Welcome to Litsy!

These books have been on my shelf for 6 and 4 years.
This is what motivated my 1:1 fiction:non-fiction challenge this year.

Time to move off the TBR shelf!

1. Elantris and A Darker Shade of Magic
2. Ask Me About My Uterus
3. The Only Plane in the Sky
#weekendreads

Overall I liked the book but there were long parts that went deep into the author‘s childhood abuse/neglect at the hands of her mother, maternal grandmother, and bystander father and into the history of the author‘s mother‘s childhood abuse. I understand that malnourishment as a child/adolescent has profound impact on one‘s adult health but I was not expecting that much focus on her abuse in a book I thought was about healthcare and women.

I like this book. It teach me a lot about endometriosis that I have been interested. It seems that is taboo topic despite the fact that so many women are affected by this disease. Is half biography and half her findings in the topic. I think every woman should read this book to understand her body.

#nonfiction
#womenissues

“Sure, we hadn‘t figured out how to consistently diagnose, let alone adequately treat, a debilitating condition that had affected millions of women all over the world for centuries—but we finally weighed a dwarf star.”
....talking about endometriosis

Well, when you put it that way! 🤦‍♀️

🤯🤬

😱

😢

I love this section in the Acknowledgements!

Part memoir, part medical history, but all about how doctors do & don‘t listen to women and take their pain seriously...often leading to no diagnosis or mis-diagnosis. Such a frustrating book to read, both for her story & how it intersects with anyone with an illness that resists easy classification & trying to navigate a medical system set up for quick fast exams and faster treatments, but have lost the time to actually study a patient‘s issue.

This is a tough, but really important read. It's a graphic account of the author's illness, the devastating effect it's had on her life, and how much worse her experience was made by her struggles to get a diagnosis and treatment. One of the things that struck me most was how the cost of healthcare worsened the situation. A real eye opener. @thereadingwomen

Next up @thereadingwomen

Have you ever read a book and then wanted the whole damn world to read it? This is one of them. There was so much good information, story telling and venting that even the parts I didn't relate to were compelling. While her specific condition might not apply to all, the parts about the health care system certainly does. And I'm sure every one of us, for those lucky enough not to live with chronic pain, knows someone who does. Cont. In comments....

Today was beautiful. So I read outside in my pajamas while Kiki watched the traffic go by. (And waited for a chippie to wander into her yard.) So far this book is excellent.

Memoir Monday!!⠀
⠀
Ask Me About My Uterus is a memoir by Abby Norman about her struggle with endometriosis and the medical system. It's really informative about women's struggles in general with the medical system and the inadequacy of the current pain chart. I had a great time reading it.

I'm only about 40 pages in, but so far the history is interesting and really gives context to the memoir component. It's really resonating as a person who has had pain dismissed by medical professionals and I'm looking forward to reading more. But this is a text that is difficult to enjoy, it's well written but it fills me with rage.

I just moved this to my "on deck" tbr pile. I have an idea this will become a bit of a rage read. Register. Resist. Vote. Them. Out!

1. 😂😁😳
2. No, they all graduated long ago.
3. Going back to New England.
4. Last on both sides by many years. You know, accident...
5. Yes ma‘am!
#friyayintro @howjessreads

🎉🎉🎉 I‘m 🏡 from the 🏥 , and it‘s done! Tagged Abby Norman‘s book for those who want to learn more about endometriosis.

This is my 2nd surgery, and I‘m not gonna lie ,it was a bitch. My pelvic region was COVERED with endo lesions, as well as my bladder, which they accidentally nicked while removing lesions. Apparently my uterus was “boggy” too with possible adenomyosis, which they will biopsy. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

#endowarrior
#hystersister

Reading this at work was tricky as I do not want middle school boys asking me about my uterus. My husband came up with the great idea of putting another book's cover on it. Not sure if I liked this book or not. It was definitely well-written.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! The kindness of Littens never ceases to amaze me. I'm looking forward to reading all these books.
#kindlitsy
@britt_brooke @Riveted_Reader_Melissa @dariazeoli @MaGoose @mountainsandlace

The first book I am reading on my new kindle!

⭐️⭐️⭐️
I applaud Norman for sharing her story, and I really loved the first bit of this book, but it just really could have used some better editing.

#booked2018 #floweroncover
#catsoflitsy #Ember

Abby Norman does an excellent job of portraying what it is like to live with endometriosis and chronic illness. From the dismissal of a woman‘s pain to the impact on daily life, this memoir nails it. I wish more men would pick up this book, to try to understand what it is like to live with this disease.

The only thing that kept it from a 5⭐️ read is the need for better editing. At times, it felt rambling.

#booked2018 #invisibleillness

👆👆👆 THIS. My diagnosis finally came about after hubby and I changed strategy, and did exactly this. I still get soo angry when I think back to when I was diagnosed, and how I was only taken seriously (after years of different doctors), when suddenly we brought a man‘s sex life into the equation. Who cares about excruciating chronic pelvic pain? 🤬🤬

Thankfully I‘m in a better place now. But it took a lot of advocating to get here. #endowarrior

With so much to do today, I‘m never going to finish this Book before I leave on my trip tomorrow. 😫 I usually don‘t like to bring library books with me when I travel...something always seems to happen to them.

But I am looking forward to my next two #screamathon picks in my carry-on. 😃 And I‘m sure I‘ll pick up a few 📚 while in Salem and Boston!

