5 comments about My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.

1. The information contained in this book was very helpful to me and my family. My twin brother has a tramatic brain injury from a motorcycle accident a year ago. The book enlightened us and gave us knowledge on how to deal with the peaks and valleys. She lists 40 things you should know in the back of the book that are invaluable. I highly recommend the book you will use it as a resource.My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey



2. This is the BEST book I have ever read on the subject
   of what it feels like to have a stroke!!!!
   Author even told us how to treat stroke survivors-what to do
   and what not to do.



3. This is a very "insightful" book - a must read. Well written, highly understandable and uplifting.



4. An amazing true story by an amazing woman. It also teaches us how to respond to "damaged" people.



5. THIS BOOK GOT ME TO "STEP TO THE RIGHT" AND DECIDE TO DONATE MY BRAIN TO THE HARVARD BRAIN BANK WHEN I DIE. IT ALSO GAVE ME KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HOW THE BRAIN WORKS AND HEALS ITSELF. IT IS A MUST READ FOR ANYONE. IT IS WRITTEN IN LAYMAN'S TERMS AND IS A SPIRITUAL BOOK AS WELL. THANK YOU, DR. TAYLOR, FOR WRITING IT. NAMASTE.

No comments about Against Medical Advice: One Family's Struggle with an Agonizing Medical Mystery.

5 comments about In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom.

1. Few Americans know much about Saudi Arabia. I know a lot more after reading this book. Dr. Ahmed has written a personal memoir about her two years working in the critical care unit of a hospital in Riyadh. Upon her arrival at the airport, she is lost in a society that has unfamiliar rules. Women can't drive. Women can't be out alone or with unrelated men. The men dress the same. The women dress the same--at least, in public. She assumes that, as a Muslim, she will have no problems fitting in. But she discovers that Saudi Arabia is a highly structured society and in the land of Wahabism, she barely qualifies as Muslim. Dr. Ahmed appears to be quite sociable and much of the book describes her attempts to befriend and understand people. Ultimately, she makes friends and tries to find their motivations and understand how they survive and adapt in a male-dominated society. Several chapters of the book are devoted to her participation in the Hajj--a pilgrimmage most Americans will never undertake. Dr. Ahmed writes crisply while sharing her feelings and vulnerabilities. Her descriptions of many Saudis' reactions to 9/11 are bound to anger many readers. Among some people she most admires, she finds a fault line of intolerance that disappoints her. This book contained numerous insights that kept me turning pages to the end.



2. I've always felt that I am a citizen of the world, knowledgeable about many major cultural, religious and ethnic groups. I've read much about the Middle East and the Muslim faith and thought I had a relatively decent understanding of Saudi society compared to most Americans. Was I ever wrong. Some things you cannot learn but by experience. Qanta Ahmed, in such lush detail, juxtaposes surprising parallels and heartbreaking divergencies between the Saudi Kingdom and the West. Through her eyes (and from under her veil), we glimpse a world many of us will never be afforded the chance to see first hand.
   
   My lesson learned, again and again it seems, is that we all have much to learn about (and from) one another. After finishing the book, I'm left with the overwhelming thought, "What happens next?" My thought: it's up to us.



3. I purchased this book because I am very interested in the topic; in this regard the book delivered. It is interesting and indeed has a unique perspective.
   
   I found myself very frustrated, however, with some of the more technical aspects of the book. Many of the footnotes were entirely missing (that is, superscript numbers appeared in the text with no corresponding footnotes). There were also quite a few grammatical and spelling errors, and even some incomplete sentences. In other cases, words were simply mis-used (and a few of these were really bothersome things that a physician shouldn't mess up, such as using the word "prostate" when she meant "prostrate" on page 12).
   
   Other parts of the book simply felt careless; portions were very repetitive, others were contradictory. For example, the patient that is introduced on page 2 as "comatose" is described on page 4 as follows: "Thin arms lay flaccid at the side of her supine body, palms upwards..." and then just three paragraphs later we see: "Small brown hands were clenched in a sleeping fist." Which is it? Little things like this really got to me throughout the book.
   
   Despite all this, the book did have some very good insights and is probably a worthwhile read. However, if you are a person who cares about grammar, usage, spelling, or storyline continuity then prepare to be frustrated throughout this book.



