Steven J. Sommer

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).… (plus d'informations)

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.… (plus d'informations)

It took me a long time to review this book and it wasn't the book's fault. I received it right before having major surgery so I miscalculated how long it would take me to fully recover.

I have fibromyalgia along with other health problems. So much of what is spoken in this book relates to those of us dealing with chronic pain and illness. Some things I figured out on my own like my gluten intolerance and how it added to my inflammation/pain. Pacing is the most difficult to practice so I will definitely be rereading those chapters. I also need to work on taking refined sugar our of my diet again. This book is practical and left me with a lot of food for thought.

I appreciated how the authors made bullet points at the end of chapters, including personal stories and an extensive appendix. Honestly so much of what they share in this book seems like common sense and I'm left asking myself why didn't I think of it. This is definitely a book I'll be rereading. I also plan on buying a physical copy of for myself and possibly gifting it to other spoonies (chronic illness folks).… (plus d'informations)

This is the second book in the series and is much more of the "How to" guide.

I was heartened that at no point is the author selling this as a cure, it isn't and there is not one. As a patient of 26 years and counting I wish this book had been available when I became ill, it would have saved me a great deal of heartache and precious energy.

Most of what is recommended is sensible common sense and is pretty much what I learnt myself independently: good diet, a support network, pacing etc. I do however want to raise a note of caution, the advice on pacing is fine but limited and the pitfalls are only discussed a couple of chapters further on: not everyone is adept at noticing when to stop and the nature of PEM means when you do notice it is much too late. Pacing with a heart rate monitor really does make a difference and for myself has halted a continual decline.

I would absolutely recommend this book to patients with ME/CFS and long COVID no matter how longstanding the diagnosis.… (plus d'informations)