I went from being a perfectly healthy woman who didn’t even take a multivitamin to someone who saw a different specialist every week. I slipped into a world of painful procedures and treatments. I had a kidney biopsy. I was placed on a slew of medications. I got a second opinion. Then a third. I absolutely hate needles and now I was getting blood drawn two, sometimes three times a month.
The doctors wanted to place me on chemo drugs to suppress my immune system to try to stop the onslaught, and I was terrified about what those would do to my body. I was terrified to have a depressed immune system during a pandemic before a vaccine was available. I Googled my autoimmune disease and tumbled down Facebook-group rabbit holes, where I read stories about people getting ulcers on their eyes and losing all their teeth. I sat in a Starbucks parking lot sobbing after realizing that my favorite drink didn’t taste the same because of what my autoimmune disease was doing to my salivary glands.
I slid into a depression. My best friend was so worried about me she slid into a depression too. I cried every single day. I was put on a restricted renal diet and couldn’t eat the foods I loved. I was no longer allowed to take NSAIDs, so my painful periods became excruciating and unbearable. The quality of my life plummeted.
This diagnosis broke me.
And the whole time nobody outside of my inner circle knew a thing. I was posting on social media, promoting my books, and acting outwardly normal. I wrote Part of Your World in the midst of all this, somehow managing to churn out my most successful book to date. Everything looked amazing from the outside, but really I was living the worst year of my life.
Your kidneys don’t like to tell you when they’re sick. In fact, most people don’t show any signs of sickness until they’re in stage-three kidney disease. I was extremely lucky that I noticed my hair thinning and I didn’t wait longer than I did to get checked out. There wasn’t scarring on my kidneys yet, so my doctors agreed to a wait-and-see approach to give the less-toxic medications a chance to start working before they put me on something harsher.
But every month for half a year the labs were the same. I wasn’t improving. I would get anxiety the days leading up to and after my bloodwork. The emails with my results would give me panic attacks when I’d get the notification, because it was never good news. My world revolved around my health issues. I was Benny. And then all of a sudden and out of nowhere, my labs came back a little better.
I tried not to get my hopes up, but the next month my numbers dropped even farther. Every time my bloodwork came in, it was an improvement on the month before. My hair started to grow back and my autoimmune disease got quiet and my coffee started to taste good again—and then POOF. A year after my diagnosis, I went into full remission. I got my life back. Just like that. I’ll be on medications for the rest of my life, I’ll always have my autoimmune disease, and it could always flare up again, but a full remission gives you a wonderful prognosis. I don’t think even my own doctor expected what happened. I was very, very lucky.
I’ve always been a vocal supporter of organ donation. In fact, I mention it in most of my books. But now I truly understood the other side of it and the impact that needing a transplant makes on the life of the person who receives it. I know what it’s like to live the hundreds of what-ifs. To be worried you won’t get an organ if you need one. To watch your world get smaller and smaller as your declining health closes in on you—and I funneled all of that into Yours Truly. I knew I wanted our hero to be the kind of hero I almost needed, so I made Jacob a kidney donor. I wrote the psychological impact of a life-altering, chronic health condition into the book, not just in Benny but through Briana, a helpless witness to his suffering—because when you have people who love you, they hurt along with you.
All of my books are made up of fragments of my life. Some you might recognize from my social media. Some you will never know. As Jacob says, we are a mosaic. We’re made up of all those we’ve met and all the things we’ve been through. There are parts of us that are colorful and dark and jagged and beautiful. All my books are mosaics of me and my life experiences pieced together with touches of fiction. To entertain you. To help you escape. To educate and hopefully change the way you see the world and what you put into it. My hope is that through this book, and through sharing my own story, you may one day consider the gift of organ donation. It changes lives.
About the Author
Abby Jimenez is a Food Network winner, USA Today and New York Times bestselling author, and recipient of the 2022 Minnesota Book Award for her novel Life’s Too Short. Abby founded Nadia Cakes out of her home kitchen back in 2007. The bakery has since gone on to win numerous Food Network competitions and has amassed an international following.
Abby loves a good romance, coffee, doglets, and not leaving the house.
You can learn more at:
AuthorAbbyJimenez.com Twitter @AuthorAbbyJim Facebook.com/AuthorAbbyJimenez Instagram @AuthorAbbyJimenez TikTok @AuthorAbbyJimenez
Praise for Abby Jimenez
Yours Truly
“This heartfelt romantic comedy deals respectfully with mental health issues…The protagonists are also beautifully developed and authentic. Fans of Jimenez will clamor for this book, and first-time readers will want to explore her backlist.”
—Library Journal, starred review “Sparkling prose, skillful plotting…contemporary romance gold.”
―Publishers Weekly
Part of Your World
“Abby Jimenez’s words are like fairy dust…they sprinkle humor and warmth all over my life.”
—Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author
of The Love Hypothesis
“The perfect embodiment of romantic joy…This book is an emotional experience that will tick all the boxes for passionate romance fans. A must-read.”
—Kirkus, starred review
A “layered, soul-stirring romance…Jimenez dexterously tackles class difference and shades her endearing side characters with as much care as her lovable leads. The result is an emotional roller coaster centered on love as a source of empowerment.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Jimenez is an excellent storyteller, and her special blend of humor and angst is polished to perfection in Part of Your World.”
—Bookpage, starred review
This “flawlessly written contemporary romance is another perfectly calibrated synthesis of richly nuanced characters, blazing sexual chemistry, and sizzling wit deftly infused into an empowering story line…while also offering a subtle wink and nod to the enduring charm of Disney fairy tales.”
—Booklist, starred review
Life’s Too Short
“A hilarious, tender, and altogether life-affirming gem of a book. This is the kind of novel that leaves you a little better than when it found you. Jimenez is a true talent.”
—Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author
“Abby Jimenez’s knack for tackling heavy subjects with humor and care shines through in this exquisitely written story about love, difficult family relationships, and living life to its fullest.”