4. I enjoyed her story very much and made me think again about our nations friendship with the Saudi Kingdom. I saw some advantages for the women in how they are required to live, but mostly felt that their lives are a form of bondage. And it interested me greatly that she had waht seemed to be equal friendships with many men. I titled this "hyperbole" because her descriptions of the beauty of the women and men was truly excessive, as I read along , I knew after a bit what each description would be. I never have known, myself, so many gorgeous people, but that is my only criticism of a fine description of life very foreign to we fortunate American women.



5. This book is a fascinating account of the experiences of a Muslim female physician, educated in the U.K. and America. What is amazing is that Saudi Arabia has been our 'ally' and formidable trading partner, but that 99.9% of have us have no clue as to the ideological and spiritual compass of the people of this country. We just know they are our 'friends' and that our 'friends' spawned a terrorist named Osama Bin Laden (then again, Tim McVeigh used to work at WalMart). This book gives great insight into the value system and machinations of this culture and its religion, and presents some historical perspective on how its modern day presence evolved. The book is not the first but one of the best narratives of the shocking disparity between men and women in Saudi society. Dr. Ahmed described her experiences with colour, insight, and perspective. Yet she refrains from coarse judgment, appropriately so, as the modern Saudi people are proud and principled society. Hopefully our next President (and Vice president) will bring it to the White House Book Club!

5 comments about Life in the Balance: A Physician's Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss with Parkinson's Disease and Dementia.

1. Fascinating memoir of the same illnes my relative is enduring. I intend to share this with everyone i know who has a loved one with lewy body dementia. We must all live life to the fullest now, while are brains are healthy. Dr. Graboys' story is one of how love and humanity are possible beyond that, long into this illness. Beautiful!



2. Tom Graboys offers sensitive and poignant insight into a devastating disease that afflicts millions as patients, family and caregivers. Being married to a fellow academic physician, world renowned and respected, who suffers from Parkinsonism, I miss my spouse's wise counsel as the "go-to"- person described by Graboys, who continues to be a comforting, wise healer. This book fills that gap a bit by honestly describing the agony of the disease and how to cope with certain loss of self as previously known.



3. Any general-interest library or health collection needs LIFE IN THE BALANCE: A PHYSICIAN'S MEMOIR OF LIFE, LOVE, AND LOSS WITH PARKINSON'S DISEASE AND DEMENTIA. The author is both a doctor and patient, at the peak of his career at age forty-nine when he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Parkinson's and dementia. His memoir is revealing and insightful - and considers Parkinson's from the rare vantage point of both patient and doctor.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



4. Tom Graboys tells about his life with Parkinsons. It's a "from the heart" book, an easy read, and gives hope to anyone with a disability.



5. An intriguing but somewhat eerie combination of confessional agony and deterioration as told by a 63 year old renowned cardiologist once well-regarded for his professional skill and compassion. This is a man who describes a childhood history of psychological desertion and is frank in recounting his subsequent vanity and narcissism as an adult. The physical and psychological aspects of his disorders are described in a deeply intimate way--for the squeamish, it may seem like "too much information." Yet,his modes of coping with Parkinson's and Lewey body dementia seem superhuman and make for painful and enlightening reading.

5 comments about Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story.

1. The book documents the early life and rise to medical stardom
   of Dr. Benjamin Carson- a now famous neurosurgeon. The volume
   begins with the childhood experiences and upbringing of Ben
   and his brother Curtis. Ben tended to cram his studying at
   the last minute. Nevertheless, he did well in grammar school.
   Later, he would struggle in a marathon study session to
   achieve a 97 in chemistry.
   
   Ben attended Yale University and proceeded to the
   University of Michigan to study medicine. He skipped a
   General Surgery rotation to go straight to a Neuroscience
   residency at Johns Hopkins University.
   The volume contains a series of memorable pictures depicting
   Dr. Carson MD as a neurosurgeon.
   
   The presentation describes some very complicated surgical
   procedures; such as, the hemispherectomy on the
   patient Miranda. The procedure was lengthy and complicated
   in this particular case because a part of the brain matter
   had to be extracted. Ultimately, the procedure was successful
   due to the skillful surgical manipulations of Dr. Carson
   and a concept known as plasticity. The concept deals with
   the ability of the brain to attain a similar mathematical
   dilation or shape despite pressure deformation during surgery.
   The patient was speaking shortly thereafter.
   
