A Delicate Balance: Living Successfully With Chronic Illness [Paperback]

Susan Milstrey Wells (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2000

Chronic physical illnesses-such as lupus, Sjogren's syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, inflammatory bowel disorders, Lyme disease, interstitial cystitis, multiple sclerosis-take their toll on every aspect of a person's life. Though millions of people manage to cook, care for children, or work despite their disability, they do so with fatigue, pain, and the grinding uncertainty of living with chronic illness.A thoughtful exploration of this experience, A Delicate Balance provides both up-to-date practical advice and inspiration for the millions of Americans who struggle daily against chronic illness. From locating a suitable health-care provider and making sense of the powerful emotions that accompany chronic illness, to seeking accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act and applying for Social Security Disability Insurance, A Delicate Balance is informed by in-depth, personal interviews with patients, care providers, and family members. The result is a compassionate and immensely hopeful book for anyone touched by a chronic disease.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Chronic illness doesn't come with an instruction manual," says Susan Milstrey Wells--so she wrote one. Afflicted with Sjögren's syndrome (an autoimmune disease that dries the eyes and mouth), fibromyalgia (a painful muscle disorder), and interstitial cystitis (a chronic inflammation of the bladder), she knows the ins and outs of coping with chronic illness. In A Delicate Balance, she provides a compelling mix of useful information and real-life stories (including an appendix of resource numbers for various medical and self-help organizations) to help others find the will and the way to survive and thrive.

Wells characterizes the onset of a chronic illness as the beginning of a journey toward understanding, accepting, and healing, and she organizes her book to help lead the reader on that journey. The first few chapters deal with the psychological stages of illness and the perseverance that's often needed to get an accurate diagnosis and find a suitable health care partner. Middle chapters detail the search for treatment and the effects of chronic illness on personal relationships and the ability to work. The final chapter offers the optimistic view that chronic illness is a gift--albeit one that you don't want and can't give back, but that will ultimately teach you many important life lessons. Yes, chronic illness changes your life, she writes, but such change is not necessarily bad--and having a guide like this can help you through it. --Nancy Monson

From Library Journal

Many people suffer from chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and Crohn's disease, and though their suffering is great, it is often invisible to others. Wells, a journalist and health writer who suffers from fibromyalgia, Sjogren's syndrome, and interstitial cystitis, has written this book in the hope of helping herself and others attain a balance between completely giving in to disease and denying that they are ill. Though the writing style does not enliven the subject, Wells gives good advice on finding a doctor, accepting illness, working with a chronic disease, maintaining relationships, and searching for both conventional and alternative treatments. She also offers insight into chronic illness from both her point of view and that of a number of other chronically ill people she interviewed. The comments of her interviewees are the most compelling part of the book. Recommended for public libraries and patient education collections.?Stacey Hathaway, Fordham Health Sciences Lib., Wright State Univ., Dayton, OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738203238
• ISBN-13: 978-0738203232
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #491,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Chronic Illness Books on the Market, June 30, 2000

By 

Courtney L. Lewis "Sassy Librarian" (Kingston, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Delicate Balance (Hardcover)

This is an incredibly well written book with a balance between narrative insights and valuable technical information. The author is quite candid in her personal experience with chronic illness and the resources at the end of the book are excellent and not the usual "run of the mill". I love her quote about the importance of first person narratives. "For those of us who are ill, chronic illness sets us apart. But when we read about the experiences of others, we realize we are not alone and that healing is available to all of us, regardless of our disease."

While Wells includes the usual information about good doctor/patient relationships and the importance of spirituality and alternative methods of healing, her real strength lies in her incredible ability to get the emotional heart of the various aspects of being chronically ill. I found her chapter "From Denial to Acceptance and Back Again" to be amazing in its clear articulation of the emotional stages of chronic illness and the profound isolation that can result from that experience. Everyone with a chronic illness should read and keep this book in their personal health library.

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best of this kind., March 23, 2001

By 

Edith S. Tyson - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Delicate Balance: Living Successfully With Chronic Illness (Paperback)

If you have a chronic medical problem, and you want to prove you can go on working, get this book; if you need to get a disability retirement and you want to prove that you are entitled to it, get this book. If you just want to know that somebody understands, get this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good perspective, November 26, 2011

By 

Barbara Schamberger - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Delicate Balance: Living Successfully With Chronic Illness (Paperback)

Like most people with chronic illness, I read every book about chronic illness with the hope that it will contain the magic advice to make living with chronic illness easy and endurable. This book comes closer to providing effective advice than any tome I've worked through. The only criticism I have with the book, is the same one I have with every book about chronic illness: the inclusion of a chapter on how chronic illness has enabled individuals/authors/etc. to grow from the experience, that in the illness there are blessings of awareness of life that the sufferer didn't see before. Well, d'uh! Before this misery wrecked my life I experienced a whole lot of stuff I can't experience any more. I was too busy living a different life to notice this other stuff. I miss the stuff from my old life a heck of a lot more than I enjoy the new stuff.

Part of the message, of course, is that spending your "new" life mourning for the loss of the "old" one isn't an effective way to use one's time. That surviving chronic illness means getting more out of what little life you do have. But I am so tired of the "Well, it depends on do you see the glass half full or half empty?". For me, all I can share with other people is: "You got a glass. That's better than no glass. If you're lucky, you'll be able to put something in it. If you're unlucky, you're wondering: glass? What glass? The worst thing is, you may not have a glass, there may not be one coming and there may not be anything to put in it."

Then it's time to call the waiter. . .