A Family Disease: A Memoir of Multigenerational Ataxia

Dana Creighton and her mother both were affected by the same inherited cerebellar degeneration, known as ataxia--a loss of control over body movements. Both were treated by a healthcare system that failed them in different ways. Yet their experiences were disparate. Creighton eventually found the right tools to piece together meaning in her life; her mother resisted accepting her condition, in part because doctors repeatedly said nothing was wrong with her. Twenty-five years after her mother's suicide, Creighton's memoir finds striking similarities and differences in their lives and traces a lineage of family trauma. Drawing on research in neuroplasticity, medical records, personal correspondence and genealogy, the author highlights the gap between the lived experience of a debilitating ailment and the impersonal aims of clinicians. She shows how the stories parents tell themselves about living with a genetic disorder influences how they communicate it to their children.

• | Author: Dana Lorene Creighton
• | Publisher: Toplight Books
• | Publication Date: January 11, 2021
• | Number of Pages: 202 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1476683182
• | ISBN-13: 9781476683188