Title: Fighting to Survive: My Nightmare of Pudendal Neuralgia and Entrapment
Author: Judy Rentz
Publisher: Xulon Press
ISBN: 978-1662831966
Genre: Memoir, Christian, Health
Pages: 72
Reviewed by: Lily Amanda
Hollywood Book Reviews
Fighting to Survive is a delicate and compelling memoir by author Judy Rentz. It is a painful but relentless account of the author’s struggle with pudendal neuralgia, a long-term pelvic pain that originates from damage or irritation of the pudendal nerve. In June 2007, Judy began experiencing terrible pain that consequently led her to seek medical help in the hope of finding answers and a possible cure. She takes readers through the painful tests she went through, the MRIs, neurological exams, the X-rays she underwent including the numbing medicine and steroids she began taking right from the onset.
The disease was difficult to diagnose and the callousness the medical practitioners at times displayed towards her weighed her down tremendously. She sheds a light on the seasons of hopelessness, despair and the anguish the disease put her through and how she learned to lean on the Word of God for strength and help as she learned to cope with the ailment. Judy asserts that the many months of devastating pain brought her to a more intimate closeness to God than she had ever known, despite the battle.
Fighting to Survive is a story of unwavering faith in God and an unrelenting fight to live and survive. The memoir is full of meaning and purpose. Through her writing, Judy does not seek to be sympathized upon but to create awareness of this cruel disease and how to live with it. Her persistence to find answers to her predicament is inspiring and her faith in God endearing as well. It is a passionate story told from the heart and readers will inevitably go through different emotions as they read her story. One of the key themes of the book is to be thankful even in times of struggle and pain. The author asserts that there is hope and life even after a shattering diagnosis and numerous surgeries.
Fighting to Survive by Judy Rentz is an inspiring memoir that will help up readers’ resilience during those times that resilience is needed most.