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About Gutted

For seven years, my health slowly unraveled—sudden energy collapses, fatigue, digestive chaos, rashes, joint aches, adult acne, anxiety, and mild depression—while doctors told me my labs were normal and I was fine.

Without real answers, I turned the blame inward, assuming I was paying the price for past mistakes. Meanwhile, the treatments we threw at my symptoms only made things worse while the real illness kept progressing. 

As my world grew smaller and smaller, until all I could manage were basic family responsibilities, I kept searching for answers. Gutted is the true story of that search—a medical mystery braided with a reckoning over what happens when women are conditioned to minimize their suffering and outsource authority over their bodies to systems that aren't looking closely enough.

I wrote this story because I wanted something good to come of my struggle. So much of what we go through gets hidden, suffered alone, or dismissed as just "normal" stress or aging. Now that I’m finally better, I want to share what I learned in case it helps someone else find their way out too.

How It Works

Twice a week, I publish a new 500-word episode, accompanied by an original illustration by my 13-year-old daughter, Diana.

If you’re arriving mid-story and want to read from the beginning, visit the Start Here page to read all the chapters in chronological order. If you subscribe, each new installment arrives straight in your inbox.

About Me

I’m a writer, essayist, and creativity coach living in Washington, D.C. with my husband and the youngest two of our five kids. Before Gutted, I wrote the memoir My Beautiful Terrible Pandemic Life and spent years writing about family and simple living on my blog Frugal Mama, as well as publishing essays in journals like River Teeth and Short Reads.

If something in these chapters resonates with you, or if you’ve been on a similar search of your own, I’d love to hear from you—just reply to any email or reach out at amy@amysuardi.com.