Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness

A day later, the nurses begin Susannah's IVIG treatment. IVIG is an abbreviation for intravenous immunoglobulin, a substance made up of healthy antibodies. Susannah explains that normally, antibodies fight intruding pathogens and usually do so quite successfully. Occasionally, however, antibodies can transform into malicious entities and destroy healthy tissue. IVIG neutralizes these bad antibodies.

Susannah describes a hallucination. She's half asleep, listening to the Ryan Adams video, when a nurse wakes her to take vitals. Susannah feels it's this nurse's fault she's here and is suddenly filled with rage. She punches the nurse in the chest.

The following morning, Mom finally calls James and lets Susannah speak to him on the phone. Susannah says his name over and over again, and James tries not to cry as he tells Susannah that she'll get better.

When Dr. Arslan comes by later in the day, he writes that Susannah is beginning to exhibit signs of catatonia. When a person is catatonic, they can be vacant, rigid, mute, and repeat others' words. This same day, Stephen becomes angry with a nurse for asking if Susannah has always been so slow. When he and Dad talk later, they discuss that Susannah is still there, and they must fight for her. In Dad's journal, he writes that he didn't think highly of Stephen when they first met, but he now respects him very much.