As my body attacks itself: My journey with autoimmune disease, chronic pain & fatigue

by Kelly Morgan Dempewolf

#1 Bestseller in Kindle > Immune Systems #3 Bestseller in Books > Immune Systems 50 million Americans suffer with an autoimmune disease and countless more deal with chronic pain, fatigue and illness. These diseases are often invisible yet they touch every part of a person’s life and of the lives of the people they love. This book is an honest, raw look at the thoughts, concerns, fears and struggles. as Kelly deal with Sjögren’s Syndrome (the second most common autoimmune disease). The story isn’t just about Sjogren’s, or even just autoimmune disease. It’s for everyone impacted by chronic disease of any kind. Kelly’s hope is that patients will find solace and validation; friends and family will gain understanding and the abilities to empathize, communicate and support loved ones; and medical professionals will gain understanding and ability to empathize - impacting the way they interact with patients.

200 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2014

About the author

Kelly Morgan Dempewolf, PhD, is a mother of two, wife, science educator and Sjögren's Syndrome patient. She is the author of a high school chemistry textbook "Discovering Chemistry You Need to Know", NSTA Press's book "Mastery Learning in the Science Classroom" and numerous education articles. She began the blog www.asmybodyattacksitself.com as a way to process and communicate her struggles with chronic disease as has expanded that writing into her new book "As My Body Attacks Itself".

Her science education work can be found at www.kellymorganscience.com and her writings about her autoimmune disease at www.asmybodyattacksitself.com

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a really good description of living life with invisible illness, whether autoimmune or something less straightforward like Fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue. From the first chapter I found myself nodding along in agreement. There's nothing groundbreaking here, no big cure, just on persons story; a story that sounds a lot like mine and many others. The book could use another pass from a proofreader as some of the writing mistakes were to the point of being distracting.

[Martha]

Although I thought this book would be more of story other than doctors visits, medications, etc, it ended up being more of a timeline of events. If you have Sjogren’s, this may be worth reading. Foe me, it wasn’t until page 127 that it became interesting and beneficial to me. The second half of the book wa better. I think the first half of the book could have been wrapped up in a couple of chapters.

I am not going to rate this book because I don’t feel it is appropriate to judge someone’s story when it comes to chronic illness. It is their story and they told it as they experienced it.

[Tori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on living with a chronic illness and the uncertainties around autoimmune diagnoses. I read a lot of these health ebooks. This one was very well written compared to most of them, and I felt like the information was applicable to other conditions too, not just Sjogren's.