FREE DOWNLOAD – see instructions and links at the bottom of the page
After a couple of false starts (or in this case “false ends”) my book “Wrestling The Octopus – The Diary of an IBD Patient” has been updated to 2021. Several times I had thought it was complete only to find that some new, unexpected experience warranted adding an extra chapter or two.
What’s the book about? It charts the 40+ years from my diagnosis with Crohn’s Disease up to the start of this new decade. It is not intended to lay out a plan for living with the disease but I hope you find that some of the situations described and the ways of coping with them (or not) may help you with come up with your own methods to manage your disease.
The book has been adapted and expanded from the original online journal that I started writing more than a decade ago. Why did I start? Wind the clock back to Summer 2010. I was going to be away from work for an extended period whilst undergoing surgery. A colleague made an off-the-cuff remark that she would like to know how I was getting on whilst away so why not try blogging? She thought it might also prove interesting to other IBD patients who were about to follow a similar path. As the list of individual posts grew it seemed sensible to amalgamate them into a narrative and take the opportunity to cull some of the more long-winded or repetitive sections.
To fill in the years up to 2010 I obtained my medical records all the way back to diagnosis. They have allowed me to reconstruct the whole story and answer some of the questions that I have had for a long time. The research and writing have proved very therapeutic. I believe it has helped me cope with various new conditions that have arisen and I would recommend it to anyone suffering from a chronic illness.
Who is it aimed at? Some of the chapters are Crohn’s-specific, but others contain information that may be useful to anyone with a long-term condition; about to undergo the same tests; or approaching surgery. Hopefully, it will also prove of interest to medical professionals wanting an insight into the thinking and attitudes of a long term NHS patient.
If you have any questions, comments or feedback I can be contacted @crohnoid on Twitter.
eBook formats are available below. To open on a Kindle I had to email the downloaded file to my Kindle email address and it then appeared in my library.
“On the Kindle mobile app, tap the “More” tab at the bottom, and then click “Settings” next to the gear icon. There you’ll find your “Send-to-Kindle Email Address” listed towards the top. You can also locate your Kindle email address on your Kindle device”
mobi format :
www.wrestlingtheoctopus.com/Book/Wrestling_The_Octopus.mobi
azw3 format (best for using on a Kindle) :
www.wrestlingtheoctopus.com/Book/Wrestling_The_Octopus.azw3
ePub format :
www.wrestlingtheoctopus.com/Book/Wrestling_The_Octopus.epub
pdf format (gives best looking output on a desktop or iPad) :