I want to start with the positives.
I learned a lot from this book. I work in health care and related to a lot of the author’s experiences (I went septic after a post partum kidney infection, so it was kind of a cold-water-to-the-face moment reading that 1/3 of patients with sepsis die, and mine was an antibiotic resistant strain. Now I know why the nurse I brought doughnuts for once I recovered looked like she’d seen a ghost when I walked in the door). Her framing of her experiences as a patient with a medical background were enlightening, and I even shared her phrasing with my team as an example of how to get info from patients while not seeming like we’re unfamiliar with their medical history.
It’s exceptionally well written and a compelling story. How can you not love a book where the patient understands she’s in crisis and calls her own code blue before she passes out? Dr. Awdish is a BAMF.
The author doesn’t shy away from her mistakes. Some of the errors she writes about are prefaced by her owning that they’re things she has done or said as a physician and never thought about until she experienced them as a patient. She’s brave.
But GOD DAMN is this book sad. Just know what you’re in for when you pick this up, because I sure didn’t. I made reference to this in the review title but TW:
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Awdish’s experience as a patient starts with the loss of her pregnancy via placental abruption from liver tumors, and it’s just about the saddest thing this side of Dear Zachary. And she doesn’t shy away from details. I really liked the book, and it’s overall a good, hopeful book, but if you can get through those first few chapters without wanting a stiff drink and kitten videos on YouTube, you’re tougher than I am.