Model Patient: My Life As An Incurable Wise-Ass - Hardcover

Duffy, Karen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060197250 ISBN 13: 9780060197254

Publisher: William Morrow, 2000

Synopsis

Not long ago, Karen Duffy was sitting on top of the world and loving it. From calling bingo in a nursing home, she'd taken the express elevator to the penthouse overlooking success street. She worked as a VJ on MTV, as a spokesmodel for Revlon, as a film actress in Dumb and Dumber and other movies, and as a correspondent on Michael Moore's irreverent, Emmy-winning TV Nation. She was selected as one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" in the same year she won the Ernest Borgnine Look-alike Contest.

But suddenly Duffy's whirlwind life of celebrity parties and socializing with friends from George Clooney to Jim Carrey to Richard Gere came to an abrupt, grinding halt when she was stricken with a serious illness in one of its rarest forms: sarcoidosis of the central nervous system. The disease left her partially paralyzed, in tremendous pain, and at times near death.

Although she had a serious disease, Duffy soon realized that the only way for her to survive was not to take the disease too seriously. Instead of hiding from life, she chose to run toward it. She learned to embrace the chaos of a life-threatening disease with a wit and humor that helped her to find the love of her life at a time when things seemed darkest.

Model Patient is a gripping, inspiring, and hilarious memoir that recounts the singular triumphs and tragedies of coping with a chronic, life-threatening disease.

Model Patient is an unforgettable, illumnating story that captures Duff's indomitable joie de vivre, revealing how she lives and how she has survived.

About this title

About the Author

Karen Duffy continues to model for Revlon, tour the country as a women's health advocate, and report for Michael Moore's new show, The Awful Truth. She lives with her husband in New York City.

Reviews

Maybe the world needs more wise-assery. Judging by Duffy's exemplary case of the quality, it definitely does. The MTV VJ-turned-model was in her thirties when she attended the Emmy Awards with George Clooney despite a nasty headache that had grown increasingly worse. After progressive numbness made normal motions impossible, she flew to a New York doctor for help. The diagnosis was sarcoidosis, which causes soft body parts to develop hard, grainy spots that impair the functioning of whatever organ they strike. Duffy maintained a sassy, genuinely upbeat attitude that many of the less afflicted might emulate. When restricted to bed and apartment and too weak to cook, she ordered take-out, donned a ball gown, and invited friends over for company. When large doses of steroids restored mobility, they also created irritability, insatiable appetite, and facial hair, and dates expecting a lovely model instead encountered an irate, tubby woman with a beard. If laughter is the best medicine, Duffy shows that laughing at debility is better yet. Whitney Scott
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Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0060197250
• ISBN 13: 9780060197254
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272