Shattered By Strep – Tour Sign Ups

Shattered by Strep:

A Medical Mystery of Sudden Illness, a Child Changed Beyond Recognition, and the Search for Why

by Elyse Manning

Genre: Medical Memoir

Identical twins. Same camp. Same cabin. One came home as herself. The other came home as a stranger.

“Get it out of my head!”Twelve-year-old Liv screamed it in the car after summer camp, striking her own temple with her fist.

Four weeks earlier, she had been “the Mayor,” the funny, bossy twin who ran every party. Now she wouldn’t eat, couldn’t stop blinking, and exploded in rages that seemed to come from nowhere. Within weeks, she had lost almost a fifth of her body weight.

Everyone saw an eating disorder. Her mother saw a child who had changed almost overnight, and she kept asking why. The search for answers eventually led to PANDAS/PANS, a little-known condition associated with immune responses to infections, including something as common as strep.

Shattered by Strep is a gripping medical mystery and a fiercely honest memoir about a mother who refused to accept an incomplete answer, a twin sister who carried more than anyone knew, and a family that learned that shattered is not the same as gone.

Every parent should read it before they need it.