2 comments about Discombobulated: An Inspiring Journey of Hope Through Mental Illness.

1. I found "Discombobulated" to be a very heartbreaking and yet inspiring story of the author's experience with mental illness. It was wonderfully written and literally takes a person inside the head of the author. This book should be read by anyone whose life has been touched by mental illness in any way.



2. Discombomulated is a powerful story of one woman's experience with mental illiness. Commentary by the therapist which parallels the author's perception of therapy is very insightful. This well written book provides a realistic portrait of life with mental illiness.

4 comments about Learning How the Heart Beats: The Making of a Pediatrician.

1. I'm shocked no one has yet written their thoughts on this book, I was looking foward to reading them! I loved this book. Since I'm a pre-med major I figured I would like it when I started it, but I did not expect that I would be unable to put it down! It sucked me in from the frst page and I just could not put it down! I was reading it during my physics class, that's how much I loved it. The author really shows the humanity behind medicine and does an excellent job of recounting her experiences "becoming a pediatrician". Every account of every patient fascinated me, and made me even more convinced that I'm not just insane for being pre-med. This book really gave me something to look foward to. If you are interested in health sciences, I strongly encourage you to read this book, it's wonderful!



2. Dr. McCarthy has added to the somewhat tiresome tradition of Harvard Medical School confessionals. I read this book at the end of my second year of medical school (no, not harvard, thank you!) and found her stories hum-drum at best, pedantic, preachy, and underhandedly self-congratulatory at worst. In addition, Dr. McCarthy's editor clearly rushed through this one - there are numerous instances of convoluted grammer that detract from the flow of the prose. So in summary: if you're a premedical/medical student or a doc, just keep your eyes and ears open and you'll collect lots more meaningful experiences than this book could ever give you; and if you're one of those lay people who likes to life the medical life vicariously, put down this book and spend some time volunteering at your local hospital.



3. In this book, Dr. McCarthy has allowed her readers to look into her life as a pediatrician and learn from her successes and failures. I appreciated the balanced opinions she gave concerning both med school and her profession, and the decisions she has made throughout her journey. Overall, this is a good book to read if you are interested in medicine as a career.



4. I think this is a good book for anyone interested in pursuing a career in medicine. The first half of the book (which takes place in medical school) is quite interesting as the reader gets a glimpse into the mind of the medical student and all the emotions she is feeling. The stories of patients that the author remembers are captivating. However, I found the second half of the book (which takes place during the author's residency) somewhat skewed as the author chose only to mention the worst cases she encountered. Also the chapters in the second half are short and the stories seem less complete, leaving the reader hanging at times.

1 comments about The Man Who Cried Orange: Stories from a Doctor's Life.

1. A wonderful book written by an author who clearly understands human frailty, both mental and physical, and the fundamental difference a caring physician can make in the lives of those he touches. I was so impressed at the simple eloquence of the stories. Each one is affecting without any artifice and each character is hard to part with as the book progresses. A highly recommended and positive exploration of the human condition.

4 comments about Smile and Jump High! the True Story of Overcoming a Traumatic Brain Injury.

1. Smile And Jump High!: The True Story Of Overcoming A Traumatic Brain Injury is the moving and compelling testimony of Shannon, a young woman who suffered a near-fatal auto accident. A devastating brain injury forces Shannon to embark on a grueling four-year journey of gradually re-learning simple physical skills, walking, talking, and coping with residual effects that drastically impair her problem-solving ability, behavioral temperament, and more. The inclusion of citations from personal journals of close friends and family members bear testimony to a long struggle culminating in triumph and rebuilding one's life from the ground up. Smile And Jump High is very highly recommended reading, especially for anyone having to come to grips with the recovering process necessitated by catastrophic injury or illness.



2. Lots of valuable and good advice and resources for both craniotomy patients and caretakers. But the portrayal of NYC and its boroughs is incomplete and unfair (p. 179 of the softcover.) I had brain surgery in 2005 and I live in NJ and volunteer in NYC. I find the people there compassionate, thoughtful and considerate. That's 99.99% of them. They help me on the subway, across the street and do countless other nice things! Also, it's 2006 and Donald treats his wife, Sue, like chattel. He's very patronizing. I know what Sue had to do to make Donald and Shannon comfortable. She cooked, cleaned and did everything that a hard working Aide does. And believe me it's more work and more intense for a brain injured person.
   
   Donald goes through great pains and lots of analysis to explain the people, places, etc. that Shannon encounters. But on these matters it's a big miss.



3. This book proves that a person can do more than the doctors say he/she can; he can recover more fully, can have a better chance at a good, active, social life, and can eventually become independent, even if only in a few ways. Again, this is a book of hope for those of us who love and care for family members who are recovering from traumatic brain injuries. There will be a greater need for this type of book in the future as there are tremendous numbers of TBI's coming back from the Iraq/Afghanistan wars. My son is one of those survivors, with the "unseen injury".



