"I have felt that odd whirr of wings in the head."
-Virginia Woolf, A Writer's Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf
(as quoted in Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan, p.1)
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I read a good memoir last week about a successful newspaper reporter who went through a sort of mental and physical breakdown, and yet she found her way out of the darkness thanks to the love and support she received from her family and friends. She also gives credit to her amazing doctors who ran the right tests and provided the correct treatments to get her on the road to recovery after several months.
Brain on Fire - My Month of Madness - by Susannah Cahalan is about a young woman who had everything going for her. She had a great job at a newspaper, a wonderful boyfriend, and a family who genuinely loved her. But one day everything changed. She began having hallucinations, lost her balance repeatedly, lost her ability to speak correctly, and quit eating. At first, doctors thought she was an alcoholic and that this was the cause of her cognitive impairments. She essentially became a child again and grew incapable of taking care of herself. She grew paranoid and acquired many physical tics that seemed to come out whenever they felt like it, like constantly smacking her lips. Something was definitely wrong.
Eventually, Dr. Souhel Nazzar and others were able to diagnose the problem: Susannah had a disease called _anti-NMDA-receptor autoimmune incephalitis. They came to this diagnosis after a brain biopsy and numerous other tests, and she endured several treatments such as IVIG, and the she was released to her parents while being given treatments as an outpatient. She had to be watched constantly, and her parents made sure she didn't drive or do anything else that could be dangerous. Cahalan used her drawings, notes, and more to put together this book about her ordeal. She can even explain the science behind her form of incephalitis, and it's very complicated. If you're a science-type person, you might enjoy reading the precise explanation of this rare and dangerous disease. Not everyone who gets this can heal from it, so Calahan is clearly one of the fortunate ones. This book is based on her article for the New York Post where she has been an investigative reporter for the past ten years. It was the jumping off point for her memoir, and it has helped a lot of people who were also searching for answers regarding their similar symptoms. She clearly did a lot of research to better understand her disease and its effects, and she shares her knowledge with us in this little paperback.
I read that this book will be made into a motion picture in the near future, so you might want to look for it.
Yesterday we went to see the new Disneynature movie, "Born in China." This movie is a relaxing way to celebrate Earth Day, and I enjoyed all of the animals that were featured in another beautiful film put out by Disney. There are snow leopards, pandas, cranes, and other animals featured in this movie, and we got to see them in every season of the year as they brave the elements to find food, raise their young, and seek safety. The movie is less than 1 1/2 hours long, but it's a beautiful film that gives us a rare chance to see these animals up close. The pandas were by far my favorite. Baby pandas are about the size of a stick of butter when they are born, and to be able to see them develop, change, and eventually climb a tree alone is a beautiful thing. They are so cuddly and sweet, and the mothers know how to take care of their babies. This was, of course, an intrinsic characteristic of all of the animals featured - the moms all knew what they were suppose to do from the moment they gave birth.
Enjoy this last week of April, and I'll see you again next time.
-Melissa Hill
Book Blogger
www.onegoodbookblog.blogspot.com
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