The Illness Narrative: Suffering Healing And The Human Condition Analysis

In his book, The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing and the Human Condition, Arthur Kleinman poses ideas and eight questions about illness experiences that every patient endures. The eight questions provide an insight into how the patient views the illness they have, what they think it does, fears about what it will do and any additional problems it has triggered. For this assignment, I have used these questions as a way to guide my interview with a childhood friend of mine, Sydney Karre. Sydney and I were on the same club swimming team growing up and she was always the “life of the party.” She had always maintained a healthy lifestyle, so when she began to randomly lose weight for no reason at all, we all began to think she was doing it …show more content…
She began to lose weight at an unusual rate and would vomit everything she ate. I, along with many other people, began thinking she had anorexia, but what we next began to notice was her skin color. She was no longer a “normal” skin color, but turned extremely pale all over, most likely due to the lack of nutrients her body was taking in. This is the worst problem that lupus caused to Sydney's body. When asked what the chief problem that the sickness caused, Sydney replied “For me, the main issue I have from my lupus is severe gastrointestinal issues. It caused what is called gastroparesis and chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction. Pretty much, food doesn't break down and move through my GI tract correctly.” Because of this obstruction, Sydney was not taking in the nutrients she needed to maintain a healthy weight. She had to quit swimming because of the fatigue and even needed a wheelchair to move around. Once doctors found out why her body was rejecting food, she began to carry around a bag with a tube inserted into her stomach that pumped predigested formula. For awhile, this method greatly increased her strength and ability to absorb nutrients, but in the summer of 2017, Sydney mentioned that she experienced a flare and her body began rejecting the formula- sparking a multitude of problems. She was so sick that she became dependent on a wheelchair and on her family to help her get out of bed. There were times in which she was so weak that she could not even move by herself in her own bed. Her fears of dying and her family finding her became reality during this time. Because of this, she could not go back to UNC Chapel Hill for her sophomore year of college and had to stay home, taking online classes. Sydney mentioned that the disease has been isolating to her, especially when she had to stop doing the things she loved most.