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--eve...