   Brain diagnostics and surgery can be a complicated
   undertaking due to a number of factors including the lengthy
   time in surgery and extensive bleeding. Diseases of the brain
   can have very technical distinctions; such as, cerebellar atrophy
   and Marchiafava's disease. The presentation documents just how
   far brain surgery has come through advances in the
   art of surgery. The book makes a very interesting read for a
   wide constituency of the general public and especially
   medical practitioners.



2. This book is not well written--it's irritating how the order of happenings is jumbled, particularly concerning Dr. Carson's earlier life--but it's an interesting read about a fascinating person and his work. For those who think Dr. Carson comes across as arrogant--I think anyone who does what he does has to have a certain amount of arrogance!



3. This is an excellent read for young adults onward. Interwoven in all of Dr. Carson's stories is a testament to what GOD can do. Dr. Carson was child by societal standards was not supposed to succeed. He was raised in a single parent home with a mother who battled mental illness yet he overcame struggles by focusing on what he could do as opposed to what he couldn't do. This book will truly inspire you to be the very best in your God led profession. Awesome!!!



4. Amazing, this man knew what he wanted to do at an early age, with his Mother's hard work, he was able to fulfill his dream.



5. This book has not only allow me to change my outlook on life, but I have also developed a more positive attitude towards myself. This is a very inspiring book and I wish there were more books on the market like it. These are the books children should be reading in class to help build their self-esteem.

5 comments about Autobiography of a Face.

1. I think this is a great book. No wonder it has been adopted by so many high schools. The way Ms.Grealy wrote the book it seems as if you want to be going through the same thing she does. It makes me just want to comfort her because of all the pain and sadness she went through.I think this one of the best books ever written.



2. I liked this book very much, it was hard to read about Lucy. I knew her when she was a beautiful little girl. She would come into the Spring Valley Library with her twin sister. One day I told her she had ink marks on her face and she told me that was for the radiation. She went to school with my kids but they never said anything unkind about her, and years later I saw her on the street, terribly
   deformed on her face. It is a very sad end for a very brave girl who didnt deserve the hand she was dealt. Read the book and rejoice in your better luck.



3. We lost Lucy Grealy too soon. By we, I mean the world of art. She was truly a gifted writer. Her writing slides across the page as if the words are riding sentence surfboards atop waves of emotion. Yeah, I'm pretty corny when it comes to metaphor, but as Lucy might say, "This girl isn't." I wish I could describe how well written this book is, but I've already demonstrated my inability to do it justice. If you haven't read it, you owe it to yourself to meet this incredible little dynamo and see inside someone who held her head and her spirit high enough to challenge us to climb up with her.



4. This book is inspirational and eye-opening. I experienced a different standpoint of truth and beauty. I enjoyed the mechanics and vocabulary in the book. I found the amazing chapter structure easy to use. "Autobiography of a Face" is intelligent and heartfelt . Lucy Grealy surprised me, after reading the afterword by Ann Patchett, when she stated that she was 'making art not a documentary'. I would've look forward to reading Autobiography of a Face: The "Real" Story although I know it would not be written.



5. Grealy was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma at the age of nine. From then on, her life was divided into two parts before and after cancer. After the surgery to remove half her jaw, Grealy spent over two years enduring weekly chemotherapy treatments. When she was finally declared 'healthy', Grealy returned to the sixth grade -- only to be met with scorn and cruelty from her classmates.
   
   Her story is written clearly and concisely. She is unerringly honest about how her disease affected her family, her developing personality, and those around her. As we follow her through years of skin and bone grafts, we witness her need or acceptance from others and her gradual acceptance of herself.
   
   I was particularly struck by Grealy's need to be 'strong.' She is constantly reminded not to cry and to never show fear. This begins Grealy's quest to be the model patient. I am amazed that this small child was able to internalize and minimize her emotions, suffering, and considerable pain. To me, she seemed like an adult soul in a child's body.
   
   I recommend Autobiography of a Face -- it is a moving and meaningful read.

5 comments about Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (P.S.).

1. Wasted is Marya Hornbacher's terribly disturbing memoir of her experiences with anorexia, bulimia, and other self-destructive behaviors. Her eating disorders begin at age nine and continue until about age 20. During this period her weight fluctuates between 135 and 52 pounds. She is hospitalized or institutionalized several times for extended periods. At age 19 she nearly dies. In addition to her eating disorders, Marya is a heavy abuser of alcohol and various drugs (pot, speed, cocaine, heroin) and is sexually promiscuous starting at a young age. At the time of writing (age 23) it is not at all clear that she has recovered.
   
