Patient: The True Story of a Rare Illness

In 1992, British pop star Watt entered a London hospital with symptoms the doctors couldn't explain. After days and nights of excruciating pain, endless tests, an operation to remove 85% of his rotting small intestine and weeks of recuperation and setback in the Intensive Therapy Unit, he learned he had an extremely rare and potentially fatal autoimmune disease called Churg-Strauss Syndrome. He chronicles here his nightmarish experiences with humor and an admirable lack of self-pity as he experiences the shock of learning he is seriously ill, adjusts to hospital life, accepts that his life has changed forever and finally goes home, emaciated and disoriented but determined to resume his career. His engrossing account is painful yet poetic, written in a stream-of-consciousness style in which he listens to the ""ceaseless stream and current of thoughts and words, babbling and pulling through all our waking hours"" and observes the reactions of those around him, especially his mother and his partner, Tracey, who never leave his side, and his father, who is unable to deal with the situation. (Apr.)