Sooo excited to be going back to Salem during October. 🦇 👻 🔮 🧙🏼‍♀️

“Research regarding endometriosis has been happening for at least the past century, every medical textbook I‘ve ever thumbed through seems to demarcate the condition as being relatively uninteresting.”

I remember one night, during my spouse‘s surgical residency years, where I pulled out all of his textbooks and looked up endo to see if it fit my symptoms. The treatment sections (if they even existed) was downright abysmal.

This was me in my 20s. No more. #endowarrior

You know what makes me angry? Endometriosis is considered a common illness, yet fictional characters with endo, PCOS, or another uterine-related disease barely exist, not even in YA.

I‘m starting this memoir for the #Booked2018 #invisibleillness prompt, but I can‘t resist calling out the taboo that still seems to surround writing character‘s that deal with reproductive-related illness. It‘s overdue, and we esp. need to see it in YA. #endowarrior

This book outlines the trials and tribulations of one woman‘s struggle with endometriosis. No one with a legitimate complaint should be dismissed by their doctor, or humored, or talked down to. Norman shows that you have to be your own best advocate.

#womenshealth #endometriosis #endometriosisawareness #endometriosisisreal

#readytorelax #readytoread

This was incredibly hard to read, both emotionally and physically. So much of it could have come from my diary. In the course of reading this I underwent the special hell that is a uterine biopsy, and after a decade of begging, was scheduled for a hysterectomy. It will be my 4th abdominal surgery. I don't know if it will work, but it can't be worse.
If you know a woman who suffers from chronic pain, and you probably do, you need to read this.

I try to hide my pain and depression, especially from those who care. Because I love them, I don't want guilt and I don't want pity. And I am afraid of being a burden.

Discussing how women handle pain.

My issues started almost 4 years before they were medically recognized. After all, I had been told in sex ed that periods were supposed to be painful.

We still rarely talk about women's sexual lives in a meaningful way. My chronic pain ended my last relationship, and has kept others from forming for 10 years.

Award winning writer Hillary Mantel struggled with endo as well.

Abby Norman‘s memoir is about her experience with endometriosis and the nightmarish process she went through getting doctors to take her and her pain seriously. She includes regular nonfiction info about the topic as well and while this is an incredibly important subject the actual book was pretty disorganized and felt a bit rambly.

Sending love to all littens who deal with any kind of chronic pain ❤️

This is going to be a difficult book to review dispassionately. As an endometriosis sufferer the last 33yrs myself, there were things that spoke to me strongly in this memoir, but there were also many things that made me speechless with not just rage but also incredulity at the authors own justifications for some of her suffering.While her descriptions of the pain, nonstop bleeding, fatigue, nausea & overwhelming suffering of an ‘endo‘
*cont👇👇👇

“After the introduction, Hoffman & Tarzian drop a real whopper of a statement: postoperation, women are more likely to be given sedatives for pain, whereas men are more likely to be given pain medication.”
“If you extrapolate a little, it‘s pretty easy to see that women were given sedatives because they were perceived to be anxious more than they were perceived to be in pain.”

I‘m gonna have to take a break, I‘m so angry I can‘t see straight.😡

“Earlier in the week, he‘d told me that he thought it was only fair that he got to sleep with other girls while I recovered. I was aghast & asked him if he no longer intended to be monogamous. He immediately scoffed, saying that monogamy wasn‘t a fair expectation given the circumstances.”

After a two year period of excruciating pain on intercourse(believe me, I have firsthand knowledge of how bad it gets)this is the authors partners response🤬

At my father-in-laws 70th birthday party, everyone‘s outside sitting around the fire pit, talking & drinking. I‘m in the family room reading a book about menstruation, endometriosis & a woman‘s uterus. #partyanimal #whosanintrovert #daringthemtoaskmeaboutmyuterus

1. Green, especially spring green & lime green. Sunshine yellow is also growing on me lately.
2. Endeavour, all 4 seasons.
3. Ask Me About My Uterus
4. Salt, pepper & BBQ sauce
5. My Father-in-laws 70th birthday party is this weekend. Yay.🤡
@LeeRHarry @Cinfhen @Robothugs
#FriYayIntro

There! This quote, right there. That is why so many women suffer needlessly for months and even years. Because most doctors are so arrogant that they cannot admit that they are clueless about what is happening to a female patient. I have seen over 100 specialists, give or take, over the past 32 years. Take a guess as to how many referred me to psychiatrists.(over 20)Now take a guess as to how many admitted they didn‘t know what was wrong. (One!)

“He conceded that although the uterus may not be the seat of hysteria, the ovaries could be push-buttons for whatever neurological malfunction occurred. In an attempt to prove this theory, he devised a machine called an ‘ovary compressor‘ which was just as horrific as it sounds. Demonstrating on patients at the Salpetriere, the mental asylum in Paris, he would use the apparatus essentially to squash the ovaries of women in his care.”😱😱😱😱

#BookMail Pt10 is this book about the authors struggle with endometriosis & the struggle to have doctors take her pain seriously. Like her, I also have endometriosis & also like her, had doctors dismiss me or refer me to a psychiatrist because I was exhibiting “attention seeking behaviour”. I was 14yrs old. It took me 7yrs to finally have a doctor look at my insides & say “oh yes, you have severe endometriosis, adhesions & cysts” No shit Sherlock.