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9781959770152

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Through her incredible writing, Jackie genuinely and selflessly shares the raw details of her journey with autoimmune encephalitis. As the father of an AE survivor, I understand the common feelings of loneliness and emptiness in not having anywhere to turn in such an unrelatable disease. I have cried along with strangers, and I shed tears while turning the pages of Unwillable. Unwillable will help those suffering through loneliness and give them hope. While we're making strides to identify and treat AE, it's not happening fast enough. The best we have right now is hope. And Jackie's story brings hope. The AE world needs Jackie, and it needs Unwillable. -William Gavigan, father of an AE survivor and Chairman of the Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance Unwillable is a brave and powerful book. Jackie Stebbins, a brilliant, driven young lawyer, wife, and mother, shares the devastating story of her illness with autoimmune encephalitis, a rare autoimmune brain disease, and her amazing recovery. As the mother of a son with autoimmune encephalitis, I found our story in Jackie's story. Jackie vividly describes her journey so that we experience what it feels like to descend into this rare illness's terror, pain, and uncertainty. Like Jackie, our son was cared for by Dr. McKeon at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic. Reading about Jackie's Mayo trip brought back to me the feelings of relief, hope, and grief that we felt when we went to Mayo and found a doctor who said, I know what is wrong; we can treat the illness, and it will take a very, very long time to recover. In her book, Jackie shows us how she found the way through this darkness and how she found the way forward into a new life-a brilliant woman, wife, mother, and advocate who is showing other people who face autoimmune encephalitis how to keep standing. I am grateful to be an autoimmune encephalitis warrior with Jackie! -Helen Egger MD (co-founder of the Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance) In Unwillable, Jackie Stebbins takes you through her harrowing battle with autoimmune encephalitis. Piecing together her own story from memory, medical records, interviews and the handwritten journals she kept during her illness, Stebbins shines a light on a little-known and even less understood medical condition. In documenting her descent into illness and road to recovery, she pulls her readers into her story as she tries to first find out what's wrong with her and then find out what that diagnosis actually means, not just medically but for her life going forward. Stebbins engages readers through the unflinching honesty, attention to detail and palpable willpower that she displays both in facing her illness and in her storytelling. -Maria Burns Ortiz, co-author NYT bestseller My Fight/Your Fight This wonderful book tells the wrenching true story of Jackie Stebbins, a rising legal star in North Dakota, whose career was cruelly cut short by a little-known disease, Autoimmune Encephalitis. The book-conceived as she began to see hope of recovery rather than expectation of imminent death-takes the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions. It is a gripping story, analogous to a legal/medical thriller. I found it sometimes painful to read about the impacts of this dreadful disease on Jackie's body, mind and spirit, but it is also inspiring and hopeful. Through Jackie's exquisite unsparing writing, we see how she progressed from being a farm kid in far southwest North Dakota to becoming one of North Dakota's best and most successful lawyers and a rising political star at a very young age. We see how she built the life for which she had worked so hard (dream house, loving husband and children, dream car, co-owner of a thriving law firm). And then we share her suffering as she abruptly lost her health, her law career, and why she feared -- realistically -- she would even lose her life. We almost stop breathing as we follow her painful journey and her belated discovery that her crises were due to an ...

