Excerpts from Scrambling Back: One Woman’s Quest to Return to the Wild After Stroke and Autoimmune Disease

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Scrambling Back: One Woman’s Quest to Return to the Wild After Stroke and Autoimmune Disease is my memoir, now in the final stages of revision, about my journey into the netherworld of stroke and autoimmune disease.

How the book came to be

On that eerie Wednesday morning in 2002 when my stroke hit, I was lost in a mental whiteout, unable to remember my address, my husband’s name, or how to dial 9-1-1.

At the hospital, I didn’t believe the doctor who told me I was having a stroke. After all, I was perfectly healthy with, I thought, not a single risk factor for stroke. But there were risks, “hidden risks”–like migraine, miscarriage, common clotting disorders and autoimmune disease–that I didn’t understand.

In the year that followed my stroke, I had to relearn the alphabet, how to hold a fork, how to tie my shoes. I had to relearn to type in spite of a therapist who wanted me to braid potholders! That year I also had to learn, kicking and screaming, how to be an autoimmune patient with a serious chronic illness, taking scary-high level of blood thinner to prevent another stroke.

Far too young to “retire” after the stroke, but lacking the metal quickness to resume my public relations career, I began my search for something constructive to do. I wrote about my experience with stroke and APS, first as an exercise to regain writing skills, then with a passion to spread the word about the “hidden” risk factors for stroke in women.

Scrambling Back: One Woman’s Quest to Return to the Wild After Stroke and Autoimmune Disease is the result. Read the synopsis here.

In Fall 2017, Scrambling Back was a finalist in the William Faulkner/William Wisdom literary competition in the non-fiction book category.

 

Advance Praise for

Scrambling Back: One Woman’s Quest to Return to the Wild After Stroke and Autoimmune Disease

 

“Medical books written by patients often provide unrivalled insight into a disease. This is certainly true of Scrambling Back, a courageous, serious and yet often humorous book, written by a patient who clearly lives an exciting and fulfilling life while managing the disease. An important contribution to our understanding of what it’s really like to live with APS/Hughes syndrome.”

—Professor Graham R V Hughes MD FRCP, head of The London Lupus Centre, London
Bridge Hospital

“Talk about comebacks! A stroke survivor, adventure traveler, and self-confessed klutz, Anne Sigmon gives everyone a lesson in heroism and what it means to be intrepid. Profoundly inspiring, entertaining and informative, Scrambling Back is a must-read for anyone interested in the journey toward wellness.”

—Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Author of The Hand of Buddha and Dead Love (Stone Bridge Press, 2010)

 

“Anne Sigmon’s journey back from a stroke–she was damned if she was going to braid potholders–is a poignant story laced with humor, insight and hope. It’s also a great read.”

— Adair Lara, author of Naked, Drunk, and Writing (Ten Speed)