Tag: medical

This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay

Adam Kay.jpg

About the book:

Welcome to 97-hour weeks. Welcome to life and death decisions. Welcome to a constant tsunami of bodily fluids. Welcome to earning less than the hospital parking meter. Wave goodbye to your friends and relationships . . .

Welcome to the life of a junior doctor.

Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, comedian and former junior doctor Adam Kay’s This Is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking by turns, these diaries are everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn’t – about life on and off the hospital ward. And yes, it may leave a scar.

Click HERE to get your copy!

My thoughts:

Not being in the UK, I can’t pass comment on the NHS or any of that, but I had seen plenty of chat about Adam’s book so I loaned it from the library to see what it was like. I am a fan of medical memoirs, so it was right up my street.

Adam writes with wit and humour, and even in the worst of situations this levity really makes a difference to the narrative. Doctors see people on the worst days of their lives, but we also see them on the worst days of theirs, even if we don’t realise it. We don’t know what they are going through, but Adam has given an insightful look into his life as a Junior Doctor and just how much it impacted him.

I think what I enjoyed the most was the almost conversational aspect of the book. It’s written in diary entries from his time in hospitals, so they are often brief, but some of the entries are very powerful. Others really made me feel for him as his own personal life suffered at the hands of working absolutely crazy hours and nobody could understand why he was missing important events outside of work.

I really enjoyed This Is Going To Hurt, even though enjoy seems like the wrong word considering the subject matter, but you know what I mean. Adam Kay has a way with words, and it made this a really easy read. Tough subjects obviously, but he made it more relatable with his affable writing manner.

If you enjoy glimpse into the medical profession, and a little humour with your non-fiction the you should most certainly add this one to your list!

Recommended!

 

Do No Harm by Henry Marsh

DNH.jpg

About the book:

What is it like to be a brain surgeon?

How does it feel to hold someone’s life in your hands, to cut through the stuff that creates thought, feeling and reason?

How do you live with the consequences when it all goes wrong?

DO NO HARM offers an unforgettable insight into the highs and lows of a life dedicated to operating on the human brain, in all its exquisite complexity. With astonishing candour and compassion, Henry Marsh reveals the exhilarating drama of surgery, the chaos and confusion of a busy modern hospital, and above all the need for hope when faced with life’s most agonising decisions.

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh

My thoughts:

I’ve had Do No Harm on my kindle for 3 years, yes, YEARS! After reading Fragile Lives earlier this year, I figured I’d give this one a go as instead of a cardiac surgery this book centres on neurosurgery. I have a morbid fascination with medical things like that so I was looking forward to it.

Henry Marsh has written a very interesting book. He’s no Derek Shepherd in terms of drama and excitement, but he is dealing with the everyday lives of his patients. Do No Harm gives the reader an interesting glimpse into what it’s like to be a neurosurgeon and the things they go through inside and outside of the surgical theatre.

I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked it up but what I found was an honest memoir. It had case studies in every chapter, as well as a glimpse into Marsh’s own life outside of surgery, and how it impacted his home life. 

It’s an easy read in terms of pace and writing, but it’s all too easy to forget you are reading about patients. Any one of us could end up on an operating theatre table needing help from a man like this. 

The irony of Do No Harm, for me, was that my eldest child ended up in A&E on the day I read this book. He fell after deciding spinning around to make himself dizzy was a good idea and proceeded to hit his head!!! He is completely fine, but this book couldn’t have been read at a worse time!

 Do No Harm is definitely a book to read if you like true life medical stories! Interesting, graphic but always honest!

Recommended!