Overview

What if your husband gave you a kidney and you chugged a beer with your painkillers the next day? What if your loving marriage became a tortured threesome? Husband, Wife and Pills? Meet Henriette and Kevin. As newlyweds, they move to LA to conquer Hollywood. When the dream begins to fade, Henriette delves into a secret life of Pills. Diagnosed with a rejecting kidney transplant, she becomes crippled by fear. Convinced Kevin can never understand, her part-time narcotic trysts explode into a full-blown pharmaceutical affair. She is in love. Fiorinal, Vicodin, Morphine...All of them. Until onebackstabbing day, Pills lead her to her first overdose. Shattered, Kevin sacrifices his soul for his wife. He talks the ER out of a psychiatric hold. Later, he looks away when she pops Xanax on dialysis. Alone and barely holding on, Kevin believes the unconditional act of donating his kidney will save his wife's life and heal their marriage. It doesn't. The kidney rejects. There is a second overdose. Nothing seems to break Pills' obsessive hold over Henriette. But will it break Kevin? Will it break them? And after a lifetime of cheating can Henriette imagine a sober marriage of two? In Pillness and in Health sweeps its reader into the maelstrom of true love held hostage by disease. Dare to be devastated, over and over, by the relentless tornado of their story. Written with radical honesty, and startling wit, In Pillness and in Health shines new light in the dark corners of addiction and codependency, as we wonder how many devastating diseases can one marriage survive?

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9781999186302

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Reviews

...This book pulls no punches, there is no whitewashing or attempts to minimize any aspects of the heartrending journey taken by the author and her husband...At times I was in tears, reading about the hell this couple went through, by the end of the story I was in awe of their strength and love for each other. -- Karen Goodman Wong She is acid and unsparing. It's like watching a woman jump off a skyscraper: you can't look away, even as she explodes on the pavement in front of you...Why read something so harrowing? Because in that long, terrible fall, my god how she soars... -- Tim Rasmussen ...Henriette Ivanans' memoir is a vivid, no holds barred, searing account of the Hell that is addiction. The willingness she possesses as a writer -- taking us on her journey, not gratuitously, but with a passionate urgency -- is beautiful. --Amy Atwell ..It's so honest - it hurts, but Henriette Ivanans is a remarkable writer who uses words and rhythms to raise her narrative of a very difficult subject to a work readers won't be able to put down. -- Jean Riddell ..she reveals the incredible truth about having a kidney transplant as a young girl and how drugs became such an integral part of her being. She clawed her way out of addiction and her story of redemption is beautiful.

"...This book pulls no punches, there is no whitewashing or attempts to minimize any aspects of the heartrending journey taken by the author and her husband...At times I was in tears, reading about the hell this couple went through, by the end of the story I was in awe of their strength and love for each other."" -- Karen Goodman Wong ""She is acid and unsparing. It's like watching a woman jump off a skyscraper: you can't look away, even as she explodes on the pavement in front of you...Why read something so harrowing? Because in that long, terrible fall, my god how she soars..."" -- Tim Rasmussen ""...Henriette Ivanans' memoir is a vivid, no holds barred, searing account of the Hell that is addiction. The willingness she possesses as a writer -- taking us on her journey, not gratuitously, but with a passionate urgency -- is beautiful."" --Amy Atwell ""..It's so honest - it hurts, but Henriette Ivanans is a remarkable writer who uses words and rhythms to raise her narrative of a very difficult subject to a work readers won't be able to put down. -- Jean Riddell ""..she reveals the incredible truth about having a kidney transplant as a young girl and how drugs became such an integral part of her being. She clawed her way out of addiction and her story of redemption is beautiful."""

Author Information

In Pillness and in Health is Ms. Ivanans' first book. She won the Allegra Johnson Award in Memoir Writing (UCLA Writers' Extension) (2015). Her essay, Alcohol May Intensify Effect was published in Issue 19 of Barrelhouse magazine (2019). Her essay, My Soul Mate is a Kidney-Transplanted Woman Half My Age can be found at www.rsnhope.org. (2019) She is currently working on her next book How 5 Hounds Healed a Hen, about the unconditional loving nature of dogs. Ms. Ivanans is a two-time kidney-transplanted, sober woman and relieved ex-actress. She lives with her husband, Kevin and senior basset hound, Wahlter White McIntyre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, home of the Dainty. You can find her at www.henrietteivanans.com or www.hennybird.com.

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