Ask Me Why I Hurt is the memoir of a pediatrician who operates a mobile medical van providing treatment to homeless teenagers. It covers his marriage to fellow pediatrician Amy, family life over a decade, the growth of his van endeavor to eventually provide more services, and a number of stories of the kids he sees on the van. How am I supposed to review a book like this? On its own merits, it simply isn’t a very good book. Dr. Christensen seems to be […]
The Story of a Life Well Lived
A few months ago, I was on a Radiolab binge at work when one of my favorite guests showed up to be interviewed. Neuroscientist Oliver Sacks, author of scientific classics like The Man Who Mistook his Wife as a Hat was a Radiolab staple. His enthusiasm for science and discovery shined through in his interviews, whether he was talking about his love for the Periodic Table of Elements or the strange neurological cases he’d come across in his career. But from the start, this interview […]
Know Your Enemy
Like most people, I find pretty much everything about cancer terrifying. It doesn’t help that I’ve chosen a profession [Firefighter] that has all kinds of increased rates of cancer. Most of us at work don’t even like to talk about it because it reminds us that the unknown and uncontrollable might hit us at anytime. So you might wonder why I chose to read The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (2010) by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Every once in a while I like to delve […]
I really love talking about the 1840s, everything was a mess – including medicine.
I want to thank my fellow ‘ballers for bringing this book to my attention. I work in museums, and I have two conferences this month in Philadelphia. This meant that if I timed some things correctly, and gave myself a day, I could actually go to a couple museums in Philly. Let it be said that after living less than three hours away from the city for over 6 years I finally managed to go sightseeing in Philadelphia this week. Go me! As part of […]
The True Story of an American Revolutionary
A fascinating true story of a revolutionary figure in the history of American medicine who has for some reason remained in obscurity – until now. Aptowicz’s well-researched and, even more importantly, well-written biography of Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter has all the excitement of a true thriller. Clearly entranced by her subject. Aptowicz introduces us to a dazzling innovator in the field of medicine, who not only saved countless lives with his introduction into the U.S. of the virtually non-existent field of “radical surgery” (what we […]
Breathing for Two
This is a wonderful short little book. I picked it up because Goodreads recommended it based on my reading history, and I’m glad I did. Wolf Pascoe is the pen name of an anesthesiologist (and blogger). In these 102 pages, he basically muses about his job. Anaesthesia has a long history, starting with Ondine of Greek mythology, but a relatively short modern history, starting in the 1840s with the use of ether. Pascoe starts with that and from there intertwines his poetic and philosophical musings with more concrete discussion (although […]
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