In A Doctor's Journey Back to Health, Dr. Steven Sommer, recounts his life afflicted with myalgic encephalomyelitis, more commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome. He fuses science discussion to personal experience and personal philosophy. He goes to length to explain how the disease firmly adheres to a model of a neurolgical disease rather than a psychological condition. He does so successfully. Aided by his medical training, he then discusses the nature of the disease and those treatment issues that require addressing by the medical establishment.

He critiques the psychological community's current and historical relationship to patients with CFS. As with other patient authors, he offers advice to them, but the book also gives advice to others. Particularly good is the fact that his wife contributes to the writing. In a chapter of her own, she offers up a boxed list of do's and don't's for care-takers which is quite valuable.

Sommer takes on the issue of the stigmatization which people with CFS receive for having a disease that is seemingly 'invisible'. Legitimizing the condition is a tall order. Hence he notes that one can legitimately liken it to multiple sclerosis, AIDS, chemotherapy treatment, and other such situations for its life impact, both medical, economic, and social. He explains how careers and marriages can collapse under it. His description of how some people just pack up and exit a sufferer's life is telling. Likewise, his wife narrates some days of their life, and she highlights the disbelief and disdain her husband sustained from his in-laws.

The book has one seriously awkward characteristic and that is that some passages have difficulty walking the line between expert depth and layperson readability. Given that Sommer writes as a patient, the text leans to the personable most of the time, but he has moments of swinging too far into academic mode. He tries to ameliorate the difficulties inherent to seeking multiple, disparate readerships by advising non-technophiles to skip sections of text. Anticipating what to skip and what to explore poses challenges that might inspire some people to simply put the book down. He tries to bypass this quandary by including a 'key points' roster for each chapter. Somehow, it just did not work for me.

Skipping text also means skipping good facts and messages. For its technical detail, a reader might skip his discussion of Graded Exercise Therapy, but this discussion has serious importance to any and every reader. For its technicality, the book will benefit people most who are directly affected by the illness. To the lay reader, I would suggest trying a fast, even superficial, read of the whole text and marking sections that merit re-reading in finer depth (or rely on the key points that Sommer lists to guide rereading). ( )

An inspiring story about how 1 GP went from skeptic to patient and then into recovery with ME/CFS. Like so many others Steven suffered disbelief from friends, family and medical professionals who should be helping him. This book follows his story and is the background to his book on his Micro Rehab approach.

As part of his story he includes some background on research into ME/CFS which is very well presented and is clearly tailored to patients who might not have the longest attention spans. The chapters are short, concise and easily digestible. ( )

When I started listening to this book, I was engaged. That is, when Sommer shared his personal story from doctor to patient as he dealt with failing health at the same time he was building his relationship with Tori, marrying, and then relating their struggles, that part was the part I enjoyed. However, alternately, the book has chapters that are highly technical medically. It's also timely in that it discusses the relationship of chronic fatigue syndrome with Covid 19. I fazed out on those chapters.
I have no doubt that sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome will truly find the book valuable. For readers, like me, who approached the book for its memoir aspect, the research aspect seemed disjointed.

Nonetheless, I was pleased to receive the book as an Early Reviewer. ( )

I was pleased to get Dr. Sommer’s book to review. It was interesting about his experiences with ME/CFS. It was also informative about how he slowly pulled out of the disease & was able to do more as his micro-rehab worked, although it’s a slow process & that’s a good thing. Throw too much physical work into rehab & it defeats the purpose by simply wearing the person out. That’s why micro-rehab is much better.

This book is clear & well-researched. ME/CFS is fully explained (along with diagnostic criteria), & Dr. Sommer gives us hope by telling us about some of the latest research & letting us know there could soon be a blood test to determine if someone has ME/CFS, which will be huge! For so long people with this disease (not a syndrome; he proves that) & other similar diseases, like fibromyalgia, have been told it’s “all in their head” when that’s clearly not the case!

He tells us about micro-rehab & directs us to his book ME/CFS - The Path Back to Life - Micro-Rehab. It should be an individualized program, different for each person.

He talks about Covid & long-Covid & how many survivors of Covid may go on to develop ME/CFS.

I liked the Key Points at the end of each chapter. I also liked Tori’s chapter about being his caregiver.

Overall this is a hopeful book; since Dr. Sommer has improved through his micro-rehab, so can we. I was glad to receive this ARC from LibraryThing so I could review it. ( )

A compelling book about ME/CFS and the heart breaking struggle to get recognition for this mysterious disease as an actual physical problem and not a psychiatric one. As a physician and a person living with the disease, Steven Sommer clearly explains all the difficulties in obtaining useful medical treatment, governmental financial support, and emotional support from family and friends. A very timely topic as it is beginning to appear that "long COVID" may be a form of this complex disease. Some researchers are predicting that 10-30 percent of COVID survivors may be affected.