Amy Gingrich saw her disease as a prison. She felt trapped by having to monitor everything she ate and limit physical activity. She didn’t like it, but she had learned to live with her genetic prison. Amy was born with MSUD (Maple Sugar Urine Disease), a metabolic disorder classified by the burned maple syrup smell in one’s urine, ear wax, and body sweat. MSUD is a disease in which a person cannot process protein normally. It can only be cured with a liver transplant.
In No Longer Not Allowed, Gingrich shares her story of living with the disease and then undergoing a liver transplant at the age of twenty-one in January of 2006 at Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital. She tells about the hospital stays, the ups and downs of healing, subsequent health issues related to the transplant, and recovery. Gingrich also includes recipes and journal entries from her parents who provided unconditional support.
No Longer Not Allowed narrates how, by the grace of God and the unselfish act of a donor family, Gingrich was given a second chance to live life to the fullest.
