February TIOLI #16: Doctor, Doctor

Read a book whose title, author, or first page contains reference to a doctor.

TIOLI is working like it's supposed to, SqueakyChu -- I want to read all the other books people have listed so far for my challenge!

The GWales review for The Wooden Doctor by Margiad Evans made it sound terrific.

ETA: Here's a link to the main thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/108561#2500118

I want to read all the other books people have listed so far for my challenge!

:)

I just finished Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors by Brian Eule, for challenge #16. It was written by the husband of a surgery resident, and describes the lives of three medical students as they go through the Match and enter residency in their chosen fields. I'll review this later today, and post a link here.

>3 kidzdoc: You are a night owl!

#4: I'm normally not a night owl, but I woke up at 1:30 am (bad dream?) and couldn't get back to sleep, so I read Match Day until I could get back to sleep.

I just started Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science. I think I learned of the author, Atul Gawande, from you, Darryl. What a readable book! So many of the author's feelings are familiar to me, if only because I'm a nurse. I don't miss those feelings of uncertainty in clinical situations now as I currently work in Quality Assurance (no more clinical nursing).

One thing I learned in the past was that the fear of doing something wrong was a "good" feeling. It was always the ever-present anxiety of possibly causing someone harm that kept me practicing the best clinical nursing that I could and always led me to ask for help if I was ever unsure about something.

Gawande is a terrific writer. I'm completely taken in by his writing (and I only just started this book!).

Wow! I just now read what I stated above, in message #6, restated by the author of my book. He said:

"As one surgeon told me, it is a rare but alarming thing to meet a surgeon without fear. 'If you're not a little afraid when you operate,' he said, 'you're bound to do a patient a grave disservice.'"

(noting the unintended pun!)

I also want to comment on medical malpractice and why I think that it's wrong. My feelings about it are borne out by what I'm reading in this book. To me, medicine is an art and not a science. We all in the health care professions practice health care to the best of our abilities, but we're not always experienced enough nor are we perfect. We learn to cover for each other because "but there for the grace of God go I". Next time it could be you or me.

When entering a hospital or a doctor's office for any treatment of surgery, we must realize that things can and do go wrong. We should take it upon ourselves to try to advocate for ourselves by learning as much as we can about how to take care of ourselves before and after any procedure. We need to share with our health care providers all information that can affect our health and our care. We also should try to keep ourselves in optimum health in an effort to ward off the necessity for increased use of the health care system.

*steps down off of soap box and goes back to her book*

I have a recommendation for a great book to read for this challenge. It's called The Case of Doctor Sachs by Martin Winkler. This is one of the very few books I've ever read that was written in second case narrative. It's about the people in the life of a home-visiting doctor in rural France under their system of socialized medicine. It's a wonderful read and probably a very little known book.

I read it back in 2002 after finding it on the new book shelf at my library. I just now reposted a review here on LT of that book that I had on my home pc since 2002. If you can get hold of the book, go for it!

Just a note to say that I finished Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, thought it was terrific, and hope that others choose to read it for this challenge as well.

I really enjoyed a great memoir of frontier medicine, The Horse and Buggy Doctor by Arthur E. Hertzler. See the book quotes on its CK for a flavor.

Another quick note to say I'm now reading I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey, my Early Reviewer book for this month and am finding that book fascinating (and painful).

The book I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Dignity by Izzeldin Abuelaish was an amazing read. I did post a review of it here on Librayrthing. It turns out to be more about peaceful Palestinian-Israel coextistence than about medicine, but that's just fine with me. Highly recommended!