   For readers who enjoy shockingly graphic descriptions of other people's deeply disturbed lives, this book is for you. May your number be small.
   
   For readers trying to understand the origins and triggers of eating disorders, this book offers a vast array of possible causes, so vast that it is nearly useless.
   
   For readers wanting to understand what an eating disorder is like, this book provides a truly horrible catalog of symptoms, behaviors, and consequences.
   
   For readers actually struggling with eating disorders, this book will probably do no good, and may do harm. In the Introduction, Marya states, "I am not here to spill my guts and tell you how awful it's been..." However, that is precisely what she proceeds to do. This book is about little else besides the grim awfulness of her eating disorders and her other self-destructive behaviors. It offers no hope whatsoever. Moreover, much of this memoir has a strangely neutral tone, as if Marya is unwilling to render any moral commentary on her own past, as if she maintains some sort of fondness for it and perversely enjoys the attention it brings her.
   
   The wisest and most helpful words in this book come from one of Marya's friends, who never had an eating disorder, but who tells Marya that she tried to make herself throw up once. But she stopped herself. She was "gripped by the sudden sense that what she was doing was wrong...a crime against nature, the body, the soul, the self."



2. i cannot believe how relieved i felt after reading this book. i myself have anorexia and connect on so many levels with the author. the anger, the superiority complex, the fatal drive for "just a little bit more"... I believe the point in time in which the author wrote the memoir was perfect, where she is still the cannonball firing herself into life. her mind was still in the element of anorexia which makes it all the more puncturing for your eyes to read, revealing the struggle keeps going and going. her following book, "madness", follows up on her life after the beginning of the illness and is also very good. this provides her later wiser point of view and her difficulties with bipolar 1.



3. This book offered me a lot of insight into an actual sufferer's life, rather than what clinicians say a sufferer's life should be. Of course, Marya states that her family was dysfunctional to some extent, but it wasn't how the doctors had cut it out to be. I think it helped me understand my eating disorder better.



4. I read this book when I was already in solid recovery, and for me it was not triggering. If I had read it in an earlier stage it probably would have been, but what would have triggered me would be the envy I would feel over her results, as well as a desire to compete, to be as good at it, and the most triggering thing would have been the absence of any sort of happy ending, I would have been left feeling there was no hope of recovery. However, I don't see so much of a problem with the thing many others have focused their complaints on, the "tips and tricks". Since, frankly, those can easily be found in other places if one wants to find them, and its nothing particularly new.
   
   What I both liked and disliked most about this was the way I could relate to it, there are so many things I recognize in my own life, from the early onset puberty, to the promiscuity in her teens, and especially her behaviour and personality. The reason I dislike the similarities of personality is of course that I didn't like her personality in the book, she does in my opinion come off as selfish, unlikeable, self absorbed, whiny, and the hardest part for me in reading about this is that 5 years ago, this was ME.
   
   Also, the general approach to eating disordered people when I first went into treatment kind of glorified "us", describing us as selfless, driven, hardworking people-pleasers, almost saints - and I never felt the label fit me, I felt like I was being ascribed a number of traits I didn't have. And to be honest, I was left feeling for a long time that I was probably not that sick, since I didn't fit the label, I was probably doing it "wrong". I didn't particularly like having to explain that I was not in fact a saint, I just happened to throw up my food, so for me I think Wasted described the disease excellently, the way I experienced it.
   
   Well, my personality has changed extremely since ED is no longer in my life, but I still look back with regret at all the pain I caused my family in those years, and the relationships and friendships I invariably destroyed, because when my ED was at its worst, I was impossible to live with, or like for that matter.
   
   As for the book glorifying EDs, I must say it does in some way feel to me like it tries to. OR rather, I agree that its very clear it was written by someone who was still far from recovered, and still very much in the ED mentality, still missing her ED, and I do feel there is an undertone of "see how sick I was", and a feeling sometimes that she is bragging. For me that's not a problem now, rather it makes the book feel more realistic, and gives a very stark look at an eating disorder from the inside.
   
   Ive recommended this book to family and friends who do not have eating disorders, since for me, it's a very good account of how I was, thought, felt, when I had my ED, it explains me better than I could myself. I like this book, but, I would not recommend it to someone still in the midst of an eating disorder, but to anyone else who wants to know what its like, yes.



