Who Do I Become When I Am No Longer Me?: Stories of Illness, Injury, Chronic Pain, Aging, and Dying

Pain, illness, and death are some things that will affect everyone in the world in some way at some point in their life. In Who Do I Become When I Am No Longer Me? Stories of Illness, Injury, Chronic Pain, Aging and Dying, Susanne Carlson, with Karen Kirtley, share stories of people who have experienced pain due to lifelong illnesses or illnesses they didn’t even know they had until the pain became too much to bear. In stories such as David’s “Don’t Just Do Something Stand There” and Phil’s story “The Educational Power of Pain,” we learn how men who are in powerful professional and social situations are hit with pain and how it changes their lives. In another — Mable’s “A “Good” Pain in the Ass” — we see how outside sources can enhance pain and how to fix one thing while handling another. All the stories are based on real cases and through laughter, tears, and intrigue readers will learn as they open their hearts to each one.

Who Do I Become When I Am No Longer Me? Stories of Illness, Injury, Chronic Pain, Aging and Dying is a book that will appeal to specific audiences, even though the topic of the book is one that every person will face some day. Carlson and Kirtley have collected a handful of stories that not only inform, but also have the ability to touch a reader’s heart. With each person’s story, medical information is shared about each individual, how they are treated, and the outcome in both doctor-speak as well as in a way that an average person can understand. Writing the book in this way makes it more appealing in that you don’t have to have an M.D. to understand it. Overall, through information and tears, Carlson and Kirtley have written a 4-star book on a topic that should be talked about more than it is.