Through her incredible writing, Jackie genuinely and selflessly shares the raw details of her journey with autoimmune encephalitis. As the father of an AE survivor, I understand the common feelings of loneliness and emptiness in not having anywhere to turn in such an unrelatable disease. I have cried along with strangers, and I shed tears while turning the pages of Unwillable. Unwillable will help those suffering through loneliness and give them hope. While we're making strides to identify and treat AE, it's not happening fast enough. The best we have right now is hope. And Jackie's story brings hope. The AE world needs Jackie, and it needs Unwillable. -William Gavigan, father of an AE survivor and Chairman of the Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance Unwillable is a brave and powerful book. Jackie Stebbins, a brilliant, driven young lawyer, wife, and mother, shares the devastating story of her illness with autoimmune encephalitis, a rare autoimmune brain disease, and her amazing recovery. As the mother of a son with autoimmune encephalitis, I found our story in Jackie's story. Jackie vividly describes her journey so that we experience what it feels like to descend into this rare illness's terror, pain, and uncertainty. Like Jackie, our son was cared for by Dr. McKeon at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic. Reading about Jackie's Mayo trip brought back to me the feelings of relief, hope, and grief that we felt when we went to Mayo and found a doctor who said, I know what is wrong; we can treat the illness, and it will take a very, very long time to recover. In her book, Jackie shows us how she found the way through this darkness and how she found the way forward into a new life-a brilliant woman, wife, mother, and advocate who is showing other people who face autoimmune encephalitis how to keep standing. I am grateful to be an autoimmune encephalitis warrior with Jackie! -Helen Egger MD (co-founder of the Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance) In Unwillable, Jackie Stebbins takes you through her harrowing battle with autoimmune encephalitis. Piecing together her own story from memory, medical records, interviews, and the handwritten journals she kept during her illness, Stebbins shines a light on a little-known and even less understood medical condition. In documenting her descent into illness and road to recovery, she pulls her readers into her story as she tries to first find out what's wrong with her and then find out what that diagnosis actually means, not just medically but for her life going forward. Stebbins engages readers through the unflinching honesty, attention to detail and palpable willpower that she displays both in facing her illness and in her storytelling. -Maria Burns Ortiz, co-author NYT bestseller My Fight/Your Fight Through her incredible writing, Jackie genuinely and selflessly shares the raw details of her journey with autoimmune encephalitis. As the father of an AE survivor, I understand the common feelings of loneliness and emptiness in not having anywhere to turn in such an unrelatable disease. I have cried along with strangers, and I shed tears while turning the pages of Unwillable. Unwillable will help those suffering through loneliness and give them hope. While we're making strides to identify and treat AE, it's not happening fast enough. The best we have right now is hope. And Jackie's story brings hope. The AE world needs Jackie, and it needs Unwillable.-William Gavigan, father of an AE survivor and Chairman of the Autoimmune Encephalitis AllianceUnwillable is a brave and powerful book. Jackie Stebbins, a brilliant, driven young lawyer, wife, and mother, shares the devastating story of her illness with autoimmune encephalitis, a rare autoimmune brain disease, and her amazing recovery. As the mother of a son with autoimmune encephalitis, I found our story in Jackie's story. Jackie vividly describes her journey so that we experience what it feels like to descend into this rare illness's terror, pain, and uncertainty. Like Jackie, our son was cared for by Dr. McKeon at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic. Reading about Jackie's Mayo trip brought back to me the feelings of relief, hope, and grief that we felt when we went to Mayo and found a doctor who said, I know what is wrong; we can treat the illness, and it will take a very, very long time to recover. In her book, Jackie shows us how she found the way through this darkness and how she found the way forward into a new life-a brilliant woman, wife, mother, and advocate who is showing other people who face autoimmune encephalitis how to keep standing. I am grateful to be an autoimmune encephalitis warrior with Jackie!-Helen Egger MD (co-founder of the Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance)In Unwillable, Jackie Stebbins takes you through her harrowing battle with autoimmune encephalitis. Piecing together her own story from memory, medical records, interviews and the handwritten journals she kept during her illness, Stebbins shines a light on a little-known and even less understood medical condition. In documenting her descent into illness and road to recovery, she pulls her readers into her story as she tries to first find out what's wrong with her and then find out what that diagnosis actually means, not just medically but for her life going forward. Stebbins engages readers through the unflinching honesty, attention to detail and palpable willpower that she displays both in facing her illness and in her storytelling.-Maria Burns Ortiz, co-author NYT bestseller My Fight/Your FightThis wonderful book tells the wrenching true story of Jackie Stebbins, a rising legal star in North Dakota, whose career was cruelly cut short by a little-known disease, Autoimmune Encephalitis. The book-conceived as she began to see hope of recovery rather than expectation of imminent death-takes the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions. It is a gripping story, analogous to a legal/medical thriller. I found it sometimes painful to read about the impacts of this dreadful disease on Jackie's body, mind and spirit, but it is also inspiring and hopeful.

Author Information

Jackie M. Stebbins was living her dream as a nationally recognized family law, criminal defense, and civil litigator. But Stebbins' career as a lawyer abruptly ended in May 2018, when she was diagnosed with a rare brain illness, autoimmune encephalitis. Stebbins persevered to make a remarkable recovery and turned herself into an author and motivational speaker. Stebbins is the author of the JM Stebbins blog and host of the Brain Fever podcast. Stebbins's side hustle includes raising three lovely children with her wonderful husband, Sean, in Bismarck, North Dakota. In her leisure time she can be found reading, trying to be funny, and aqua jogging.

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