patients

The author describes growing up with Tourette Syndrome, and how he was able to overcome the abuse that he received from students and teachers alike to rise up and succeed in spite of his disorder, and offers advice to those who must live with Tourette's.

The author relates what she underwent during a month-long hospital stay during which she was diagnosed with encephalitis and discusses how the autoimmune disease affected her mental stability and her hospitalization influenced her life and family.

Andrea Gillies recounts her family's struggles to care for an aging relative suffering from Alzheimer's and shares how it helped bring them closer together while testing their patience, faith, and strength.

Young Frankie Hermans regains consciousness from his two-hundred-day coma to discover he is unable to walk or speak, but the coming of a charismatic young man, Joe Speedboat, to Frankie's quiet, rural hometown has a healing effect on Frankie.

Ian Brown describes his son Walker's rare genetic disorder and how it affects his life and the lives of the people who care for him, and details his journey around the world for answers about its cause and possible treatments and his final acceptance of his son's condition.

A memoir in which photographer, skier, and skateboarder Kevin Connolly tells what it was like to grow up without legs, discussing his loving parents, his dad's continuing efforts to invent devices to make his life easier, his participation in sports, and his habit of taking pictures of people who stare at him--a project that became a traveling exhibit.

The author describes the sometimes incredible details of her second pregnancy, telling how she and her husband, both driven Harvard academics, came to the decision to have their son after the fetus was diagnosed with Down syndrome, and sharing the extraordinary events that helped them know they had made the right decision.

Angela Balcita recounts her struggles with kidney disease, describes how she felt when her boyfriend Charlie offered to donate his kidney, and discusses how his choice impacted their relationship.

Victor Mancini, a medical school dropout, has devised a scheme to pay for his mother's elder care, but when he tries to scam the wrong person, his plan takes a nightmarish turn for the worse.

The author describes her life after her childhood diagnosis of polio caused her to spend the next sixty-one years of her life in an iron lung.