Sick Girl (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: heart biopsy, transplant life, heart biopsies, Amy Silverstein, Madame Clara, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Silverstein's memoir offers a rare glimpse at life as an organ-transplant recipient. She was a young law student when the first signs of a deadly virus in her heart appeared. When her doctor said she merely needed to keep her stress in check and add salt to her diet, she happily complied. At 25, after several months of terrifying symptoms and misdiagnoses, she received a heart transplant. Like all organ recipients, to prevent her body from rejecting her new heart, she depends on high doses of immunosuppressants—bitter poison that leaves her nauseous, trembling, aching, and highly vulnerable to infection—for the rest of her life, which was only expected to last another 10 years. To better her chances, she heeded her doctors' advice, sacrificing everything from coffee to alcohol to pregnancy. Still, it seemed that the best she could hope for was the illusion of a normal life, so she kept her body's punishing blows from her friends, her adopted son and at times even from her loving husband, her ever-confident coach through years of devastating illness. [T]o make myself 'normal' again would be the most extraordinary feat that I would never quite accomplish she writes. Now, more than 17 years after her transplant, Silverstein reflects on the often misunderstood journey through the torments of being saved in a stirring story of survival and unyielding love. (Oct.)
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Review

"Unsparing . . . the life of a heart transplant patient is an intricate, often frustrating duet with impending death. It sometimes seems that memoirs already have detailed every possible affliction and condition, but Silverstein's tills new territory." -- John Marshall, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"[Sick Girl] shocked me. It was a revelation. I couldn't stop reading it. . . . It's a book that made me shake my head in disbelief with every chapter. What a potent reminder it was that quality is about more than walking out of the hospital alive." -- Avery Comarow, U.S. News & World Report

"Feisty, insightful, improbable . . . Silverstein has cheated death to thrive in her post-transplant existence and to write about it with incredible courage, determination, self-scrutiny, and verve." -- Lisa Shea, Elle

"[A] compelling memoir . . . Silverstein's humor and devotion to her husband and son see her through, and by the end you'll be rooting for her next 20 years." -- Kim Hubbard, People (3 of 4 stars)

"[Silverstein's] unsentimental humor and spitfire response to mortality help [her] deal with a `time-bomb heart' that has kept on ticking for nineteen years. With apologies to Adlai Stevenson, it's not always better to light a candle; sometimes you need to curse the darkness, too." -- Cathleen, Medwick, O, the Oprah Magazine

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (September 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802118542
• ISBN-13: 978-0802118547
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #109,691 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book with real heart, October 26, 2007

By	Jill I. Shtulman (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amy Silverstein's book is compellingly readable...and that's amazing for a first-time writer. Her experience flies in the face of the "miracle transplant recipient" whose life begins after her operation.

There are many, many scenes that will stay with me and much that I learned. I didn't know, for example, that transplant patients MUST take immune-suppressing drugs -- poisons, really -- which leave them susceptible to all kinds of illnesses and cancers. Or that the transplanted heart is really an unnatural one -- so that if someone were to say "boo", it would take minutes before the transplanted heart would begin to race. Ms. Silverstein reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly and she does a great job of setting the record straight.

Who among us would feel "lucky" if we were 24 years old and a high achiever -- only to be told that we had a ten-year life expectancy and that those ten years would be filled with pain? Or that a bride's wedding day would include a rush to the coat check room for a dose of a drug that will surely cause nausea and discomfort for the rest of her reception? This is the brutal reality that Ms. Silverstein reveals.

Although I certainly can glean some of Ms. Silverstein's antipathy toward the doctors, some of it seemed a bit unfair. For example, on first hearing her diagnosis, Ms. Silverstein, by her own description, retreated to the safe haven of a ten-year-old girl -- and a bratty one at that. Perfectly understandable. BUT, later, she becomes angry that the doctor did not sit down with her and reveal everything; in fact, he wrote down that she was "fragile." That is understandable as well. She also becomes angry when her doctors "punt" diagnoses and won't take a firm stand; however, in today's world of malpractice, we've created our own monsters.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who doesn't want their stories sugar-coated. This one shows the author's courage as well as her anger, envy, even nastiness. It's very courageous to expose yourself, warts and all, for the world to see...and at the same time, to inform people about what the life of a transplant recipient is REALLY like.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Story with an Unfortunate Perspective, January 1, 2008

By	Tiffany Christensen "Tiffc73" (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amy's illness journey was an interesting one. By all practical/statistical accounts, her life is a profound success story. As a double lung transplant recipient, I can only dream and hope to live as long as Amy has since her heart transplant.
Sadly, the book begins with Amy contemplating stopping her transplant meds as a way of ending "the torture of survival" and leaving behind her saintly husband and beloved son. For her, these 19 years have not been successful, they have been almost unbearable.
It was painful reading this book--I had to put it down often. Amy portrays herself as woman who seems to resent even the idea of looking at the positive side of things. She has locked herself in a mental pattern of self-pity. For example, she lists all of these things she has had to cut out of her life because they are too closely associated with a traumatic medical event. This ranges from certain foods to a certain outfit. To this day, she will not put her hand on her husband's knee when he is driving because it reminds her of a horrible ride to the hospital. This is where I think choice comes into play. In this situation, she has chosen to embrace the trauma instead of embrace the new day. This I find to be extraordinarily tragic.
This is Amy's story and she has a right to tell it as it is. My only fear is for those awaiting transplant and for those who may have been, or will someday be, in the position to donate a loved one's organs and save lives. Please do not think that Amy's story is consistent with what it is for everyone post-transplant. I, for one, am happy to live a shorter life with medical ups and downs--it is worth the trade to be here with those I love.
There are many "sick girls" out there--Amy seems to feel as though she is the only one who knows suffering. There are those who suffer physically but choose not to suffer emotionally and spiritually. I hope someday Amy will embrace this concept and find some peace.

Tiffany Christensen, Author of "Sick Girl Speaks!"

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your time or money. Donate them to a more worthy cause., October 29, 2007

By	ConRad (California) - See all my reviews

Wow... as a transplant patient myself, I find this book discouraging and irritating. I wish I hadn't been so curious to hear about a fellow trasplant patient's adventure, and I also wish I knew how cynical and biased this was going to be because then I could have spent the time it took to read this doing something actually worthwhile.
Other than the contemptuos tone that really had the effect of bringing down my day (so much so that I felt compelled to write a review and save others from a similar fate), the writing was lackluster, immature, and really just annoying. A definite waste of time and money. Please don't believe much of what this book says.. it's one pessimist's ungrateful, one-sided account of a life-saving event....
hmm maybe I should write a better one? haha