Medical Memoirs

In this must-listen book for any practitioner, carer or patient, Eleanor Oyston shares her story of bringing oncology massage to Australia. After many years as a scientist, Eleanor went from diagnosing cancer in a lab to massaging clients with a variety of medical conditions. Very quickly, she witnessed the amazing benefits and knew she wanted to spread the word.

In his acclaimed first memoir, Hot Lights, Cold Steel, Collins wrote passionately about his four-year surgical residency at the prestigious Mayo Clinic. Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs turns back the clock, taking listeners from his days as a construction worker to his entry into medical school, expertly infusing his journey to become a doctor with humanity, compassion, and humor.

Mary MacLeod's mother died in childbirth when Mary was five, an event that marked for the child a "before time" - a lost joyful time - and after. She was shunted from one relative to another while her father coped with his grief. He married again only nine months later, perhaps to have a mother for his child, but her new mum, harsh and withholding of her love, quickly exerted complete control over her thoughts and deeds, with her father oblivious.

A moving memoir and an extraordinary love story that shows how an expert physician became a family caregiver and learned why care is so central to all our lives and yet is at risk in today's world. When Dr. Arthur Kleinman, an eminent Harvard psychiatrist and social anthropologist, began caring...

Unlocking My Brain: Through the Labyrinth of Acquired Brain Injury brings to life Christine's personal experience of brain injury - from losing her vision and being unable to walk, talk or write, Christine regained her life, her thoughts and her career. In 1991, Christine was involved in a horrific car accident and suffered extensive injuries including Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). Unlocking My Brain shows the incredible plasticity of the human brain as well as the plasticity of the human spirit.

Andrew Schulman, a fifty-seven-year-old professional guitarist, had a close brush with death on the night of July 16, 2009. Against the odds—and with the help of music—he survived: a medical miracle. Once fully recovered, Andrew resolved to use his musical gifts to help critically ill patients at Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s intensive care unit. In Waking the Spirit, you’ll learn the astonishing stories of the people he has met along the way—both patients and doctors—and see the incredible role music can play in a modern hospital setting.

Danielle Perreault a neuf ans la première fois qu’elle souhaite s’expatrier: son père s’est fait offrir un poste à la nouvelle Université du Rwanda et, pour elle, c’est tout décidé : ils partent en Afrique ! Mais son père, à sa grande déception, refuse... Dix ans plus tard, toujours attirée par l’aventure, elle part enseigner au Togo. Elle reçoit un salaire de vingt dollars par mois, mais elle est logée, nourrie, et on lui fournit la mobylette. Que demander de plus?!

With two young boys, a new lecturer position, and all the commitments of an active life, Ros Ben-Moshe had no plans for a tumor to take over her life. Yet after the news came on her 43rd birthday, medical appointments turned into hours of surgery, casual conversations disappeared, and even her children started asking questions. In recovery rooms, as the clock slowly ticks, Ros Ben-Moshe starts writing. Through ups and downs, she tells it all, in an honest account of fighting the Big C, or should we say the small c?

Médecin généraliste depuis une dizaine d'années, le docteur Gentamycine a soigneusement noté les meilleures répliques de ses patients... et le moins que l'on puisse dire c'est qu'ils ont du talent ! L'humour est-il un bon moyen de guérir ? En tout cas, il permet de détendre l'atmosphère parfois pesante d'une consultation.

Tom LeNoble’s life has been anything but ordinary, rising from the “Shack” with no hot water to the heights of Silicon Valley, and helping build some of the world’s most influential companies. He’s been a crowd-favorite performer, a bold leader, and a survivor of two life-threatening illnesses after being told three times he had six months to live. He’s navigated the AIDS epidemic’s heartbreak, personal loss, and the high-stakes world of Facebook, Walmart.com, Palm (HP), and MCI (Verizon), guiding startups and leaders through change.

Two families came together in the waiting room of a Denver hospital on May 11, 2004, to await kidney transplants for loved ones. In the first operation, Gregg Farber, 32, a real estate executive, donated a kidney to his father, Steve, a 60-year-old Denver lawyer and power broker. In the second, Guatemalan refugee and landscaper Ernesto Delaroca, also 32, donated a kidney to his sister Sandra, 19, a restaurant worker.

A week after her 41st birthday, the acclaimed poet Anne Boyer was diagnosed with highly aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. For a single mother living paycheck to paycheck who had always been the caregiver, the catastrophic illness was both a crisis and an initiation into new ideas about mortality and the gendered politics of illness. The Undying explores the experience of illness as mediated by digital screens, weaving in ancient Roman dream diarists, cancer hoaxers and fetishists, cancer vloggers, pro-pain "dolorists", and the many little murders of capitalism.

William Osler was one of the big four founding fathers of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and later became the Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford. But this acclaimed physician was so much more. This is a remarkable story.

"At a critical juncture during brain surgery, Alex Dixon, age 12, had a stroke...." Alex was a normal, bright, and healthy little girl, when the sudden onset of a mysterious illness began to take over her life. Months of physical therapy and medication failed to provide relief from acute pain and muscle spasms. Doctors across the country were at a loss for answers. A last ditch attempt at treatment, brain surgery, ended up stopping the spasms but with unexpected, dire consequences.

Blinded at age three, Mike May defied expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family man. He had never yearned for vision. Then, in 1999, a chance encounter brought startling news: a revolutionary stem-cell transplant surgery could restore May's vision.

Army combat veteran and registered nurse Erin Olszewski's most deeply held values were put to the test when she arrived as a travel nurse at Elmhurst Hospital in the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. After serving in Iraq, she was back on the front lines - and this time, she found, the situation was even worse. Rooms were filthy, nurses were lax with sanitation measures, and hospital-acquired cases of COVID-19 were spreading like wildfire.

In Liberation of Being: Allowing Terminal Illness to Teach Us How to Live, Dr. Dylan Shanahan invites listeners into a journey of profound resilience and philosophical exploration. Diagnosed with ALS in the prime of his life, Dylan confronts the relentless progression of the disease with courage and introspection. Formerly a vibrant athlete and dedicated scholar, Dylan's life takes an unexpected turn as he adapts to a body that steadily declines.

Cystic fibrosis was once a mysterious disease that killed infants and children. Now it could be the key to healing millions with genetic diseases of every type - from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to diabetes and sickle cell anemia. Told from the perspectives of the patients, families, physicians, scientists, and philanthropists fighting on the front lines, Breath from Salt is a remarkable story of unlikely scientific and medical firsts, of setbacks and successes, and of people who refused to give up hope....

The late Dr. Michihiko Hachiya was director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital when the world's first atomic bomb was dropped on the city. Though his responsibilities in the appalling chaos of a devastated city were awesome, he found time to record the story daily, with compassion and tenderness. Dr. Hachiya's compelling diary was originally published by the UNC Press in 1955, with the help of Dr. Warner Wells of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Was Andy Warhol a hoarder? Did Einstein have autism? Was Frank Lloyd Wright a narcissist? In this surprising, inventive, and meticulously researched look at the evolution of mental health, acclaimed health and science journalist Claudia Kalb gives listeners a glimpse into the lives of high-profile historic figures through the lens of modern psychology, weaving groundbreaking research into biographical narratives that are deeply embedded in our culture.