‘This Is How I Save My Life’ tells true story of long recovery

Amy Scher’s second book, “This Is How I Save My Life” published earlier this year, tells of her painfully long journey to recovery from late-stage Lyme disease. Elizabeth Gilbert (of “Eat, Pray, Love” fame) endorsed the memoir, and Scher’s book stands up to the prominent blurb written by Gilbert on the colorful front cover of the book: “Amy Scher is a brave warrior and a wonderful writer.”

After failed treatments in the U.S. at hospitals in Los Angeles, one of the top hospitals in Chicago, and even the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis, Scher decided to opt for a much more drastic option — an experimental stem cell treatment only available in India with a price tag of $30,000. But what would you do if top doctors told you your disease that caused you chronic pain was incurable and possibly terminal?

The memoir starts with Scher’s arrival in Dehli, India, with her parents to start the treatment. Chapters 2-8 chronicle each week of her eight-week treatment in India, with tales about Dehli belly (food poisoning from street vendors), multiple stem cell injections and an MRI that lasted four hours. While Scher’s memoir could benefit from more section breaks or different chapter organization altogether (her frequent flashbacks can be a bit jolting), “This Is How I Save My Life” is still an unbelievable story of a young woman’s journey that will make you laugh and cry and wonder at the power of the human body.

Scher’s last chapter jumps forward a bit, looking at the years that passed since her time in India. She chronicles more of her medical history, family events, and changes in her love life in those years. Ultimately, she wraps her incredible story with an ending that is both subtle and surprising.