5. Marya is a fabulous writer! I am looking forward to reading her other book next. That being said, this book is very triggering for most!!!!! In fact, when i brought it with me to an inpatient ED Unit, and upon check-in, it was taken from me as "contraband". It triggered me on several occasions before entering the facility - but I was unable to put it down because it is such a captivating story. So, read with caution - that's all I can say. If you are newly recovered from an ED - or knee deep in its deceptive hold, don't look to this book for help. It won't help you. In fact, it'll probably set you back a few notches. This is probably best read by those whom are sympathetic to our disease, but not actually suffering from it.

5 comments about My Lobotomy.

1. The incredibly moving story of Howard Duffy and the ways in which his life was changed (much for the worse) at the hands of an inexplicably horrible stepmother, his mostly absent father and Dr. Walter Freeman, the American psychiatrist who championed the use of "ice pick" lobotomies to "cure" psychiatric problems.
   
   Seeking to rid her home of Howard (whom she viewed as the "problem child") his stepmother shopped around for a psychiatrist who would support her opinions and "fix" the 12 year old Howard. Sadly for Howard, she found Walter Freeman. The mechanization that then went on to keep Howard out of the family's home are simply mind boggling -- he was eventually sent to an psychiatric facility for a year because, although he did not have serious psychiatric issues, there was "no place left to put him."
   
   A very sad book that speaks to the necessity of the oversight of psychiatric treatment and serves as a warning to us all about the dangers of The system."My one issue with the book is that it states that the 1920's were an "exciting time in neurology" because of the large number of servicemen who returned from WWI with Traumatic Brain Injuries. Which is no doubt true. However Duffy then states that this was due to the use of penicillin ("In earlier wars, because there was no penicillin, soldiers like that would have died from their wounds. Now many of them came home alive, but brain damaged." pg.62). Since Alexander Fleming didn't discover the famed penicillin in the bread mold until 1928, that's just not possible. The survival of said soldiers may have been due to other factors (improved surgical techniques, more hygienic surgeries, better armor, etc.) but is for sure wasn't due to penicillin, which only went into widespread use in WW2.



2. This is not a whodunit. We know whodunit. It was Lou Dully, Howard Dully's stepmother. She engineered a lobotomy for twelve-year-old Howard in 1960 because she hated him and found him irritating.
   
   Howard's mother died of cancer when he was five. This death may well have contributed to Howard's less than stellar behavior as a child. Also likely impacting Howard's behavior was his father, Rod, who was a cold, sometimes cruel, man.
   
   In the years before his lobotomy, Howard seems to have been rather slovenly and a bit insensitive. The child probably just needed the love and affection that his parents wouldn't give him; instead, he got an ice pick in the brain. If Howard "needed" a lobotomy, so did the majority of the country.
   
   Actually performing the surgery was Walter Freeman. He performed some 2,500 (one source says 3,500) lobotomies from 1936-1967. It is a shameful reflection on the medical community/the government/society that Freeman could slice brains for so long.
   
   Many of Freeman's patients (the book indicates fifteen percent) died as a result of the operation. Many survived as "vegetables." Others lived out their lives in a passive state, not "vegetables," but unable to survive independently. Many showed no long-range change in the behavior that had led to the lobotomy. Enough showed improvement in their (usually depressed or aggressive) behavior to lend credibility to the procedure.
   
   The lobotomy severs the connection between the frontal lobe and the rest of the brain. This seems to block the development of strong emotions that can lead to depression, defiance, and aggression.
   
   After the operation, Howard drifted about for decades. During his teen years, Lou did not want him in the family home, so he went from institution to institution. The experts who examined him agreed that he was "normal." But there seemed to be no other place for him. He later moved from job to job, and lived for long stretches on small welfare checks. He shacked up with various women. He drank heavily and used drugs. He wrote bad checks for flop-around money. Once after he was busted for bad checks the police gave him a choice: get admitted to an institution for the insane or go to jail.
   
   Friends and family (never Lou) helped him from time to time. His father maintained contact and occasionally helped.
   
   Howard finally pulled himself together in his forties. He got an associate degree and started driving buses. He got married and settled down. In the final chapter, Howard described an MRI examination of his brain in 2007 which showed the serious damage that Freeman had caused, but indicated that he was "lucky" to have been victimized at age twelve because his brain was still growing and the new growth helped to compensate for the lobotomy's damage. This likely is why Howard kept his personality and intellect intact.
   
