The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness

A Memoir

By: Sarah Ramey

Narrated by: Eileen Stevens, Sarah Ramey

Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

"A best memoir of 2020" (BookPage)

The darkly funny memoir of Sarah Ramey’s years-long battle with a mysterious illness that doctors thought was all in her head - but wasn’t. A revelation and an inspiration for millions of women whose legitimate health complaints are ignored.

In her harrowing, defiant, and unforgettable memoir, Sarah Ramey recounts the decade-long saga of how a seemingly minor illness in her senior year of college turned into a prolonged and elusive condition that destroyed her health but that doctors couldn't diagnose or treat. Worse, as they failed to cure her, they hinted that her devastating symptoms were psychological.

The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a memoir with a mission: to help the millions of (mostly) women who suffer from unnamed or misunderstood conditions - autoimmune illnesses, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, chronic pain, and many more. Ramey's pursuit of a diagnosis and cure for her own mysterious illness becomes a pause-resisting medical mystery that reveals a new understanding of today's chronic illnesses as ecological in nature, driven by modern changes to the basic foundations of health, from the quality of our sleep, diet, and social connections to the state of our microbiomes. Her book will open eyes, change lives, and, ultimately, change medicine.

©2020 Sarah Ramey (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Sarah Ramey’s candor in discussing more than a decade of pain, confusion, and dismissal by countless doctors is matched by compassion for herself and every woman who has been told that her symptoms are only in her head, even when she knows her body is screaming. This is a book for anyone who has ever asked a question that didn’t have an immediate or easy answer, anyone who has worried about themselves or a loved one who isn’t getting better - despite following all the experts’ advice - and anyone interested in their own health, public health, or medicine. In other words, it’s a book with something resonant and useful for all of us. It’s also, not incidentally, a terrific read." (Chelsea Clinton, co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience)

"Sarah Ramey is a person of uncommon wit, bravery, compassion, honesty, and intellect. Every one of those qualities is on full display in this unflinching, important, and stunningly written memoir, which gives voice to millions of women whose experiences and pain have been ignored and minimized." (Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life)

"With brilliant storytelling, Sarah Ramey tells of her experience with a mysterious illness while weaving in a practical roadmap for the woman who is overwhelmed, confused, depressed, desperate, and suffering with confusing symptoms. As she undertakes her heroine’s journey through her relationship with her body, she reclaims her power and comes home to herself - because in the end, it’s getting back into our bodies that allows us to become free. A masterwork and a page-turning, fantastic read." (Alisa Vitti, author of In the FLO and founder of FLO Living)

Enlightening

Sad, horrible story to have gone through such things. This is exactly what I needed to hear. No more traditional doctors, functional medicine only!

Don’t miss this

Impeccably researched and deeply moving, I’ve bought this book for a dozen people already. May you find it as important as I did.

I found my tribe

It’s so refreshing to know I’m not alone in my struggles with health. I kept saying, “Yes! Yes! That’s me!” throughout the whole book. I am a WOMI!

Important read!

A truly harrowing tale of repeated failures of traditional medicine, that many will relate to. Ends with some helpful information and a glimmer of hope amid somber reality.

INCREDIBLE must-read book for everyone

This book and the narration are amazing. I highly recommend the audiobook for the extra meaning conveyed that isn't possible with text alone. At times it is uncomfortable to read about the things that happened to the author, but it is vital for fully understanding the valuable information she portrays. As a scientific researcher, I hope to carry these many lessons with me in my own toxicology research so I can do my part to reduce the levels of environmental stressors and hopefully help lesson how many people develop illness such as this. Additionally, I am a Woman of Mysterious Illness myself, and this book gave me beautiful vindication about my own experiences that I have been lacking and sorely needing for many years. Sarah Ramey, THANK YOU! This book has changed my life.

Her story is OUR story.

Excellent Book for all Women who fight for their voices to be heard, all while being incredibly sick.

Most important health book of the century

This book trumps all the self help and health and women and gender studies books. A perfect book to ask friends and family to read to understand how to support their WOMI. Make this into a major motion picture!

Bravo!!!!!

This is a very important book. As a sufferer of a mysterious illness, Sarah describes my experience as if she was in my body. Her experiences are so familiar, I found myself yelling out “me too!!!” , tearing up, and just shaking my head at certain chapters.

I hope this book can get in the hands of policy makers, medical schools, researchers. This is a book of hope.

Life Saver

I believe every woman that reads or listens to this book will be inspired to make certain she receives respect from her doctors. As a person who has had fibromyalgia for 40 years after a botched hysterectomy ( that I did not need). This was 15 years before the malady had a name. I was dismissed, disregarded, and wrongly treated by the doctors. So I went to alternative healers , most of whom promised a cure and when the cure didn’t happen, grew angry and mean towards me. Sarah had it a lot worse than I ever did. Her perseverance is inspiring but her demanding to be believed and to set her own treatment plan in the face of so much resistance is what I will take with me for the rest of my life. I am grateful for this book and its author.’

Don’t stop listening

You will want to, as the endless stories of disappointing doctors visits drones on and on…driving home the feeling so many of us share regarding the medical establishment.
Yet, each story illustrates the rabbit holes each doctor sends patients down because the establishment has not unified and drawn obvious connections to so many ailments plaguing our society and ignoring accessible, preventative care options. Thank you, Sarah, for your time, research, and commitment to not giving up on yourself or any of us.

An Thank you, Dr. Ramey for really seeing your daughter.