From Publishers Weekly
Imagine the sensation of a fishhook lodged behind your left eye and tugging backwards. Now imagine that you live with that pain 24 hours a day for 15 years. That is Kamen's headache, one that she attempted at first to cure but finally learned to accept. Kamen (
Her Way: Young Women Remake the Sexual Revolution) first tried all sorts of drugs—some were addicting, others made her gain 70 pounds in six months; none had any effect on the pain. She turns to alternative medicine: cranial-sacral adjustments, acupuncture, gluten-free diets, magnets, yoga. Kamen intersperses her account of these increasingly bizarre treatments with a look at how Western medicine, and even feminism, abandons patients with chronic pain and other invisible ailments: since her pain has no discernible physical cause, she has been told it's "all in her head." This book may not be uplifting, but it is undeniably funny. Kamen's irreverent sense of humor about her pain and herself makes the book a delight to read as she unabashedly pokes fun at the corporate pharmaceutical industry (even while she hopes for a test-tube cure), doctors and other caregivers. Kamen makes the reader understand what it is like to be happy even while one is in pain.
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Review
"A 'must read' for nurses and anyone else who suffers from an invisible disability...Razor-sharp reporting." --
Nurseweek, 6/5/06"Essential reading for anyone who suffers from chronic pain or...enjoys a dash of wit in their memoir-reading." --
Bookslut, September 2006"Exhaustively researched, comprehensive in its cultural analysis, effectively organized, and well, a riot." --
Book Review Digest, December 2006"Exhaustively researched, comprehensive in its cultural analysis, effectively organized, engagingly written, and, well, a riot." --
Womens Review of Books, May/June 2006"Kamen describes her descent into headache hell with verve and wit.... Her prose is a pleasure.... A must read." --
Boston Globe"Sufferers will find plenty to learn from here...[This] story hasn't been told before." --
Midwest Book Review, September 2006Â"Offers a broad look at chronic painÂ
A Âmust readÂÂ
with self-deprecating humor and razor sharp reporting.Â" --
Nursing Spectrum, 6/19/06