Review: Brain On Fire: My Month Of Madness

While diligently searching for an editor and publisher for my own family memoir, I read the memoir entitled  Brain On Fire:  My Month Of Madness by Susannah Cahalan.  Actually, the manager of my local Barnes and Noble was interested in this book as she had never heard of it.  She asked how I had come to hear about it and as usual I inform her that I'm searching for a publishing home for my family memoir and this particular book was published by one of the literary houses known for producing excellent memoirs.  I selected this memoir because it's about a journalist who finds herself experiencing enormous health problems and unable to find a specialist who can pinpoint exactly what has gone wrong with her body.  (I know the feeling as I have the autoimmune disorder known as Cogan's Syndrome that gave rise to both Meniere's Disease and Uveitic Glaucoma).   Initially, this journalist starts experiencing symptoms such as lack of concentration, forgetfulness, and lack of focus/purpose at her work.  Worse still, she starts experiencing a wide range of emotions going from contentment to agitation in a matter of minutes.  I became scared for this gal when she starts having visual and auditory hallucinations.  Seriously, she thinks people are calling her degrading names when in fact they've said nothing.  At one point she believes she has the power to age people with her mind.  Na urally, there were doctors who believed she might have psychosis or bipolar disorder, but that wasn't the real problem.

Eventually, she winds up in an emergency room after suffering seizures and uncontrollable behavior such as trying to jump from a moving vehicle.   At this point in the story she lands in an observational epilepsy unit at the hospital.  She will have no recollection of the next month she spends in the hospital as specialists attempt to discover her diagnosis.  She pieces together this time period from a diary her dad kept, interviewing nurses/doctors at a later date, and watching video recordings of herself made during this month in the hospital.  A specialist finally comes along that suspects she has a problem with her autoimmune system, but to determine if that's the case, she undergoes a brain biopsy.  Sure enough, her immune system is attacking and inflaming her brain.  The treatment for this involves steroids, flushing the vile antibodies via plasmapheresis, and then undergoing IVIG treatment.  Thankfully she now has the proper diagnosis and treatment plan as she has now gotten to a point where she has trouble walking and speaking.  She goes through months of rehabilitation.  Eventually, she is able to slowly return to her work as a journalist, but she lives with the constant fear that her immune system will one day attack her own body/brain once again.  I can tell you this much:  she is lucky she found a specialist that had the foresight to dig a little deeper, engage with her more fully, and had the proper connections to get her biopsy tested in a thorough manner.  Most people do NOT have this advantage.  Most people would possibly be stuck with the wrong diagnosis and incorrect treatment protocol.  Far worse, many folks in this circumstance might pass away or never regain their original identities.  I was quite inspired by this read; it just goes to show you better make sure you've turned over every rock when it comes to getting a correct diagnosis and locating a specialist in combating a rare disorder.  I know because I've lived through the same nightmare as this journalist and so has my dad; however, that's a whole other story that remains untold until someone decides to enable me to tell it.