Months of Medicine: NTM Lung Disease Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe NTM lung disease, a long-lasting lung infection caused by bacteria that live in soil and water. Many lived with a cough for years first, called bronchitis, asthma, COPD or, for a pharmacist in Pune, the wrong infection altogether. They include a retired steelworker, a hotel housekeeper checking her eyes on the coloured dot test, a joiner whose urine turned orange, a choir alto whose voice suffered on an inhaled drug, an office worker whose skin bronzed on clofazimine, a florist with a seven-door pill box, a woman of eighty living alone with fifteen tablets, people with cystic fibrosis, Crohn's or HIV, and the husbands and daughters who drive and sort the pills, from Cork to Chennai and Osaka to Honolulu. Writers describe three-drug courses, ringing ears, weight loss, kidney numbers on IV amikacin, a PICC line, a chest-shaking vest, pulmonary rehab, cost, planning around Ramadan, selling a hot tub, a second opinion that changed the diagnosis and surgery to remove a lobe. Some finished treatment and stayed clear. Others did not: one woman's cultures have not cleared yet, another's came back after a clear year, one man stopped his tablets in secret, one woman was told the aim was to manage the infection, and a man of seventy-nine chose fewer pills with his doctor's agreement.

Who it's for

For anyone just diagnosed with MAC or another NTM infection, people in the long middle of treatment, and the husbands, daughters and friends who drive, cook and keep the pill charts.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 285 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.