An incredible journey into the life of a young heart transplant patient, Sick Girl is extraordinary both for its gripping story of a medical miracle and for its unique and forceful narrator, Amy Silverstein. At just twenty-four, Amy Silverstein was your typical type-A law student: smart, driven, and highly competitive. With a budding romance and a heavy academic schedule, Amy did not have time for illness--especially not one that caused her heart to pound violently and erratically in her chest, for her to black out, lose her breath, and even suffer temporary blindness. When her family doctor suggested that her symptoms were due to stress and diet, she was more than happy to drop a few classes, think calm thoughts, and eat fistfuls of salt. At such a young age, how could she have guessed that her heart was about to give out? With a grace and force reminiscent of Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face or Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted, Amy Silverstein--a surprisingly irreverent narrator--chronicles her harrowing medical journey from the first misdiagnosis to her astonishing and ongoing recovery. Her memoir is made all the more dramatic by the deliriously romantic bedside courtship with her devoted boyfriend, Scott (now her husband), and her uncompromising desire to become a mother. Distrustful of her doctors and insistent in her refusal to be the "grateful heart patient" she is expected to be, Amy presents a patient's perspective that is truly eye-opening and sometimes controversial. Amy's shocking honesty and storytelling skills allow the reader to live her nightmare from the inside--an unforgettable experience that is both painfully disturbing and utterly compelling.

ISBN-13: 9780802143877 ISBN-10: 0802143873 Publisher: Grove Press Publish Date: October 2008 Page Count: 304 Related Categories Books > Biography & Autobiography > Medical - General Books > Biography & Autobiography > Personal Memoirs Books > Health & Fitness > Diseases - Heart