4. Don Lloyd does a great job of bringing you into the journey his family endures while dealing with Shannon's accident and recovery. As someone who watched her best friend go through a similar injury, I found this book hitting close to home.
   
   Reading Don's words and thoughts took me back to the raw emotions I felt years ago, but gaining the different perspective a parent has. I admired Don and Sue's bravery as they let Shannon live on her own in Atlanta after the accident, and wondered if I would have had the courage to do that with my own child.
   
   I think that Don, Sue, Brian, Kelley and Shannon are all lucky to have had each other during such a trying time. Tragedies such as this can pull a family apart but they fused together and helped heal Shannon as a unit.
   
   Thank you Don and Shannon for allowing this window into your life to be open to others. God Bless you.

No comments about Heal Thyself: Nicholas Culpeper and the Seventeenth-Century Struggle to Bring Medicine to the People.

1 comments about Ligero de Equipaje: La Vida de Antonio Machado.

1. Extraordinaria investigacion sobre uno de mis poetas preferidos, la vida de Antonio machado se expone objetivamente, con rigor de una investigacion cientifica en una etapa sumamente compleja pero interesante, que sin lugar a dudas explica la vida reciente de este Pais maravilloso en distintos ambitos, desde lo socieconomico, hasta lo cultural.

5 comments about Cry Bloody Murder:: A Tale of Tainted Blood.

1. The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention



2. The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention



3. The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention



4. This book serves well as both the intimate story of a family whose lives have been profoundly altered by AIDS, and an expose of the events that allowed this deadly disease to invade them.

   While the average American probably believes, as I did until recently, that the infection of thousands of hemophiliacs with the AIDS virus was an unavoidable tragedy, DePrince uncovers the awful truth that for many, if not most, hemophiliacs, infection with AIDS and the deadly hepatitis C virus was not only avoidable, but that the government and hemophilia profiteers (like Bayer "The Aspirin People") chose not to act to produce a safer product in favor of bigger profits.

   DePrince also reminds us that the tragedy experienced by the hemophilia community isn't an isolated incident. Many millions of Americans are exposed to blood products each year, sometimes unknowingly, which means anyone at anytime could find themselves facing infection with HIV, HCV, or perhaps some unknown virus making its way into the blood supply today. Blood safety is an important issue to everyone - not just those who rely on blood products regularly. DePrince also advocates for the passage of the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act which provides compassionate payments to victims of this disaster along with important improvements to blood safety.

   Read this book as if your life depended on it.




5. The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention.

1 comments about Dax's Case: Essays in Medical Ethics and Human Meaning.

1. This is, literally, a textbook case for medical ethics and the right-to-die -- to determine one's own destiny. In 1973 "Dax" was critically injured in a propane gas explosion that took his father's life and burned more than 65% of Dax's own body. For more than a year, Dax underwent painful treatment. In the end he was left totally blind, permanently disfigured, and severely maimed. Today, Dax lives productively and in reasonable comfort, practicing law in Henderson, Texas. His story would seem a tragedy with a happy ending. But it is far more complex than that interpretation would suggest, for Dax Cowart wanted to be allowed to die following his accident - and he believes even now that he should have been granted that escape from his suffering. His story embodies a range of medical, moral, and legal questions that challenge professionals in many fields and confront individuals in every walk of life. How do we define "life" and "death?" When do we withdraw life support. Who makes such decisions? A cautionary tale if ever there was one.

3 comments about In Love With Daylight (Common Reader Editions).

1. I'm not familiar with Sheed but picked the book up because it looked interesting. For the first 30-40 pages Sheed's humor confused me and I was about to give up on him and the book. Much of this was about his childhood and his polio, which may have contributed to the at-a-distance quality of the story. When the book moved into his addiction, and finally his cancer, it picked up momentum which was maintained all the way to the end. Sheed's honesty and objectivity about his situation, particularly the addiction to pills and booze and what was 'happening' to him, make for very powerful reading. He does not resort to spiritual interpretations of his condition or his recovery. But the story is a testament to the inner power and spirit that strives to make us whole. There are many lucid, inspiring and quotable comments on our humanity in this book. I was really sorry to reach the last page.



