Carolyn Swift Furdek

Locked-in Carolyn Swift Furdek

A memoir that appeals to a broad audience to include: civilians, veterans, educators, healthcare providers and families alike in hopes to enlighten and encourage those suffering and those treating someone with invisible wounds. The story takes the reader from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, through the military and civilian psychiatric systems, and finally to the fight that remains on the home front. Carolyn's journey follows her lingering battle over the course of a decade that leaves the medical community and her family struggling for answers and an accurate diagnosis and treatment that will alleviate her symptoms. Her chance encounter with a doctor in her home town eleven years after she returns home from the desert leads to long sought after answers and a successful treatment plan that has finally released her from the mental health struggles that held her back for so many years. Carolyn and her providers now hope to share her story with others and bring her diagnosis to the forefront of the psychiatric community so others may benefit. Carolyn's resilience and internal drive are evident throughout the story. The reader will easily follow and embrace her narrative and find her honesty and raw emotions capturing yet inspirational. "If this story helps just one it will have been worth it"