What do you think?
Rate this book
Loving Large: A Mother's Rare Disease Memoir
If not me, then who will save my child? A mother must confront the unthinkable when her son is diagnosed with a rare medical condition.
Patti M. Hall’s life is pitched into an abyss of uncertainty when a golf ball–sized tumour is discovered in her teenage son’s head and he is diagnosed with gigantism, a disease of both legend and stigma. After scrambling to access a handful of medical experts in the field, Patti learns that her son could grow uncontrollably, his mobility could be permanently limited, and his life could be cut short without timely and aggressive treatment.
Patti’s attention shifts fully to her son, away from her relationships as well as her own career and health. Her new normal sees her step into a dozen additional roles, including nurse, researcher, advocate, risk assessor, and promise maker, while she struggles and fails to rebuild her life as a recently divorced woman.
In Loving Large , Patti discovers that resilience is learned and that the changes experienced in the aftermath of crisis can often create the greatest opportunities.
Patti M. Hall’s life is pitched into an abyss of uncertainty when a golf ball–sized tumour is discovered in her teenage son’s head and he is diagnosed with gigantism, a disease of both legend and stigma. After scrambling to access a handful of medical experts in the field, Patti learns that her son could grow uncontrollably, his mobility could be permanently limited, and his life could be cut short without timely and aggressive treatment.
Patti’s attention shifts fully to her son, away from her relationships as well as her own career and health. Her new normal sees her step into a dozen additional roles, including nurse, researcher, advocate, risk assessor, and promise maker, while she struggles and fails to rebuild her life as a recently divorced woman.
In Loving Large , Patti discovers that resilience is learned and that the changes experienced in the aftermath of crisis can often create the greatest opportunities.
- GenresMemoir
272 pages, Paperback
Published May 19, 2020
1 person is currently reading
52 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 25, 2020
In this extraordinary memoir, the author draws you in immediately with her “wth” story of how she discovers her son’s terrifying diagnosis. You find yourself fighting for her and with her while she navigates the medical system. If you are like me, you will be yelling, “oh come on!” This is the fight of her life. She is like the proverbial mother bear, she is not going to let anything, or anyone get in the way of getting to the bottom of Aaron’s health issues, medical exams, diagnoses and operations. There are a lot of laughs and living life along with all of the tears.
She is a damn fine writer; you feel like you are with her every step of the way.
You cannot put this book down, I read well into the wee hours of the night.
She is a damn fine writer; you feel like you are with her every step of the way.
You cannot put this book down, I read well into the wee hours of the night.
July 17, 2020
This book was without a doubt extraordinary. Patti told her own true story through a devastating time, with honesty, humility and some humour thrown in.
The story itself is heart wrenching and leaves you knowing that a mothers love holds such a powerful strength and bond, all else fails in comparison.
So proud of my cousin for the memoir and can hardly wait for her next project!!!
Love,
Sara
The story itself is heart wrenching and leaves you knowing that a mothers love holds such a powerful strength and bond, all else fails in comparison.
So proud of my cousin for the memoir and can hardly wait for her next project!!!
Love,
Sara
April 27, 2020
I started this book late on a Saturday night, and finished it late the next day... or should I say very early in the morning two days later.
As her son explains at the end, this isn’t his story - it’s the story of a mom who hears the worst news a mom can hear, at THE most inopportune time in her life... and what her new normal starts to look like.
As the reader, you become Patti’s cheerleader early on, crying and laughing with her, and anxiously wondering where this story will go.
I love a good memoir and in this one, a new hero is found.
As her son explains at the end, this isn’t his story - it’s the story of a mom who hears the worst news a mom can hear, at THE most inopportune time in her life... and what her new normal starts to look like.
As the reader, you become Patti’s cheerleader early on, crying and laughing with her, and anxiously wondering where this story will go.
I love a good memoir and in this one, a new hero is found.
May 24, 2020
This is the best kind of memoir, one written by an ordinary person that is put into an extraordinary circumstances. Patti's life is thrown off course when her son is diagnosed with first a golf-ball size tumor and then gigantism, a disease that is attached to a negative stigma. Patti's fight for her son's care and adjust to the new normal that has become her life. The author's writing made me root for her as I read, as the emotions that she was experiencing at each stage came across vividly.
