Calcium on My Mind: Hypoparathyroidism Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe hypoparathyroidism, the low calcium condition that most writers here developed after thyroid or parathyroid surgery, though others were born with it, inherited it, recognised it in themselves after a son's 22q11.2 diagnosis, or found it as a late effect nobody had mentioned. Many were first told it was anxiety, the menopause or stress. The voices include an electrician in Dayton, a dairy farmer milking a hundred and ten cows, a night-shift nurse, a publican, a personal trainer, a second grade teacher, a ship's engineer, a florist in Osaka, the mother of a ten-week-old who had a seizure, and a nineteen-year-old whose relatives compare cramps at family reunions, from Leicester and Cork to Accra, Cairo and Seoul. Writers describe calcium, calcitriol and magnesium, dose changes through pregnancy and after birth, an injection pen and the letter announcing it would be discontinued, eleven letters to secure another, kidney stones, a dietitian's advice on phosphate, and a hospital that forgot their calcium during pneumonia. Daily life means a three-and-a-half-hour bus ride to the lab, empty pharmacy shelves, an evacuation bag, fasting in Ramadan and telling a first date. The harder side is plain: brain fog, exhaustion at work, a throat that closed on a train platform, and a kidney graph that slopes only one way.

Who it's for

For people living with low calcium after neck surgery or since birth, and for the parents, partners and housemates learning the warning signs and daily routines alongside them.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 279 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.