2. Sheed goes through Hell and back and back again and again in this book: Polio, drug and alcohol addictions and cancer. Yet, he manages to maintain his wry sense of humor throughout. This ability is especially significant when he is sent to what he drolly refers to as "Happy Valley," an AA-based recovery center, to cure him of his addictions. Because, as Sheed points out in the chapter (again drolly) entitled "Notes on a Brainwashing," without a sense of humor, the thinking man (or woman) is doomed in such a program. Unfortunately, neither Sheed nor his doctors nor I, for that matter, who freely admit to having gone through a Happy Valley experience of my own, know of any such centers that are not AA based. It's sort of an easy way out for the medical and psychological professions. Since nobody knows what causes addictions, the meetings serve as an almost cost-free way to deal with the situation. So, like Pontius Pilate, they wash their hands of the patients, like Sheed and myself, and send them forth into a 12-step Orwellian wasteland. I'm not going to dwell on everything that's wrong with AA. This is a book review, not a speech made from a soapbox in Hyde park. But, suffice it to say, as Sheed points out: 1.) If you so much as question the AA model, you are in Denial-Catch 22. 2.) The "Blue Book" on which the program is based, states that those who are unable or unwilling to follow their program are "such unfortunates, constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves." Sheed and I are such unfortunates. That's why I bought this book after reading a review of it in the New York Review of Books. We dishonest folks have to stick together. Sheed's rapier wit and dumbfoundedness at the sheer inanity of what he was going through at his Happy Valley tickled me so that I reread those chapters again and again, just to make sure that there WAS another sane person who had gone through such an experience. Among other remarks, he calls his tenacious AA group leader "Rover" because of his insistence that everyone swallow the AA program whole, pointedly questions the AA slogan to "Keep Coming Back" until you "get with it," astutely noting that if you hang around any crazy idea long enough some of its bound to rub off on you (When I was in my Happy Valley, it occurred to me that this tactic was something the Nazis, those masters of group psychology, would have put to effective use: "Just come to a few more rallies at Nuremburg, you'll see!")and observes that the claims that the program works is belied by the number of Happy Valley patients who had been there before, several times! I had the same experience. To sum up, I recommend this book to all those poor souls out there who went through Happy Valley experiences and thought (as I did, and do) that they were the only ones who thought something queer was going on. It was, and the book will be an uplifting and enlightening read. I'm sure polio and cancer patients will benefit as well from the humor and love of life the author effuses. So why didn't I give this book five stars? Because all this droll cheerfulness is just a bit much. The book becomes monotone, and Sheed therefore becomes suspect. There are depths to be explored here that remain untouched. To explore those depths (only if you like, mind you), with just as much drollery as Sheed's to keep you hopping along, I recommend Malcolm Lowry's Under The Volcano, one of the greatest works of the 20th century.



3. A memoir in which Sheed, an avid sports fan, takes on three worthy opponents--polio, addiction, and cancer--and not only stays in the ring with each but emerges triumphant. But the book's uniqueness and value is not easily summed up. Sheed's accomplishment is to take the reader into a place where all of the counselors, physicans and self-help gurus rarely arrive, and he does so without a trace of self-pity, moralizing, or exhibitionism. He uses his own experience to dissect addiction with an acute awareness, concentrated focus and indeed critical objectivity that practically make the book required reading for the layman and medical professional alike.

   The writing is crisp, precise and direct, always nibbling at the edges of irony and paradox and capable of surprising in every sentence. Admittedly, some addictive personalities might not recognize themselves in Sheed's ironic, commonsensical narrator and consequently be put off from playing his game. Other readers will find it hard to put the book down, even though their own experiences may bear little resemblance to the narrator's. Rather than take us through the valley of despair, Sheed practically acknowledges depression as a "given," indicating that a writer like William Styron ("Darkness Visible") has already covered this territory. Sheed's focus, rather, is on the "other side" of the illness, where the narrator's wit and dogged perseverance are more than a match for the worst that life can deal him.

   Not that Sheed takes depression lightly or, thank God, his own competencies very seriously. But he wants his reader to know that even apart from religious faith and popular therapies "depression ends" and "if you can just hang in there, avoiding downer-uppers and upper-downers, whether you're addicted to them or not, life will eventually make it up to you." Pronouncements such as this come off not as glib advice but as eloquent and "earned" observations based on the evidence of the narrator's meticulously represented experiences.

   Whether due to his non-American birthplace, his residual Catholicism, or his initial encounter with an "external" foe like polio, Sheed's narrator has few regrets about anything--wasted time (30 years of alcohol and pills), neglected friends and relatives, or even any of his afflictions (a word he would probably resist--"challenges," maybe). The closest thing to an "antagonist" in the book is A.A., whose absolutist pronouncements and homogenizing practices could not help but rub an independent mind and feisty spirit like Sheed's the wrong way.

   The result is a book that neither the author nor those close to him need have any morning-after regrets about. For the reader it's an experience guaranteed to produce no tears--unless from laughter over the narrator's numerous predicaments and felicitous verbal counterpunches. The book offers not only a celebration of life (and of writing) but a character you would love to meet and chat with--about baseball, booze, broads, Duke Ellington, or just about anything else that comes to mind.

   (In the new edition Sheed's afterword indicates that on the day of his book's publication he was subjected to removal of part of his jaw. Apparently the game is in extra innings, but count on this combative player to get at least three good cuts at the ball. If he doesn't, you can bet the umpire will hear about it.)

No comments about Dr. Mary: The Story of Dr. Mary Fulstone, a Nevada Pioneer.