The release date for the English version of 'Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood' by
Julie Gregory is Sep 2003. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
A little girl is missing yet another school day as she sits on the chilly chrome of yet another doctor's examination table. She's tall, thin, and frail for just twelve. She hasn't been permitted to eat anything all day, and it is now four o'clock. In contrast, her mother seems oddly thrilled. She's going to advise her kid to have open heart surgery in order to "get to the bottom of this." She gives the girl a warning look as the doctor arrives and examines her teeth for lipstick. Her ambitions won't be ruined by this kid.
Horrified
Julie Gregory was subjected to repeated X-rays, medications, and surgeries starting at a young age, all in an attempt to treat a condition that her mother had imagined. The most serious and covert kind of child abuse in the world is known as Munchausen by proxy (MBP), when the caregiver—always the mother—creates or intensifies symptoms in her kid in order to get the attention of medical personnel. Julie Gregory is one of the many MBP children who survives. She not only breaks out from her mother's insane circle, but she also regains her individuality as a lively, healthy young lady.
Sickened is a fascinating memoir written in a unique, distinctive Midwestern style. It rises to unforgettable moments with sharply beautiful and fiercely funny words. It recreates the weird cocoon of Julie's family's remote double-wide trailer, their frantic shopping sprees and gun-waving confrontations, and the startling naiveté of social workers and medical experts, all interspersed with Julie's genuine medical records. The twisted links of horror and love that bound Julie's family together are also revealed, especially the love that drove a child to give her life in order to ensure her mother's pleasure.
Julie would not come to understand that her mother was the source of her illness, not herself, until she was an adult. However, when it did, it would attack quickly. She gained the bravery to save her own life—and, in the end, the life of the girl her mother had chosen to take her place—through her traumatic transformation. Sickened leads us to explore new aspects of the human soul and heart. Unforgettably recounted, it's an amazing tale.