In The Invisible Kingdom, author Meghan O'Rourke seeks to understand the mysterious, debilitating illnesses that dominated her life for a decade. Does she have a complex autoimmune disturbance, chronic Lyme disease, or a vexing combination of both? To get answers, O'Rourke maxes out her credit cards traveling all over to meet with experts and to try both Western and integrative therapies, neither of which is completely satisfactory. She is particularly critical of Western medicine’s tendency to dismiss women’s suffering as being “all in their heads”, if an immediate, convenient cause is not found. Eventually O'Rourke achieves a state of relative health that allows her to resume teaching, have two children, and write this book.

One thing I noticed that O'Rourke did not do in her travels was meet with other chronic disease sufferers, although she does quote some she reads about online.

I thought I would really like this book, but I grew tired of the self-absorbed nature of the narrative. Still, I recommend it to those with chronic diseases. ( )

As a woman who has sought out doctors for a range of symptoms, only to be told that my levels are normal and I just have anxiety - I relate to this book more than I'd like and appreciate its existence. The author explores chronic illness on a macro and micro level and highlights how difficult it is to be seen, heard and truly understood as a person with hard-to-identify auto-immune disease(s). She stresses how important is it for the medical and scientific community to reevaluate how we view the individual when it comes to healthcare, looking at the person as a whole -- rather than a collection of separate organs or body systems -- and considering the totality of the condition. This book doesn't give any answers but rather points out how hard finding answers can be.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone whose life is impacted by an auto-immune disease or chronic illness. ( )

recommended by Clint Smith (How the Word is Passed)

Meghan O’ Rourke’s The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness was a National Book Award Finalist. This book presented the grueling hardships of the author’s struggle with the devastating illnesses of autoimmune diseases. Her struggles began in earnest as a young woman at university and persisted later in her life.
Eventually, Meghan was able to find suitable help after visiting numerous specialists. During these encounters she was upset by the lack of knowledge concerning autoimmune diseases, physicians’ inability to make a diagnosis, and hearing that sufferers of such an illness must have a psychological problem.
After years of trials and errors she was diagnosed as having Lyme disease. Meghan received a treatment of antibiotics that helped. Yet, she continued to suffer with bodily pains and brain fog, but at times she felt better. Well, enough, to make trips, teach classes, and be able to work out. It was after having a fecal transfer in England she got a boost. Meghan soon became pregnant and gave birth to a son.
Caring for a new-born child, she was also faced with an ailing father. With her husband Jim and child, her dad moved into their home in Brooklyn. Her father who was suffering from lymphoma cancer got well enough and moved back to Connecticut. But these experiences were a further strain on her ailing body. With other health setbacks, and times of feeling well, Meghan was pregnant again, and gave birth to another child.
The book concluded with the author feeling rather conflicted. She wrote that she did not want to give a false sense of the meaning of her suffering. As she put it, at times she felt lousy, and sometimes better. But the illness itself robbed her of many precious moments she missed as a young woman because of her health. She did not even know for sure if she had Lyme disease, in addition to several other autoimmune diseases. However, she was presently feeling better, but has continued living with chronic disease with her family. ( )

It is so validating not only to hear someone coping with chronic illness but the struggle to even get them diagnosed. ( )