Summary

Elisabeth writes that her snail observations are from a single year of nearly two decades of illness. In this book, she has merged that story with her later scientific readings about snails. She enlisted the help of experts to determine the exact species of her snail and they concluded that it was a Neohelix albolabris.

The nature of Elisabeth's illness and the viral pathogen that caused it is still somewhat mysterious. It began with flu-like symptoms and some paralysis before evolving into severe paralysis and weakness. Elisabeth had several relapses after periods of long and slow recovery and was finally diagnoses with autoimmune dysautonomia, which is a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. Seven years into her illness, further testing would reveal that she had an acquired mitochondrial disease caused by a pathogen. Fifteen years into illness, she would learn about tick-borne encephalitis, the...