Introduction

Ever felt like something was really off with your health, but doctors couldn't figure out what? Like your body was acting up, but all the test results came back normal? Well then, this memoir is for you. The author, Meghan O'Rourke, went through that experience for years - she literally had strange, raised red bumps on her arm, arranged in a circle like Braille and no one could explain what it was. Little did she know, she was starting a long, frustrating journey into the world of poorly understood, chronic illnesses. 

O'Rourke’s experience is way more common than you might think. Millions of people are suffering from conditions where their immune system or nervous system goes a little haywire, creating an "invisible illness” that's hard to diagnose, hard to treat, and even harder to make others understand. And yet, this memoir does a great job of breaking it all down. It shows what it feels like to have a body that feels like it's betraying you, to face skepticism from medical professionals, and to have a healthcare system that’s ill-equipped to handle these illnesses that don't seem to fit into any neat boxes. 

Let’s step into this invisible kingdom and try to make sense of our bodies.

Summary

No conclusions! Sorry. There just aren’t any neat conclusions or uplifting finales when it comes to chronic illness. O'Rourke’s journey represents the authentic, messy, unresolved nature of living with a chronic condition. It's a reality marked by fleeting glimmers of health amidst the tumult. The only conclusion is that there is no permanent conclusion, no final healing destination to be reached. Just acceptance of an ongoing tug with illness- an ever-changing reality.

What Even Is a Disease, Anyway?

Weird question, but that’s where it all starts. We usually think of diseases as foreign invaders - bacteria, viruses or other microbes that attack the body from the outside. Nerds call it the "germ theory" model. Y’know how it goes: find the bug, eliminate it, and you've solved the disease. But that straightforward idea doesn't always work out so neatly. See, there's this whole category of conditions called autoimmune diseases that flips the script.  With autoimmune diseases, the enemy is...