What Doesn't Kill You

A Life with Chronic Illness - Lessons from a Body in Revolt

By: Tessa Miller

Narrated by: Tessa Miller

A riveting and candid account of a young journalist's awakening to a life of chronic illness, weaving together her personal story with reporting to shed light on how Americans live with long-term diagnoses today.

Tessa Miller was an ambitious twentysomething writer in New York City when, on a random fall day, her stomach began to seize up. At first, she tried to push through the searing pain, taking time off work and staying home, glued to the toilet. But when it became glaringly apparent something was wrong, Miller gave in to her family's requests and went to the hospital-and thus started a years-long personal nightmare that included procedures, misdiagnoses, and life-threatening infections. Once Miller was finally correctly diagnosed with Crohn's disease, she had yet another new battle to face: accepting that she will, in truth, never get better.

Today, 3 in 5 adults in the United States suffer from a chronic ailment, whether the illness is endometriosis, IBD, IBS, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, asthma, depression, anxiety, diabetes, or any other chronic ailment. However, despite the prevalence of these illnesses and the impact they have on just about everyone-whether the sufferer is a colleague, a loved one, or you personally-there remains an air of shame and isolation around the topic. Millions endure these diseases alone, not only physically but also emotionally, balancing the stress of relationships and work amidst the ever-looming threat of health complications.

Moving from Miller's maddening yet all too relatable experience into a deeper look at how the medical community handles chronic illness, What Doesn't Kill You exposes the realities of what it means to accept a lifetime diagnosis, pushing past the good, the bad, and the ugly to offer wisdom and solidarity for those trying to make sense of it all.

*This audiobook includes a PDF of resources from the appendix of the book.

Wonderful Book

I have been dealing with a chronic illness which has brought me to my knees for the past four year’s.Multiple surgeries,doctors and medications with life changing side effects.
This book gave me some peace. I so enjoyed listening to it, I could identify with everything the author talked about. I realize how lucky I am to have a wonderful supportive family and friends that are always there for me.

Excellent Illness Memoir

This book is a powerful combination of personal narrative, commentary on the nightmare of the American medical and insurance systems, and well-informed acknowledgment of the unequal ways chronic illness falls on different bodies. The whole thing is terrifying and tenderly written.

Glad I don't have Crohn's disease

This book consists of two parts. First there is the memoir, which is well-written and enlightening in terms of its depiction of a very nasty chronic illness and its complications. I really learned to appreciate the difficult life of dealing with Crohn's, and, having listened to this, I have greater compassion towards people with this and similar illnesses. I have chronic illness as well, but it's nowhere near as challenging. Still, there was much I could relate to. Of course, if I did have Crohn's and since I've mostly not had insurance in my life, I likely wouldn't be writing this now.
The second part of the book is the journalistic part where the author basically explains everything you need to know when living with such an illness, from insurance info, to relating to friends and family, to expectations of a good doctor, to even what to expect sexually, and more. It's very complete and a great reference, though I think the good doctor part has pretty high expectations, not realizable where I live. This second aspect of the book seems to take up most of the listening time, so that's something to be aware of going in. Seems like it could have been a second book. Definitely recommended.

living with crohn’s disease

Great job, Tessa! Tessa provides a touching, intimate, and at time bold accounting of her experience with crohn’s disease. I enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to learn what living with crohn’s is like. as a care taker of loved ones wrestling with a different form of chronic disease (tick-borne diseases), i identified with many of the themes Tessa described, but felt at times Tessa might have tried to generalize too much based on her personal experience. Tessa suffers from a disease that conventional medicine acknowledges — at least enough to put a name on the group of symptoms. The fact that there are ‘medicines’ that hold some promise for managing crohn’s results in Tessa dismissing non conventional therapies — including whole foods based nutrient-dense diet (e.g. paleo) supported by the functional medicine community to optimally support the immune system when no other magic pill/medication is available. Such chronic illnesses (e.g., Lyme) are not acknowledged or offered effective conventional treatment to manage conditions. Tessa alluded appropriately to gaslighting — when doctors (and others) dismiss your reality and infer that it’s all in your head. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how hard it is to live with crohn’s disease — an important segment of the chronic community. Everyone is similar but different. Every person with the same disease is similar but different. Every person with a different chronic illness is similar but even more different. Thank-you for the book Tessa.

Well written as biography,

Despite being a bit too much Generation Z I found it well written and with empathy. The story is engaging.
However, less helpful if you’ve already read many similar books. I ended up skipping some parts.