An exceptional young neurosurgeon, who is also by
inclination and education deeply grounded in the humanities, wrote this book
during his final days before dying of lung cancer. At 36, the odds of his symptoms being lung
cancer, with no known risk factors, were so minuscule that for months he
ignored weight loss and chest pain, too busy with completing his residency in
neurosurgery. After his diagnosis, he
struggles with various therapies, his full operating schedule, and his somewhat
troubled marriage to a fellow doctor.
His painful choices are chronicled – what drugs to use; whether to
continue to operate in the face of overwhelming fatigue, pain, and nausea; if
he should leave medicine entirely and use his remaining time to follow his love
of writing; whether to conceive a child, knowing that he will almost certainly
not see it grow up. Moving, sad, and
beautifully written. The world is richer
for his memoir but far poorer for the loss of such a multiply gifted human
being. 228 pp.
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