   Howard attracted national attention in 2005 when he appeared on an NPR broadcast during which he interviewed other lobotomy victims, Freeman's sons, and, touchingly, his own father. Rod Dully refused to accept blame for his son's lobotomy, claiming that he was "manipulated" and tricked by Lou. But, in the end, Rod had approved the operation, although he had stated just days before that Howard was "normal."
   
   I think it was all summed up beautifully on page 270 of the paperback edition: "We are all the victims of what is done to us. We can either use that as an excuse for failure, knowing that if we fail it isn't really our fault, or we can say, 'I want something better than that, and I'm going to try to make myself a life worth living.'" Perhaps these are mostly the words of Charles Fleming, the former Newsweek correspondent who cowrote the book. If they are the words of Howard Duffy, it's a miracle.
   
   I highly recommend this book as an account of the lobotomy insanity. It also is an interesting memoir of a man with little ambition and virtually no direction living in semi-poverty at the mercy of come-what-may in the late twentieth century.



3. I, like thousands of other listeners, was spellbound by the November 14, 2005 broadcast of "My Lobotomy" on NPR's All Things Considered. Howard Dully's story about being mutilated by an unscrupulous lobotomist at the tender age of 12 was heart-wrenching and riveting. We were moved to tears by his story.
   
   Unaware that he had expanded his story into a book-length treatment, I immediately snapped it up last weekend when I ran across a copy at a local bookstore. The book however tells a slightly different story from the radio play.
   
   In the book Dully describes his run-ins with the law, his problems with alcohol and drugs and women, his homelessness, his self-destructiveness, his stints in mental hospitals and many of the shenanigans he pulled in the 30 years following his operation. He was most definitely not an angel, and the "untrustworthy narrator" leads the reader to conclude Dully used his victim status as an excuse for some pretty heinous living. His escapades are described in greater detail than the casual reader might expect -- or want. Eventually however he wraps up the story with his NPR interview and subsequent minor fame, and the impact of the radio piece is renewed when viewed from Howard's eyes.
   
   It's especially thought provoking to realize that, as only six years his junior, I too might have suffered the same fate as a hyperactive and frequently querulous youth. Howard's afterword asks how many kids today are being robbed of their childhood by chemical lobotomies such as Valium, Librium, Ativan and Serax simply because their overworked parents don't have enough time to devote to their children.
   
   Dully's writing can be a little literal and plodding, though co-author Charles Fleming does his best to make it a painless read. It reminds me quite a bit of Temple Grandin's books on autism, which were similar stories of overcoming personal obstacles to become a productive member of society.
   
   Five stars for Dully's brave concessions.



4. I've read practially nothing but memoir for the past twenty years and this one was exceptional. I suppose one shouldn't be admired for heroism that was beyond their control, but just the fact that Howard Dully survived his childhood is impressive enough. For him to grow up happy and have it together enough to write about his childhood ordeal is truly amazing. He is a survivor in every sense of the word. This is a very interesting book although it made me a little queasy in places, like in the descriptions of the lobotomy procedures. Howard's stepmother was like a wicked stepmother out of the worst fairy tale: She would do whatever it took to get rid of him and nothing was going to stop her. Shame on the awful doctor who performed unnecessary lobotomies on tens of thousands of innocent people for nothing more than his own self-aggrandizement. Unfortunately, Howard's father didn't have the gonads or fortitude to protect his child, and the result was a series of psychiatric interventions and hospitalizations of a child who might have been a little hyper or maybe had Asperger's but was in no way a menace to his family or society. Howard writes from the heart and he does a great job expressing his early pain and the challenges he endured as he struggled to get his life together in adulthood. If you like memoir I highly recommend this one.



5. I loved this book! I just cannot fathom that a young boy went through all of this. I am so happy Mr. Dully has a good life now.
   
   I found this book fascinating in many ways. Just the fact that a "doctor" could even think of doing an ice pick lobotomy baffles me!
   
   Go on Howard's journey through life to find out the answers on 'why' this happened. The reasons will shock you.
   
   I loved this book so much I have written a more in depth article review on this fascinating book on another site.
   
   Thank you Howard for sharing your story.

5 comments about Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood.

1. Sickened is a story displaying the depth of a child's love for her mother and the strength it took to ultimately break away and save herself. I will not give away the story. It is enough to say this is a very interesting, well written book.



2. The book was a very easy/quick read. The stories are heart breaking and tragic but good information for others to know. It is hard to imagine a mother like the one in the book but there are a lot of very sick people in the world that pass for 'normal.' Good to know that the author made it out and is recovering from the trauma.



