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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Admitted and Afraid is a memoir by Maggie Boday, a trader whose sudden throat pain becomes a medical emergency after swelling alters her voice, then makes swallowing almost impossible. Her sister brings her to the emergency department, where a CT scan rules out a throat infection but leaves the medical staff baffled. Maggie is admitted as an inpatient, where her condition moves from mouth inflammation to skin spots, then to airborne isolation while doctors investigate. The leading tests come back negative, and her sisters track medical decisions, especially after a dosing error changes an antiviral course. Sleepless nights in a sealed room push her to beg for discharge, while biopsies and no answers rattle her after days of inpatient care on the ward.
Maggie Boday’s Admitted and Afraid is a medical memoir about a sudden hospitalization that would be frightening as fiction, and is terrifying because it is fact. The most distinguishing quality of the book is the strength of its author. For the life of me, I cannot imagine being moved into an isolation room built for negative pressure, completely alone except for the occasional team member in what is essentially a hazmat suit, and still have the strength to hold a small light for a doctor during a biopsy. Boday participates in her own care while terrified. I think this story is excellent for making patients feel like their circumstances are shared. Her request to stop extra IV fluid shows self-advocacy, while her insistence on nutrition shows how a patient can push care toward a plan. Well written and devastatingly immersive, this is a book worth reading.
