Virtual Book Tour

I recently read Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working Girlfriend by Rosalind Joffe and Joan Friedlander, and offered to be part of their virtual book tour. Both of the authors write from experience, as Joffe lives with MS and ulcerative colitis and Friedlander with Crohn's disease.

As I mentioned in Monday's post, there was nothing like this around when I was first diagnosed with lupus. These two women have done what I dreamed of doing: created a supportive manual for those of us who live with chronic illnesses and face daily problems that most people don't (like whether or not we'll even feel well enough to get out of bed on any given morning, and people who don't believe we're unwell because we look just fine), and still manage to have a life that includes a career. For having a chronic illness does not remove ambition, interests, or passion from a woman, though it does make things more difficult to achieve physically.

Joffe and Friedlander use their own experiences, as well as those of other people, to show what kinds of obstacles we face, and various strategies for coping with and even overcoming them.

Even though I'm in my late 40s, and am fortunate enough to be able to work part-time so that I can usually function well, this book was an inspiration to read. As well as providing many ideas and strategies for dealing with chronic illness, the book brought home to me the fact that I'm really not alone in what I face every day.