THEN IT WAS MY TURN

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>When a rare disease strikes without warning one engineer's unremarkable life becomes a two-decade battle for survival-and understanding.</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>In 2000 Bradley King was living a comfortable ordinary life as an engineer. Then strange skin lesions appeared followed by years of misdiagnoses failed treatments and devastating physical decline. What he was experiencing was </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>pyoderma gangrenosum</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>-a rare dysfunction of the immune system affecting only 3-10 people per million annually. Even among this uncommon population his case was considered severe enough and atypical enough to perplex and even traumatize experienced specialists.</span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Then It Was My Turn</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)> offers what medical journals cannot: an honest unflinching account of living with a diagnosis of exclusion disease-one where every other possibility must be ruled out before the correct diagnosis emerges often too late to prevent catastrophic harm.</span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>This memoir is for:</strong></p><ul><li><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Newly diagnosed pyoderma gangrenosum patients seeking to understand what lies ahead</span></li><li><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Family members supporting loved ones through chronic illness</span></li><li><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Medical professionals wanting the patient perspective</span></li><li><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Anyone navigating the challenges of rare disease and disability</span></li></ul><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>King writes in plain English accessible to general readers while maintaining sufficient medical detail to inform healthcare professionals. He chronicles not only the physical devastation of an aggressive disease but also the psychological impact the erosion of career and the slow difficult process of coming to terms with permanent difficulties caused by a disease that could only be managed and not cured.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Beyond the medical narrative King reflects on how suffering transformed his capacity for empathy and his understanding of chance fate and the brief nature of human existence. </span><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>His philosophical insights provide perspective without descending into self-pity or false optimism.</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Twenty years after his symptoms began King offers this account before crucial details fade-written for a community that rarely shares their experiences publicly. This memoir provides solidarity to those facing their own unwanted transformations and illuminates the vast often invisible population coping with serious health challenges in our society.</span></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Honest. Unflinching. Essential reading for anyone touched by rare disease.</strong></p><p></p>