Should be mandatory reading!
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This masterful book should be mandatory reading for every doctor and patient. The National CFIDS Foundation, Inc. recommends it to this day. It is unequaled for its accuracy and both those in the medical profession as well as patients will have a better understanding of this ill-named disease.
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Excellent review of this perplexing and important disease
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Hillary Johnson does a masterful job of documenting the illness and its history at a level understandable by the lay public, yet it is detailed enough to satisfy the medical audience. This book is a meticulously researched and exposes some of the worst science has to offer and the best in patients and medical researchers. As an epidemiologist, I knew little about CFIDS before reading this book. After reading it, I am truly amazed (yet again) at how politics can corrupt and intrude into the scientific process. I highly recommend this book!
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Osler's Web A Good Portrayal
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I found Osler's Web to be a good, well-written portrayal of the
disease. I'm a YPWC - Young person with CFIDS, and to lend the
book to people to help them understand my illness has helped a lot
CFIDS is too unknown - thanks for helping us fight against
ignorance, Hillary! The only thing I want to comment on -
We don't know if it is a contagious disease. And to say it is,
makes some people stay away from us instead of supporting us.
Yes, there have been some outbreaks, but it has not been scientifically
proven to be contagious!
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Things you suspected but couldn't possibly have known
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Osler's Web tells us things that maybe we suspected (governmental agencies playing politics with our health and our lives) -- and includes details we would never have heard about (patients who lose their fingerprints).
It makes us sad sad sad (patients who are "no longer at home in the world") but also shows how incredibly strong and resourceful humans can be.
Some doctors did care. Some doctors do care. A full explanation of what was once derisively named "yuppie flu" -- provides explanations of the destruction of our lives.
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A Must read for CFIDS sufferers, friends & family!
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Don't read anything else until you have read this book. While it was a slow go for someone WITH CFIDS, persistance paid..and it paid big!
Anyone who wants to know the inside track on CFIDS or many other diseases, the government's waste and incompetence, the cost of ego over the health of the individual, the dollars of insurers being more important than those who are suffering and the ignorance in both the private and political sectors despite the sheer mountains of evidence of this horrible & disabling disease...well, it's all here! The book accounts the last 10 years of struggle for the diseased and the few doctors who try to get this disease the respect and attention it deserves. The book is frightening in its revisiting of the disbelief of the polio and multiple sclerosis sufferers of the past, who also fought to have their illnesses taken seriously. CFIDS is the new plague and everyone who wants to know where their tax dollars go for any disease should read this book.
It is eye opening!! Government, the Medical Profession, Insurance companies and the public go on trial in this book. In spite of the persistence of disbelief, those who say it's "all mental" and "just depression" Ms. Johnson triumphs and shows us that our medical community still have a long way to go. A must read for everyone.
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