June 17, 2020
This was a moving account of a mother's journey with her son's gigantism, a rare and usually fatal disease that makes him grow dangerously large. I cried throughout-- I've been through a similar journey, and it brought it all back to me. Patti M. Hall's relationship with her sons is truly inspirational and I'll admit to a twinge of jealousy at their closeness. Wonderfully told--deep and smooth like a mountain lake, and you'll want to jump right in.
October 27, 2020
This is one of the most fascinating memoirs I’ve read in a very long time. Exceptional!
When Patti Hall, mother of two teenage sons, is no longer able to use her healthy denial about her very tall 15 year old, thinking he is just the lucky kid that stands a foot taller than the other guys in the hockey locker room, she faces the rare diagnosis of Gigantism. And not only that, but a brain tumor!
Hall’s world is turned upside down as she becomes nurse, researcher, and advocate for her son Aaron. This is a unique family story that reads like a fast paced medical drama, full of real-life family emotion, and suspense. The reader is on this journey with her every challenge, her fear and her supermom strength—her journey to resilience and bigger-than-life-love
Her storytelling and writing are exquisite! She said it wasn’t a story about miracles, but one of gratitude. For me, it was about both!
Loving Large is Hall’s gift to every parent who has a child with a serious illness. And to any reader with a loving heart!
Having worked in a general medicine clinic for fifteen years with a graduate degree in psychology, consulting to medical providers, and counseling patients and family with serious medical conditions, I highly recommend this memoir to physicians, nurses, and healthcare professionals.
Thank you for sharing this miraculous story of love, endurance, and gratitude!
When Patti Hall, mother of two teenage sons, is no longer able to use her healthy denial about her very tall 15 year old, thinking he is just the lucky kid that stands a foot taller than the other guys in the hockey locker room, she faces the rare diagnosis of Gigantism. And not only that, but a brain tumor!
Hall’s world is turned upside down as she becomes nurse, researcher, and advocate for her son Aaron. This is a unique family story that reads like a fast paced medical drama, full of real-life family emotion, and suspense. The reader is on this journey with her every challenge, her fear and her supermom strength—her journey to resilience and bigger-than-life-love
Her storytelling and writing are exquisite! She said it wasn’t a story about miracles, but one of gratitude. For me, it was about both!
Loving Large is Hall’s gift to every parent who has a child with a serious illness. And to any reader with a loving heart!
Having worked in a general medicine clinic for fifteen years with a graduate degree in psychology, consulting to medical providers, and counseling patients and family with serious medical conditions, I highly recommend this memoir to physicians, nurses, and healthcare professionals.
Thank you for sharing this miraculous story of love, endurance, and gratitude!
May 30, 2020
What I found so great about this memoir, and why I think Patti is an expert at memoir as a genre, is that you can relate to her experience (and her book) even if you aren't a mother (which I'm not), even if you don't have a son or know anyone with that specific disease (which I don't).
What Loving Large is about, really, is the process of loving any human, and what happens when you're thrown into a position of caring for them during an emergency. Through her experience you learn about the toll 'caring' takes, how much you hide from those you love to help them, and the process of learning how to manage that..
Who hasn't been thrown into a caring position at one point or another? Having to google every specific about an illness, having to project manage something impossible (!), putting your own health and wellbeing on the backburner while you ensure another survives?
I highly recommend this book to anyone dealing with a caring situation (parent, partner, child, sibling, friend). Patti will have you nodding in recognition and seeing new ways to manage your perspective on the situation.
What Loving Large is about, really, is the process of loving any human, and what happens when you're thrown into a position of caring for them during an emergency. Through her experience you learn about the toll 'caring' takes, how much you hide from those you love to help them, and the process of learning how to manage that..
Who hasn't been thrown into a caring position at one point or another? Having to google every specific about an illness, having to project manage something impossible (!), putting your own health and wellbeing on the backburner while you ensure another survives?
I highly recommend this book to anyone dealing with a caring situation (parent, partner, child, sibling, friend). Patti will have you nodding in recognition and seeing new ways to manage your perspective on the situation.
June 16, 2020
Once I began this book, like many others I could not put it down until the last page. It’s an extraordinary book about a Mother’s journey when her son was diagnosed with an extremely rare medical condition. Her struggles through a complex medical system together with her tenacity not to give up until she finds someone to help her son makes compelling reading.
A Mother’s love shines throughout this story as we share the good and sad times with Patti and Aaron. I thank Patti for sharing her journey.
A Mother’s love shines throughout this story as we share the good and sad times with Patti and Aaron. I thank Patti for sharing her journey.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews