Showing titles in People with Disabilities

The Life-Altering Event On October 23, 2000, at the age of thirty-six, Aithal experienced a massive stroke, which doctors attributed to an AVM (arteriovenous malformation) of the Pons area. He was given a fifty percent chance of survival. The stroke occurred at his Southern California home, and his wife quickly called 911, resulting in a timely emergency response that Aithal credits with saving his life. In the initial critical days, doctors focused on stabilizing him and managing a swollen brain with prednisone. The stroke left his right side frozen and caused him to lose his speech, ...

Cory Smit never had a chance to grow up as a normal kid. Between the extreme views pushed on him in church to being bullied at a series of schools, it took years to understand the worst of his trouble at home. After surviving physical and psychological trauma at the hands of his adoptive parents, Cory entered custody of the State of Arizona through a series of misunderstandings and misguided interventions.

After 30 years of a healthy, rewarding, and exciting life, I wake up in a hospital bed unable to move. The neurosurgeon leans down and breaks the news: You won't regain any function in your body and you will never walk again. My medical insurance sends me home, discontinues my care, and tells me to "adapt to my new life". Little Big Steps is the story of the pivotal moments, interactions, and breakthroughs following the injury that turned my life upside down.

Annie and Rolf Lulloff were entering an exciting stage of life in 1976 when the first signs of health issues that lie ahead for Annie began to emerge. A sudden loss of sense of smell, severe anxiety attacks, vision issues, and other neurological challenges piled up, eventually culminating in a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease on New Year’s Eve, 1989. But the Lulloffs were not about to let Parkinson’s get the best of them.

In this deeply moving memoir, Dr. Bhaskar Bora recounts his life-changing journey through a spinal cord injury and a battle with cancer. I Died Standing Still is a raw and powerful story of resilience, courage, and transformation. More than a personal narrative, it is a testament to the human spirit’s ability to rise from adversity and find meaning, creativity, and hope in the darkest times.

At age 24, Janet Buttenwieser moved to Seattle with a résumé devoted to public service and fantasies of single-handedly ending poverty. But within a year she’d developed an intestinal illness so rare she wound up in a medical journal. Janet navigated misdiagnosis, multiple surgeries, and life with a permanent colostomy. Like many female patients her concerns were glossed over by doctors. She was young and insecure, major liabilities in her life as a patient. How would she advocate for low-income people when she couldn’t even advocate for herself?

2017 Audie Winner: Inspirational/Faith-Based Non-Fiction Audiobook and Earphones Award from Audiofile Magazine The Awakening of HK Derryberry is the inspiring story of the amazing relationship between a successful business executive and a young, disabled boy with a dismal future. Little did Jim...

A survivor of Guillain Barre Syndrome, this is the walk that led me to Tik-Tok. This audiobook recounts the events that molded me into the man that lived in your phones. Encouraged by friends and family that I had a story worth telling, I became a self-proclaimed autoimmune advocate on social media, whose ramblings captured the attention of fellow autoimmune, chronic illness, and chronic pain sufferers along the way.

In West Point to Wall Street, veteran Omar Ritter reveals the lessons he’s learned over two decades of struggle with PTSD. A decorated combat veteran, Omar endured an eighteen-hour surgery for a brain injury and was medically retired from the military. He embarked on a second career as a finance and accounting executive, grappling with mental health challenges and searching for ways to alleviate the debilitating struggle. Now he’s offering powerful insights for confronting these demons and embracing the healing journey.

Disability activist and social media influencer Melissa Blake offers a frank, illuminating memoir and a call to action for disabled people and allies. In the summer of 2019, journalist Melissa Blake penned an op-ed for CNN Opinion. A conservative pundit caught wind of it, mentioning Blake’s...

Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the turning of a year in Dara's Northern Ireland home patch. Beginning in spring, these diary entries about his connection to wildlife and the way he sees the world are vivid, evocative, and moving. As well as Dara's intense connection to the natural world, Diary of a Young Naturalist captures his perspective as a teenager juggling exams, friendships, and a life of campaigning. We see his close-knit family, the disruptions of moving and changing schools, and the complexities of living with autism.

