Dizzy A Memoir

By: Rachel Susan Weaver

Published by West Virginia University Press, 2026

"Rachel Weaver's DIZZY is a braided memoir of her time working in the backcountry of Alaska and her time in the medical world as a chronically ill patient with a mysterious illness. As a young woman, the stunning loss of Rachel's father sent her seeking the edges of adventure working on boats and in the wildness of Alaska; a stress test of sorts to be ready for the next catastrophe by keeping catastrophe close. But it wasn't the bear who stuck his head into her tent, or the shipwreck in cold Canadian waters, or the waterspout four hundred miles out in the South Sargasso Sea that brought Rachel to her knees. It was clinicians in clean white coats and an undefinable, debilitating illness. Over the course of eighteen years, Rachel would see over forty medical practitioners, face hostility and indifference, be accused of making it all up, go broke, wonder if she really was making it all up, and be subjected to endless drugs and invasive procedures in her search to learn the truth about her body. A medical mystery and a cautionary tale about our broken-down system, DIZZY is a story about perseverance in pursuit of answers, of learning to live with life's uncertainty, and the struggle to find joy in an imperfect but beautiful world"-- Provided by publisher.