The warped forest: a young woman’s chronology of chronic pain & the healthcare funnel

Mancz, Alli Nicole (2023) The warped forest: a young woman’s chronology of chronic pain & the healthcare funnel. Masters thesis, Northern Arizona University.

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Abstract

The Warped Forest is a collection of creative nonfiction essays that braids research and medical memoir, akin to the work of Katherine Standefer in her debut book Lightning Flowers as well as Sarah Ramey’s The Lady’s Handbook For Her Mysterious Illness and Caren Beilin’s Blackfishing the IUD. This hybrid assortment of long-form essays, medical documents, and poetic vignettes explores the nuanced doctor-patient interface from the injured’s perspective, finding its strength in a variety of forms. At 22, I experienced my first episode: a radiating bite, angry and gridlocked deep inside my spine. This would become the epicenter of my low back pain (LBP), the localized beginning from which all else spidered out—numbness, tingling, limitations. Barely 23, and the bite moved, fastening itself from my lumbar region into my hip, then knee, then calf. I felt shooting stars, flickering; hornets nesting inside my leg, humming incessantly. Doctors tried X-rays, then an MRI. Two epidural steroids, one surgeon, two osteopaths, eighteen months of physical therapy, two nurse practitioners, one counselor. And counting. This collection speaks to the dangers of assembly line medical practices, the importance of acknowledging our mind-body connection, and the benefits of collaborative healthcare. My sciatic stars are nothing special—80% of the American population will at some point experience low back pain—and so, my LBP journey is not new or uncharted, but misinformed. And I am lucky, eventually finding effective treatment and thoughtful practitioners. However, what becomes central to this funnel I experience, as well as a central frustration, is our—humanity’s—widespread lack of knowledge. It’s not a doctor’s incompetence, but the reality that there is too much we don’t know (or ask or test) about chronic pain. Broken bones and ripped skin can take comfort in procedure; aching backs and joints and bodies become experiments. So, within these essays and poems, I consider how place, and displacement, bear upon the body. Because while back pain itself isn’t unusual, living with it as a young person is.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Publisher’s Statement:	© Copyright is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Keywords:	assembly line medicine; chronic pain; doctor patient interface; low back pain; sciatica; young woman
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PE English
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Student
Department/Unit:	Graduate College > Theses and Dissertations College of Arts and Letters > English
Date Deposited:	19 May 2025 17:30
Last Modified:	19 May 2025 17:30
URI:	https://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/6160

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