Waiting for a Miracle by Jan Markell

Book Review: Waiting For A Miracle by Jan Markell A few years back I read a book on pain that made me mad. It was written by a rheumatologist who claimed to be a Christian, and who proceeded to blame his incompetence at treating fibromyalgics on--you guessed it--his patients. Rheumatologists, in my experience, are notoriously ill-equipped to deal with non-inflammatory pain. This doctor assumed his FMS/CFS patients' pain was in their heads, and he had resorted to using pseudopsychological counseling sessions on them rather than admitting his failure and referring them to someone else. I pitied his poor patients! As for his Christianity, it was syncretistic at best. His most egregrious error was in claiming that pain was a subjective experience, which flies in the face of common-sense medical practice. I was incensed. I have been searching for a good book that would treat the spiritual side of chronic illness properly--without sinking into blame-shifting, self pity or ranting--ever since. I have found it!  Jan Markell is a CFS sufferer who wrote this book after twelve years of illness. She was a type-A personality much like myself, whose life suddenly came to a screeching halt. Unlike myself, she has been single and has continued her ministry in spite of her illness. Yet I can relate very well with her experience and found myself nodding and saying, "Yep" through each chapter. It is affirming to find someone else who has walked in my shoes and can describe my experience much better than I could ever hope to. Waiting for a Miracle is for anyone with chronic illness or who wants to understand chronic illness from a social/spiritual viewpoint. The chronically-ill will find poems, quotes, scriptural principles, and much encouragement in this book. 
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