The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey is a riveting account of one woman's chronic illness and the failure of modern medicine to diagnose and treat her.
Ramey is a writer and musician known by her stage name, Wolf Larsen. Her struggle with severe pelvic pain, gut and colon dysfunction and persistent fatigue began more than a decade ago with a urinary tract infection while she was in college. A dangerous and unwarranted procedure performed by one of Washington, D.C.'s preeminent urologists sent her into septic shock and near death. Traumatized, her body was weakened by the industrial-strength drugs used as treatment.
As the daughter of physicians, the author was raised with an unquestioning belief in the healing power of medicine. When told by specialists that her pain symptoms were signs of psychological problems, she dutifully took the antidepressants they prescribed. Meanwhile, her physical condition worsened.
With a light touch, despite the serious subject matter, The Lady's Handbook offers example after stunning example of doctors (with aliases such as Dr. Bowels) unwilling to devote any effort to understanding and treating complex, under-researched "feminine" conditions such as Ramey's. After years of trying alternative treatments with no long-term improvement, the author embraced the functional medicine movement, with a focus on emotional wellbeing, sleep, gut and intestinal health, and the immune system for optimal healing and wellbeing.
Ramey's remarkable journey toward improved health and her research into the benefits of functional medicine offer valuable hope to others battling complex health problems for which conventional medicine offers no satisfactory answers. --Shahina Piyarali, writer and reviewer