No comments about Memoirs of a Naval Physician 1941-1974.

No comments about Direct Red: A Surgeon's Story.

No comments about My Lobotomy: Library Edition.

No comments about Medicine That Kills.

No comments about Everybody Is Special.

No comments about The Winged Medic.

No comments about Beyond Terminal Cancer.

2 comments about Milton H Erickson (Key Figures in Counselling and Psychotherapy series).

1. This volume in a series of key figures in counseling and psychotherapy features the work of Milton H. Erickson. Readers are blessed with the writing of Jeffrey Zeig and W. Michael Munion. It is at once: engaging without hype, informative without being boring, and challenging to the imagination. The work is divided into five chapters covering Erickson's life, contributions, technical orientations, criticisms with rebuttals, and overall influence. There is also a very helpful bibliography of Erickson and Erickson-inspired books which can be useful for planning a library. This is an honest, mature work that successfully balances facts and creativity and is one of the best introductions to and overview of M. H. Erickson's work I have ever read.



2. This book is so well written and the information is so useful, that it is easy to read. Great job.

4 comments about How Long?: A Sixteen Year Chronicle from Breast Cancer Discovery to Death.

1. I have read Mr. Ditmars' book and unhesitatingly recommend it. Having said that, I would say in a most positive sense that this fine piece fails in several senses.

   First, it fails by letting the heroine be conquered by cancer. There is no miracle cure. The Ditmars do not find Lorenzo's Oil or anything else. In the end, in a most graceful and poignant way, Margaret Ditmars succumbs, loses to, fails to beat, this awful disease.

   And then the book fails by depicting Margaret Ditmars as a strong person. As admirable as her qualities are (and we all should face illness and death as she did), the pathos is missing. No pictures of emaciated victims with the all-too--obvious headgear or wig, no recounting of screams and rages against the evil. Margaret Ditmars did all she could to fight cancer and stay alive yet did so in a quiet resolute way that doesn't make the news or best seller lists.

   Moreover the book fails in that it doesn't have a villain. Yes, there are inadequate doctors, there was a misdiagnosis that ultimately caused her death, there were uncaring doctors, yet when all is said and done, no medical person is so inept that they lost their license or changed the course of medicine.

   Where the good book does not fail, and succeeds admirably is painting a picture of a family unit, headed by certainly one of the strongest people I have ever known. For many, many years Margaret never revealed even to her own children the extent of her illness. Perhaps because I, like Margaret am a private person I identify with her decision to carry herself quietly, with dignity, making the struggle hers and no one else. But, this is also the story of a husband who walked beside Margaret, who never failed her, who respected her wishes and in the end loved her so much as to want the world to know what it was really like. And it is the story of a family, like yours and mine, that in the end when they found out, quietly gathered around, as helpless as they felt.

   There are lessons to learn from reading this book. Some of these I will let the reader so learn. But basically it is the story of a long struggle, of the high remissions and low recurrences of a disease that continues to toil against us. But it is also the story of two people who meant it when they said "in illness and in health, till death do us part." And it is the story, as well, of a dedicated man who became determined to let us know the mistakes that were made, the lessons that were learned so that if we have to face the same foe, we have Margaret Ditmars on our side.




2. My mother, who is 89 and a widow, read this book and recommended it to me. I'm only 64 and hope to have a few years yet, but it seemed like a good time to take my head out of the sand. The Ditmars faced the possibility of the death of a spouse with bravery, grace, and love. The decision to enjoy thoroughly what remained of their life together was a wise one, as they had another 16 years of happy marriage after Earl's wife was first discovered to have breast cancer. It is also a practical and a cautionary tale. The medical communitiy is obviously not as well organized as we would hope it to be. Patients have to be their own advocates and researchers at times. That's good to know.



3. If you, dear reader, have no interest in re-forming(fundamentally changing) health care, you might be interested inreading this book for another, very personal reason. This is a poignant love story. This is a narrative of committed efforts by a devoted husband to carry out wishes of an equally loving but eccentric wife, making his own load of grief even greater. It is unusual to swear one's spouse to total secrecy about such a matter. Yet for 16 years, only close confidants of Mr. Ditmars knew that Margaret had cancer. None of her family, including son and daughters, were allowed to know. In the book is the letter which Margaret wrote to close friends and family members just two weeks (!) before her death. "I feel this is an appropriate time for me to discuss with you the status of my health." In the book, Mr. Ditmars never complains. Rather, his hope is that someone who reads this book will be more motivated than ever before to correct problems with U.S. health care and problems with doctoring that existed before "managed care" and are even worse today. He did a good job.



4. I've read Earl Ditmars book and it brought me to the realization that you can't let anyone get you down, no matter what! Margaret was definitely a fighter up to the very end. Even though I didn't know her personally, she will certainly leave her mark on the world, especially to those who have gone through Cancer with their own loved ones. She is a symbol for all Cancer patients. This book leaves one with the understanding that HMO's are not the winners here, the Cancer patients are! Thank you Earl for writing this wonderful book. I highly recommend it.

No comments about Norbert Elias (SAGE Masters in Modern Social Thought series).