I don't look sick" , I don't have a cast on my leg, bandages... this book helps me deal with my internal dialogue and my process of dealing with some of these emotions. It has helped me deal with what to say to others as well.

You Don't Look Sick: Living Well With Invisible Chronic Illness
This book is very helpful to one with a chronic illness and for someone trying to cope. I highly recommend that patients, doctors and family read it and be enlightened.

You Don't Look Sick: Living Well With Invisible Chronic Illness
You don't look sick. Although our stories may vary, this is the one phrase that all of us living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and other invisible chronic illnesses have experienced, dread, and fear the most. It's hard enough to live in pain, fight through fibrofog, and deal with lost independence but this simply utterance makes us feel like we have to explain ourselves and frankly the explanation is never quite good enough. We leave the conversation with a feeling that getting sick was somehow our fault and that we aren't getting better because we aren't trying hard enough. Somehow we are flawed human beings.

You Don't Look Sick! is the experience of one woman (with the help of her doctor). Her story is very familiar. Like most of us, her journey just to get a diagnosis was long and painful. Getting appropriate help and coming to terms with the "Chronic" part of her condition contained even more challenges. Still, the author's illustrates that although it may not be possible to rid ourselves completely of this terror, we can bring ourselves to a place where we live well. A message we could all take heart in.