Author: Jennifer O'Brien
Publisher: Et Alia Press
ISBN: 9781944528096
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 86
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Book Description
Everyone facing death--their own or a loved one's--benefits from this love story and practical guide in one. As a hospice doctor, Bob cared daily for dying patients. At home, his wife, Jen, listened to the stories of patients and families, layering her understanding of death with the early losses of her own brother and mother. Then, the man who had spent a 40-year career caregiving was diagnosed with advanced, metastatic cancer. An insightful blend of art and compassion, patience and endearing honesty, this book comprises Jen's digital art journal, which chronicles this time in their marriage. What began as a visceral, self-care compulsion within days of diagnosis became notes, collages, and images revealing the raw, luminescent reflections of a caregiver-turned-widow. Beyond the practical guidance and solace offered by an insider, Jen's journal reminds us how to live presently during our darkest hours, honor grief, and discover--even after devastating loss--ways to forge forward.
Author: Jennifer a O'Brien
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781634898058
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
In this breathtaking book on death and dying as well as grief and loss, author Jennifer A. O'Brien shares her beautiful love story of when her husband, a palliative care and hospice doctor, was diagnosed with terminal cancer then died. "This book is remarkable and should be a required read for all those facing the mortality of a loved one."-James Wolfe, MD, clinical professor of medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine When faced with the life-limiting diagnosis of a loved one, how does a family live fully and prepare for end-of-life? Winner of a 2020 Silver Nautilus Award and 2020 Indie Book Award, this reissued edition of The Hospice Doctor's Widow is the perfect caregiver guide book, filled with practical suggestions on caregiving and heartfelt reflections on dealing with grief and loss. An insightful and heartbreakingly beautiful blend of art and compassion, this journal chronicles one woman's patience, honesty, and commitment to the importance of caregiving through sickness into death. Ultimately, it tells of her grief after the loss of her spouse. Unique because of its artful approach, this end-of-life book provides: Practical considerations to consider before the death of a loved one Validation of the myriad feelings of both the person who is dying and their caregiver Comfort and hope during the loss of a spouse, or other loved one. This reissue of The Hospice Doctor's Widow includes nine additional grief journal entries and a forward by Pulitzer nominee and playwright Elizabeth Coplan. "O'Brien's singularly moving and beautiful book maps one woman's journey, illuminating the road that lies ahead for all of us." - Nina Corwin, LCSW, author of The Uncertainty of Maps
Author: Dr. Jessica Nutik Zitter, M.D.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525533419
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 353
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Book Description
For readers of Being Mortal and Modern Death, an ICU and Palliative Care specialist offers a framework for a better way to exit life that will change our medical culture at the deepest level In medical school, no one teaches you how to let a patient die. Jessica Zitter became a doctor because she wanted to be a hero. She elected to specialize in critical care—to become an ICU physician—and imagined herself swooping in to rescue patients from the brink of death. But then during her first code she found herself cracking the ribs of a patient so old and frail it was unimaginable he would ever come back to life. She began to question her choice. Extreme Measures charts Zitter’s journey from wanting to be one kind of hero to becoming another—a doctor who prioritizes the patient’s values and preferences in an environment where the default choice is the extreme use of technology. In our current medical culture, the old and the ill are put on what she terms the End-of-Life Conveyor belt. They are intubated, catheterized, and even shelved away in care facilities to suffer their final days alone, confused, and often in pain. In her work Zitter has learned what patients fear more than death itself: the prospect of dying badly. She builds bridges between patients and caregivers, formulates plans to allay patients’ pain and anxiety, and enlists the support of loved ones so that life can end well, even beautifully. Filled with rich patient stories that make a compelling medical narrative, Extreme Measures enlarges the national conversation as it thoughtfully and compassionately examines an experience that defines being human.