The S Word is the raw and compelling true story of a girl coming of age raised by a mother with a mental illness, and who nearly suffocates in the silence she was taught to value above all else - until she finally finds the strength to break free of the secrets binding her and save herself. The S Word is a book for anyone who may be keeping secrets...for children too little to know they warrant a voice...for teenagers too confused to think they have a choice...for adults too overwhelmed to do what’s right.

Born 10 weeks premature and given only a 10 percent chance of survival, Rene entered the world fighting for her life. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy, she grew up navigating a society that often defined her by limitations rather than potential. But this audiobook tells a different story—one of determination, courage, humor, and an unshakable belief in the power of being heard.

Most would not expect a book about a stroke to be entertaining, but this memoir will force you to laugh through a tragedy, then cry, then laugh again. Avrel Seale was fifty, did not smoke or drink, had low blood pressure, and had hiked more than two hundred miles the year a stroke nearly ended his life. In an instant, he was teleported into the body of an old man—unbalanced, shaky, spastic, and half-paralyzed. Overnight, he was plunged into a world of brain surgeons, nurses, insurance case managers, and an abundance of therapists.

The stories in this book are about women who are married to, or were once partnered with, men on the mild end of the autism spectrum, formerly known as Asperger’s syndrome. These women are not autistic, so their relationships are considered neurodiverse (meaning there’s a neurotypical person in a relationship with a neurodivergent person). The focus within the stories is Cassandra Syndrome. A very life-altering phenomenon that often occurs—and usually remains unaddressed—within these relationships.

EL ENIGMA MÉDICO Paulina Wulff Una joven entra por urgencias convencida de que algo grave ocurre en su cuerpo. Lo que no imagina es que está a punto de enfrentar el capítulo más oscuro de su vida: pérdida de fuerza, colapso neurológico, imposibilidad para tragar, una voz que se quiebra y una mente atrapada detrás de palabras que no pueden salir. Mientras su cuerpo cae, los diagnósticos se multiplican… pero ninguno explica lo que está viviendo. La medicina la etiqueta, la minimiza y la invalida, hasta que una serie de hallazgos inesperados comienzan a revelarse uno tras otro. ¿...

Cosa significa vivere con un cervello che corre più veloce del mondo intorno? In questo libro, Luca Donato racconta con ironia e sincerità la sua vita con il disturbo da deficit di attenzione e iperattività, l'ADHD: un continuo equilibrio tra entusiasmo e fatica, creatività e disordine, energia incontenibile e sensi di colpa. Dall'infanzia irrequieta agli imprevisti quotidiani, dalle sfide sul lavoro alle relazioni affettive, l'autore ci accompagna in un viaggio fatto di inciampi e scoperte, mostrando come la diagnosi non sia un punto d'arrivo, ma l'inizio di una nuova comprensione di sé.

What would it be like to see everyone as a friend? Twelve-year-old Eli D'Angelo has a genetic disorder that obliterates social inhibitions, making him irrepressibly friendly, indiscriminately trusting, and unconditionally loving toward everyone he meets. It also makes him enormously vulnerable. Eli lacks the innate skepticism that will help his peers navigate adolescence more safely - and vastly more successfully.

#1 International Bestseller When Owen met Haatchi, the lives of one adorable little boy and one great, big dog were destined to change forever. Owen-known to his family as "little buddy" or "Little B"-has a rare genetic disorder that leaves him largely confined to a wheelchair. Before being...

Musical director and arranger David Loud, a legendary Broadway talent, recounts his wildly entertaining and deeply poignant trek through the wilderness of his childhood and the edge-of-your-seat drama of a career on, in, under, and around Broadway for decades. He reveals his struggle against the ravages of Parkinson's and triumphs repeatedly. This memoir is also a remarkable love letter to music. Loud is the Ted Lasso of the theater business, ever the optimist!