Pain Was My Middle Name
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A memoir of suffering and salvation elevated by its heroine/narrator. In 1950, Chun's graduate-school career was cut short when she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, an incurable autoimmune disorder that causes the body to attack itself. The author spent the next 50 years trying to be a model wife and mother while plagued by bouts of disabling pain and fatigue. For this book, Chun draws on the 53 volumes of journals she kept for 50-plus years, which provide a minute-by-minute record of the progress of her life and illness. Her account is less self-help and more memoir, but readers are p...
A memoir of suffering and salvation elevated by its heroine/narrator. In 1950, Chun's graduate-school career was cut short when she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, an incurable autoimmune disorder that causes the body to attack itself. The author spent the next 50 years trying to be a model wife and mother while plagued by bouts of disabling pain and fatigue. For this book, Chun draws on the 53 volumes of journals she kept for 50-plus years, which provide a minute-by-minute record of the progress of her life and illness. Her account is less self-help and more memoir, but readers are privy to Chun's experiments with Chinese medicine, acupuncture, vitamin and herbal supplements, and the rigorous food and exercise plans that she developed over the years to supplement Western medicine's inadequate solutions for her ailment. The author is deeply Christian, ascribing to the positive philosophies of Rev. Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral Ministeries. Her urge to other rheumatoid arthritis sufferers to "think possibility" echoes Schuller's "Possibility Thinking" and message of positive faith. At times, Chun relates too closely to Job, and there is a fair bit of evangelizing, but those who share her beliefs won't find this a deterrent. Throughout the book, the author is a lively and agreeable companion. The litany of flare-ups, hospitalizations, failed drug treatments, surgeries and more could be overwhelming, but frequent relief comes in the form of her grandmotherly digressions about her daughter's wedding, her beautiful grandchildren, vacations to Hawaii and Europe, and visits to China. In the last third of the book, Chun shares suggestions for day-to-day relief from rheumatoid arthritis, including specific dietary tips and exercises illustrated with cute line drawings. An autobiography of an illness that unfolds, like a photo album, into the story of a happy family.-Kirkus Discoveries