3. It amazes me that this was allowed to go on as long as it did. Doctors, Nurses etc.. Just sad, and this is far from an isolated case, my heart goes out to this girl who is now a woman and I hope she has been able to truly put this behind her, but I'm not sure that is possible. Children are innocents and need protection, just sad.



4. I loved this book! I couldn't put it down! It really showed how this disease affected one family. The pictures in the book made it all very real!



5. Horrible story and yet inspiring that this little girl who suffered such abuse and missed so much valuable education came out the other side to become an educated, talented writer, and a normal, healthy person.

5 comments about Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality (Vintage).

1. I just finished Final Exam.
   
   Three weeks ago, we marked the fourth anniversary of my son's death. In a week, we will remember him on what would have been his thirteenth birthday.
   
   I found Andrew having seizures and called the paramedics. After seven hours of surgery, the neurosurgeon could not find a way to tell me that Andrew had died. Instead, he described in horrible, excruciating detail what he had done to try to save my son and what we could expect if Andrew survived. I have only been able to repeat his words to others twice since that night, but they have been repeated in my mind many times. I could tell myself that he had been physically and emotionally exhausted by his night in the OR, but I still felt angry that he had used that level of detail.
   
   Eight months later, I was helping my mother through the last stages of her cancer when she fell at home and her neighbor called me to tell me that she had been taken to the hospital by ambulance. At that point she had lost about a third of her normal weight. When I got to the hospital, she was in pain and seemed different in her behavior. It took a day for me to realize that she had no short-term memory. If I was not in the room and the nurses asked about me, she would tell them that I lived too far away and could not come. Every time that I entered the room, she greeted me like she had not seen me for a long time. My sister-in-law believes that she had a minor stroke. Within a day, it was obvious to me that she was failing. I called my sister to tell her to come now. My mother's oncologist saw her in the hospital, and then started calling me to make appointments to start a new course of chemotherapy. I finally told him that she would no longer need his services. He could not seem to understand. My mother died four days after her fall, the day after I dismissed her oncologist. I was baffled by his attitude to her care.
   
   Pauline Chen's book has helped me to understand and appreciate how both doctors responded to these deaths. I have found a new peace with two men who had to face the fact that they could not save everyone. I am grateful to her for helping me to find a new perspective.
   
   My only quibble with her book is the use of the word "harvest" to describe the collection of organs for transplant. We donated Andrew's organs and I now volunteer for our transplant organization. Many donor families dislike that word and the California Transplant Donor Network does not use it.
   
   Her writing style drew me into what she experienced. Sometimes, I could visualize what she was seeing as if I was there. I sometimes found her descriptions of liver surgeries difficult, as we have met our liver recipient. Some reviewers have disliked the graphic style of her writing, but I believe that it is important to help us see the emotional turbulence that medical students and practitioners go through just to do their work day after day.
   
   I cannot say enough good things about how organ donation has helped our family. Meeting one of our recipients and his family has been a special gift that came from Andrew's death. They have become part of our family. Please go to donatelife.org, find the donor registry in your state, and sign up.
   
   We live in a lucky time and place when many people do not see the immediacy of death on a regular basis. Reading this book is an important reminder that this is an everyday occurrence and that those who have to see it everyday pay a deep price.



2. Autobiographical, well written and organized, sensitive and upbeat, Dr. Chen shares with us her experiences as a medical student and as a doctor. I enjoyed the chapter on dissection of the human body and the stories of patients. It reads as if one were talking to a friend. Thanks for the lovely book.



3. This book is an excellent resource for caregivers who work with terminally-ill people: clergy, social workers, hospice volunteers, family members, etc. It provides a clear picture of the daily world of professional medical personnel, offering a rare insight into the personal dilemmas and struggles they encounter, but which are not shared with others.



4. Very moving at times. The medical profession is a world of its own. Power is too concentrated. The education process is to dehumanizing. It's difficult for human beings to emerge from the process.



5. This book is a call for doctors to provide comfort to patients when cures are no longer viable. She urges doctors to engage with persons as a complex, integrated whole rather than as an impersonal clinical case. The book is a heart felt philosophical argument against medical deconstructivism that illicits almost knee-jerk "do something" responds to illnesses. Complicated ritualistic processes or treatment algorithms focus on the disease rather than the person who suffers. Dr. Chen is amazingly courageous in writing this much needed book and she openly questions herself as well as the medical culture and educative process that "made her."