Author: Sunita Puri
Publisher: Viking
ISBN: 0735223319
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 322
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Book Description
"A ... memoir about how the essential parts of one young woman's early life--her mother's work as a surgeon and her spiritual practice--led her to become a doctor and to question the premise that medicine exists to prolong life at all costs."--
Author: Dan Morhaim
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 1421439166
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
A vital roadmap to planning your own end-of-life care. While modern Americans strive to control nearly every aspect of their lives, many of us abandon control of life's final passage. But the realities of twenty-first-century medicine will allow most of us to have a say in how, when, and where we die, so we need to make decisions surrounding death, too. Or those decisions may be made for us. Threading compelling real-life stories and practical guidance throughout, this book helps readers navigate end-of-life care for themselves and their loved ones. In this practical guidebook, Dr. Dan Morhaim and Shelley Morhaim offer readers hope, empowerment, and inspiration. What we choose for our end-of-life care, they assert, depends on accurate information and on our personal values. We need these not only to understand new medical advances but also to appreciate the wisdom of humanity's past and present. Dan Morhaim, an emergency medicine physician and former Maryland state legislator, guides readers through the medical, legal, and financial maze of end-of-life care. He details the care choices available to patients and explains why living wills and advance directives are a necessity for every American. He tells readers where to find free and readily available living wills and advance directives and why it is so important for everyone—young and old—to complete them. Meanwhile, Shelley Morhaim draws on her experience as a therapeutic music practitioner for hospice and hospital patients to offer compassion to readers facing hard decisions. The authors reflect on a number of timely topics, including • what doctors—including Dr. Morhaim specifically—want for themselves in terms of end-of-life care • how legislative initiatives on assisted dying vary by state • how to obtain medical orders for life-sustaining treatment (MOLST/POLST) • how to deal with dementia • what to expect from palliative and hospice care • how to cope with pain at the end of life, including with medical cannabis and narcotics • how organ donation and body disposition work • how to communicate individual needs to lawyers, physicians, and family members • how to make decisions when selecting the best care for yourself and others and more. Organized as a roadmap that people should follow when they plan end-of-life care and contingencies, this book helps readers keep decisions in their own hands and spare their families the uncertainty and trauma of guessing about their end-of-life wishes. Breaking down the barriers to a difficult but essential topic, Preparing for a Better End helps readers open this often-avoided discussion with their loved ones while providing the information and guidance needed to ensure that deeply held values are reflected and honored. Praise for the Author "In The Better End, Dr. Morhaim helps the reader to see that while death does have its sting, it need not be bitter, and each of us can prepare for the end in better ways."—Maya Angelou "Dan Morhaim's message is a must read for anyone who is facing end-of-life crisis issues and concerns, whether it be for themselves or for a family member or loved one. When so many others shun away from the topic, Dan Morhaim addresses the situation with clarity, insight, and sensitivity."—Montel Williams
Author: Paul Kalanithi
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1473523494
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
**THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER** 'Rattling. Heartbreaking. Beautiful,' Atul Gawande, bestselling author of Being Mortal What makes life worth living in the face of death? At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity - the brain - and finally into a patient and a new father. Paul Kalanithi died while working on this profoundly moving book, yet his words live on as a guide to us all. When Breath Becomes Air is a life-affirming reflection on facing our mortality and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a gifted writer who became both. 'A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite. Obligatory reading for the living' Nigella Lawson
Author: Lisa M. Shulman
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 1421426951
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 181
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Book Description
An expert neurologist explores how the mind, brain, and body respond and heal after her personal experience with profound loss. Winner of the Best Book Award (Health: Death & Dying) by American Book Fest In Before and After Loss, neurologist Dr. Lisa M. Shulman describes a personal story of loss and her journey to understand the science behind the mind-altering experience of grief. Part memoir, part creative nonfiction, part account of scientific discovery, this moving book combines Shulman's perspectives as an expert in brain science and a keen observer of behavior with her experience as a clinician, a caregiver, and a widow. Drawing on the latest studies about grief and its effects, she explains what scientists know about how the mind, brain, and body respond and heal following traumatic loss. She also traces the interface between the experience of profound loss and the search for emotional restoration. Combining the science of emotional trauma with concrete psychological techniques— including dream interpretation, journaling, mindfulness exercises, and meditation—Shulman's frank and empathetic account will help readers regain their emotional balance by navigating the passage from profound sorrow to healing and growth.
Author: Katy Butler
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451641982
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 368
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Book Description
"A blend of memoir and investigation of the choices we face when our terror of death collides with the technological imperatives of modern medicine"--
Author: Steven D. Hsi
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 0826330398
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226
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Book Description
Dr. Steven D. Hsi, a family physician and father of two young sons, was diagnosed in 1995 with a rare coronary disease that caused his death five years later at the age of forty-four. Throughout his ordeals as a patient, including three open-heart surgeries, Dr. Hsi's outlook on the teaching and practice of medicine changed. In 1997 he began a journal intended for publication after his death. Written with the assistance of newspaper columnist Jim Belshaw and completed posthumously by Hsi's widow, Beth Corbin-Hsi, Dr. Hsi's writings urge his colleagues to become healers, to look at their patients as human beings with spiritual as well as physical lives. "Every patient should read it, if only to be made aware that they are not alone with their thoughts. Every spouse of a patient should read it. . . . Every medical student and physician should read it to learn that the biology of the disease is really just a small part of the illness."--John Saiki, M.D., Medical Oncology, University of New Mexico "Dr. Steven Hsi asks his fellow doctors to be more than physicians. He asks them to be healers. He says that when he thinks of healers, he sees traditional medicine men, people who are integral parts of their communities. They are in touch physically and spiritually with the people they serve."--Tony Hillerman "Closing the Chart is built on the personal journals and experiences of Steven D. Hsi, M.D., as he travels on an intense 5-year journey from an assumption of health, professional success, and family stability to his progressive illness and eventual death. . . . Closing the Chart is both an engaging, page-turning read and a story told with so little artifice that you cannot close the cover unchanged."--Kenneth Jacobson, executive director, American Holistic Medical Association, Explore “There are lessons on every page, lessons to make us better caregivers, more discerning patients, and better advocates for family members and friends who are sick. . . . Every reader will take away different lessons from this book based on his or her role, age, and experience. This would be an ideal book for group study by medical and nursing students with some senior physicians, patients, and family members. What a great learning experience for all participants! . . . I exhort you to pick up and read this humble story. Nothing I have encountered in the medical narrative genre has been more worthy of my time.” —David J. Elpern, M.D, Psychiatric Services
Author: David Guterson
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408834758
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
When Dr Ben Givens left his Seattle home he never intended to return. It was to be a journey past snow-covered mountains to a place of canyons, sagelands and orchards, where, on the verges of the Columbia River, Ben had entered the world and would now take his leave of it.
