by Sophie Ward
First published 2017
Sophie Ward confronts a medical mystery that has derailed her life. After years of unexplained symptoms, she receives a Lyme disease diagnosis that transforms everything she understands about her body and career. Trapped between medical skepticism and her own deteriorating health, Ward must navigate a complex healthcare system that frequently dismisses chronic illness—especially when it strikes successful women. Her symptoms range from neurological disruptions to profound physical exhaustion, challenging her identity as a professional actor and writer. Each medical encounter becomes a negotiation: proving her experience is real, fighting for legitimate treatment, and maintaining her sense of self against an illness that threatens to erase her. Ward's story is less about suffering and more about fierce resistance—a precise accounting of what happens when a patient refuses to be silenced.
Genres: medical, non-fiction, biography-memoir, health, 21st-century, disability
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fierce-resistance, medical-gaslighting, patient-advocate
Period: 21st-century
36 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Content warnings: medical-trauma