Review: Misdiagnosed: One Woman's Tour Of And Escape From Healthcareland by Jody Berger

Dear Lit Loves,

Greetings Book Lovers!  Hello from good ole' North Carolina!  While I'm waiting to hear back from agents and editors on my latest manuscript and book proposal, I am working my way through my reading queue.  This week I read Misdiagnosed:  One Woman's Tour Of And Escape From Healthcareland by Jody Berger.  In a nutshell, this book is about a woman in her early forties who considers herself athletic and healthy.  She begins experiencing tingling in her extremities inclusive of her feet and hands.  The tingling sensations become worse and at times she feels as if her feet are bound and that she has a flip flop between her toes.  Before going on a meditative trip to India, she has this all checked out by a primary care doctor who then sends her to a neurologist.  The neurologist orders an MRI and sees lesions on her spine.  He calls to tell her she has MS (Multiple Sclerosis) and advises her of the meds and steroids necessary to treat it.  She doesn't like the diagnosis and the fact that the neurologist will not call her back and answer her questions.  So she goes on this wild and overly extensive crusade to seek out alternative medical practitioners who can discover what the real issue is because she definitely doesn't believe or think her problem is MS.  I couldn't believe the extensive travel, expense, and number of opinions she sought and I'm a person with serious medical challenges including Uveitis, Uveitic Glaucoma, Meniere's disease, basal cell carcinoma, and Cogan's syndrome.  Through all the alternative doctors she visits, she realizes that she has a serious problem with her gastrointestinal system, is often crippled by anxiety, needs to get more exercise, and seriously re-evaluate her diet.  Eventually, the woman finds that her problem is a gluten intolerance once she commences with an elimination diet for almost a month.  So essentially what we learn is that a person can have asymptomatic lesions on their spine that does not give rise to MS and therefore should not receive an MS diagnosis.  Now there were several issues I had with this book especially since I'm a person that subscribes to serious investigation by university medical experts when it comes to getting a diagnosis and proper treatment. 

Issue 1)  Why on God's green earth did this woman not go see a psychiatrist at some point along this journey of a correct diagnosis?  It's obvious she had a somewhat problematic childhood made worse by a mom who constantly wanted to "fix" her daughter's illnesses so they wouldn't embarrass the family.  Her parents divorced.  Her mother is presented as self-centered, irrational, and would never be nominated for "parent of the year".    Mother and daughter have a strained relationship at best and the reader never learns if they resolve their issues by the end of the book.

Issue 2:  This woman went above, beyond, and over the meadow and through the woods to get a diagnosis other than MS.  Why did she never go to another neurologist or neuro MS specialist at a major medical center for the second, third and fourth opinions?  I think she thought they would all confirm the same diagnosis, but who knows?  She never gave any other Western medical specialist an opportunity in my opinion.  She was hell bent on seeing alternative doctors.  And let me just add that I have no idea how this gal who supposedly is a reporter afforded all this travel and medical expense.  Let me also add that not all women have a boyfriend who would pay for all the medical testing and evaluations she received.  She did have a boyfriend who paid for a lot of the extra medical travel, care and evaluations; however, he never attended with her.  This was a major red flag in her relationship with this man.  If he's really the one for you, he's going to not only take care of the bill, but also be right there with you interpreting test results and asking questions. Most women do not have the luxury of having a rich boyfriend with a private plane, several homes and who can afford to pay for extensive medical tests and opinions.

Issue 3:  The guy who she discusses as her boyfriend in the book has his own issues.  He doesn't seem to want to find a place for her in his life.  He appears to just want to play Superman and swoop in when a woman has a medical crisis and save the day.  I thought he was also moody, irritable, and highly introverted.  And the reader never learns what happens to their relationship by the end of the book except that he keeps cancelling trips and visits with her so he can attend to business meetings and travel.  To me, his behavior said money is more important than relationships.

Issue 4:  Why didn't she know her family medical history especially when she is in her early forties?  Her mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's; her grandfather had tingling in the hands, feet and legs and his was due to a pinched nerve, but she doesn't seem to learn any of this until she gets the diagnosis of MS and goes on this year-long quest to disprove that she actually has MS.  That was a totally foreign concept for me as an individual who started getting serious diagnoses at age sixteen and even more rare ones as I'm now in my mid forties.  I probably know my family medical history better than any single person in my family because I have to as all my doctors require it.

Issue 5:  Let me say that I found over ten spelling and grammar errors over the course of reading this book.  Some words were obviously omitted and there were words that were added that caused sentences to not read correctly.  Now, the only reason this gets on my nerves I'm sure is that I'm trained as an English teacher so editorial mistakes GLARE at me. 

I'm on the fence about whether to recommend this book.  I think if you are especially supportive of alternative medical therapies, you will find this book validating.  If you are like me and like the opinions of major respected doctors in various specialties at fine medical institutions, you're probably going to keep thinking that she should have gone to more than just two neurologists.  I mean, she went to eight different alternative doctors and I think she had a greater fear of traditional Western doctors due to her past experiences with illnesses in her childhood that she consented to because it was expected of her by her mother or because no one really challenged the guys in white coats with cursive engraved names.  Í'm here to tell you that's a major part of my life right now.  I question all the traditional medical experts and make sure they know that I'm as on top of my illness as they are and they had better deliver the best medical care. It's called being PROACTIVE.

Happy Reading!
Grace