Chronic illnesses can be painful. Worse, if it's a disability that has just made itself known to its host. The next thing that commonly happens is that it becomes a lifetime disability that can be both painful for the one who has it and their family. It leads to frustration, confusion, and misunderstandings that might be rooted in what the person feels about their illness.
What can the person then do? What will life look like afterward, and how can they overcome such a predicament? Well, author Stephen F. Knapp's memoir is not only an account of his life but also about his illness and more.
Don't Ask Me How I Feel-I Have Sclerosis (2018) is Stephen F. Knapp's memoir of his life and slow descent into discovering his illness and, eventually, an impending disability. His life changed when his doctor told him that his MRI showed that he had multiple sclerosis. I labelled him as a ticking time bomb waiting for its time. Since then, he began to feel the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, tightening the grip on his body and plunging him into a myriad of strange feelings that left him in denial and depression. The story does not just end there, however, as Knapp reveals more of his illness and how he has noticed the mild symptoms of his illness ever since he was a child. Upon realizing that it didn't occur to him that the pains he was feeling were already the result of the illness that intended to eat him whole, He went unnoticed for 50 years before it finally got to him.
Knapp's memoir is one of those that bluntly tells us about the realities of these illnesses and how one's life can be impacted quickly. Even transcending from physical to mental aspects, His account narrates the life of someone whose life was turned upside down and his discovery of himself through the pains he felt during his lifetime. It's not just a story of how he got there, but also a journey to what he did about it and why there is a need to talk about it, raising awareness about undiscovered illnesses and mild symptoms. It also opens the topic of life after the diagnosis and the changes he had to go through, including losing everything he loved the most. Readers will learn a lot from Knapp and his story, as they immerse themselves in a true-to-life story of a man who cannot be put down.
The author, Stephen F. Knapp, is a man of many talents. He has three college degrees in various subjects, making him an important community member, even teaching golf to country club members in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The book's main purpose was to only tell of his multiple sclerosis experiences. However, he realized that there was more to be told than just that as he went on. Thus, the book covers the diagnosis and feelings, perceptions, and origins that make readers understand the disability or the slow-moving disease.