Romancing Takayasu’s Arteritis is a candid, true patient story spanning over a decade of coexistence with Takayasu Arteritis (TAK) — A rare autoimmune disease that causes slow, irreversible degeneration of the body’s major arteries. 

Weaving together the medical mystery with personal struggles of the author beyond the case history, the book is an effort to create more awareness about Takayasu Arteritis and its diagnostic challenges. TAK mimics symptoms of many other common ailments that can shuttle a patient across multiple medical specialties before the disease finally gets revealed.

The book is written with wit and humour, not to trivialise the disease or the suffering of fellow patients with TAK, but to humanise a life-changing condition. The objective is to put a few smiles on the face of everyone who picks up this unusual memoir. The story may also be a useful resource for medical professionals across the world in understanding the symptomatic progression of TAK from a patient’s perspective. The book is also an outreach to fellow patients with lifelong ailments and their caregivers, with the hope of helping more people start seeing comical twists in the ironies of life. It can be very therapeutic.