Chasing My Cure

August 1, 2019
A Pennsylvania physician races to find a cure for his rare illness. In this moving memoir, Fajgenbaum (Medicine/Univ. of Pennsylvania) details his harrowing bout with a rare disorder called Castleman disease, which invades lymph node tissue and systematically wreaks havoc on major organ function. He amiably describes his early days on medical school rotations nervously fumbling through infant deliveries and delivering proactive patient care. As the son of an extroverted orthopedic surgeon, expectations were high, and there was a lot of ground to cover in a field he pursued with "reckless intensity" after his beloved mother succumbed to cancer when he was a teenager. Throughout the book, Fajgenbaum writes with consistent urgency and great emotion about how his mother's illness inspired his future livelihood: "I was impaled by my mother's death," he writes. While in medical school, he noticed his energy flagging and a group of troubling symptoms, including skin lumps and severe abdominal pain. After more than a month of inconclusive tests and near-fatal conditions, Fajgenbaum remained without a diagnosis but suddenly began temporarily stabilizing. Doctors finally reached a determination of Castleman disease, which carried an uncertain and possibly fatal prognosis. The author, a former weight lifter and Georgetown quarterback, recognized this personal health conundrum as a challenge he was more than prepared to tackle. As he began dedicating his medical career to unlocking the mysteries of the disease, his research and his work with other sufferers would also teach him about hope, about his capacities and limitations as a doctor, and about the "often unfair disconnect between the best that science can offer and our fragile longevity." Offering a distinctively uncommon perspective on disease and doctoring, Fajgenbaum also writes earnestly and frankly about the unique brand of humility one must accept as a medicinal healer with a mysterious, possibly deadly malady. A powerful, highly personal chronicle of a doctor's feverish rush to find a cure for the disease that afflicts him.

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September 9, 2019
Fajgenbaum, a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, chronicles a mysterious disease previously neglected by the medical community in this remarkable memoir. When Fajgenbaum, the son of an orthopedic surgeon father, entered the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, he still believed strongly in the power of medicine “to find answers and cures,” despite the recent death of his mother from brain cancer. However, during his medical studies, he began feeling fatigued, and was eventually diagnosed with Castleman Disease, a rare malady that attacks the vital organs. Fajgenbaum writes lucidly and movingly as both a patient and physician. He was placed on a regimen of one of the only drugs available for the disease, but became bereft when he suffered a relapse; he then vividly recalls his decision—along with a team of cutting-edge researchers—to infuse himself with the experimental drug siltuximab, which had not yet been approved by the FDA. Five years later, he now serves as an advocate for research into a disease that affects 6,000 people a year. Fajgenbaum’s stirring account of his illness will inspire readers.

August 1, 2019
While attending medical school, a young man develops a mysterious illness. Symptoms include profound fatigue, night sweats, enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, and eruptions of blood moles on his skin. He experiences multiple organ system failure involving the liver, kidneys, heart, and bone marrow. Eventually he is diagnosed with idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease?a very rare condition described by the author as occupying "a no-man's-land between autoimmune diseases and cancers." Fajgenbaum, the doctor-turned-patient, chronicles the many challenges of coping with a complex disease and his quest for a cure. At times his treatment includes multiagent chemotherapy, high doses of steroids, transfusions, dialysis, and experimental drug regimens. He becomes a potent advocate for himself and other patients by performing research and cofounding a collaborative network focusing on Castleman disease. Fajgenbaum examines the uncertainty and vulnerability experienced by those caught in the realm of sickness. He highlights the inestimable importance of willpower, hope, and the support of family and friends as he recounts how serious illness can mutate any previous perception of normal life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)