Between the Episodes: Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe cyclic vomiting syndrome, with its repeated attacks of vomiting and well stretches between them. Before a name, writers were told it was acidity, food poisoning, a stomach bug that kept coming back, an eating disorder or cannabis use, and one family in Lagos believed someone had done this to her. The contributors include a diesel mechanic, a shipyard welder on contracts abroad, an accountant who hid nine years of attacks from his office in Osaka, a pharmacy worker, a bike courier, a touring bass player, a dental hygienist whose own enamel suffered, a seventeen-year-old sick on the football pitch, and the parent of a six-year-old who missed forty days of first grade. They write from Pune to Pittsburgh, Karachi to Hobart. Treatments include a nightly preventive tablet and its dry mouth, a nasal spray that works only if taken early, sedation through the worst of an attack, a specialist's letter for the emergency department, needles, breathing exercises, and therapy for the fear between episodes. Daily life covers fasting months, business travel, student nights out, handing a teenager her own folder of care, and partners learning to help. Outcomes are mixed. One writer has gone almost two years without an attack and doesn't trust it yet; another, eleven years in, says nothing has fully worked.

Who it's for

For people living with cyclic vomiting syndrome or still waiting for a name, parents of children who keep missing school, and the partners and relatives who sit up through the attacks.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 275 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.