<![CDATA[Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood]]>

false <![CDATA[Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165443835m/4507.jpg 4507 13 A young girl is perched on the cold chrome of yet another doctor’s examining table, missing yet another day of school. Just twelve, she’s tall, skinny, and weak. It’s four o’clock, and she hasn’t been allowed to eat anything all day. Her mother, on the other hand, seems curiously excited. She's about to suggest open-heart surgery on her child to "get to the bottom of this." She checks her teeth for lipstick and, as the doctor enters, shoots the girl a warning glance. This child will not ruin her plans. Sickened From early childhood, Julie Gregory was continually X-rayed, medicated, and operated on—in the vain pursuit of an illness that was created in her mother’s mind. Munchausen by proxy (MBP) is the world’s most hidden and dangerous form of child abuse, in which the caretaker—almost always the mother—invents or induces symptoms in her child because she craves the attention of medical professionals. Many MBP children die, but Julie Gregory not only survived, she escaped the powerful orbit of her mother's madness and rebuilt her identity as a vibrant, healthy young woman. Sickened is a remarkable memoir that speaks in an original and distinctive Midwestern voice, rising to indelible scenes in prose of scathing beauty and fierce humor. Punctuated with Julie's actual medical records, it re-creates the bizarre cocoon of her family's isolated double-wide trailer, their wild shopping sprees and gun-waving confrontations, the astonishing naïveté of medical professionals and social workers. It also exposes the twisted bonds of terror and love that roped Julie's family together—including the love that made a child willing to sacrifice herself to win her mother's happiness. The realization that the sickness lay in her mother, not in herself, would not come to Julie until adulthood. But when it did, it would strike like lightning. Through her painful metamorphosis, she discovered the courage to save her own life—and, ultimately, the life of the girl her mother had found to replace her. Sickened takes us to new places in the human heart and spirit. It is an unforgettable story, unforgettably told. 1370491 30 9 2003 Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood total:1179|5:196|4:422|3:406|2:123|1:32| 1179 4164 2070 205 2 1 false false Sun Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 22 16:38:02 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 16:38:02 -0700 2009 Once more...]]> 5 3 false false Tue Jul 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 18:14:48 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 22 00:25:08 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Aug 26 20:02:26 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 20:02:40 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 23 20:31:59 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 30 20:49:53 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 1 false false Sat Aug 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 10 17:18:18 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 10 17:29:40 -0700 2008
T...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 13 20:20:57 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 13 20:21:12 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Sun Jan 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 24 16:43:35 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 05 12:22:14 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Mon Feb 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 01:53:06 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 01:55:09 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 09:38:08 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 10:21:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jun 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 12:40:18 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 14:35:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Dec 02 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 10 22:37:49 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 02 13:45:10 -0800 2008
The dysfunctional family memoir isn't my usual genre, but this one sucked me in and held me until the end. Or nearly the end. The "house of mirrors" ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 10:21:44 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 07:37:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Wed Feb 04 12:33:33 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 12:36:32 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Aug 06 16:26:17 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 06 16:28:09 -0700 2007 4 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Jul 10 19:20:59 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 03 11:29:25 -0800 2007
i thought this book was really well done, the painful story was told beautifully and compassionately.]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jun 05 11:00:02 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 05 11:03:00 -0700 2007 1 1 false false Sat Oct 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 28 17:15:46 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 28 17:15:46 -0700 2008 1 4 0 false false Mon Jul 27 05:47:08 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 05:47:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat May 23 06:15:10 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 04:20:18 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 06:15:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 18:36:24 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 18:58:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=4507