Understanding Rose's story by reading a book

Recently, I've been doing research on a friends's family. His grandmother Rose was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in her early 40s, around the time when her only child was graduating from high school. The disease went into remission for a short while but by the time Rose was in her late 50s, her husband no longer could provide the specialized care she needed. Rose moved into the local nursing home, where her husband visited her every day. 

Whenever her out-of-state grandsons visited, Rose always reminded them that she once was a registered nurse. Clearly, her status as an RN meant a lot to her, especially since the boys only saw her disabled body lying in a hospital bed in a depressing nursing home. Unlike some of her peers, Rose graduated from high school and was accepted as a nursing student at a hospital 30 miles away. It was one of the few careers open to women at the time. The hospital, like many others, expected much of their female students. Besides studying, for three years the nursing students worked at the hospital before graduating. Six months later, the trained nurses had to pass a board-certified examination in order to become a Registered Nurse. Of the 102 nursing students, Rose was one of 33 who received an honor seal on her RN certificate for having an average grade of 90 percent or more in all subjects. 

Rose had fallen in love with her future husband long before she became a nurse. I know because I have a box of letters that she she wrote to her hometown beau during the entire time she lived in the hospital students' dormitory 30 miles away. Yet Rose put off marriage and having children to follow her dream of being a nurse. After all, one of the hospital rules (and other institutions like it) was that anyone who marries while in training was expelled from the nursing program. One year after she was officially an RN, Rose married.

To learn more about Rose's devastating illness, I read a book on MS by Dr. Stephen L. Hauser. It was helpful in understanding the progress of her disease. 

Part medical mystery, part autobiography, The Face Laughs While the Brain Cries is the story of multiple sclerosis (MS) and the physician-scientist determined to cure it. Even if you have no background in the sciences or a connection to the disease, this book is a compelling, engaging read. 

From his childhood memories to career highlights, Dr. Hauser explains how he became interested in MS, the highs and lows of his research, and how complicated it is to bring new drugs to market. He takes us from patients’ bedsides to his laboratory, following clues of how MS affects the body and brain. Besides his medical investigations, Hauser also explores the issues of animal research, blind studies, and even the politics of which diseases and studies receive funding. Throughout, this book expresses Dr. Hauser’s compassion and dedication, the gold standard of medicine.

Prerelease book provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for review consideration.