Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

23 reviews

brooklynchaise's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Very informative and perspective changing. It challenged me to think about mortality and the things that make life worth living, especially at the end. I will definitely recommend this book to others and reflect on its contents as I and my family grow older 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Drug use, and Vomit

haleyisamess's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Very informative read. I probably would have enjoyed this more as a medical professional. Listening on audiobook, it was easy for me to a sometimes glaze over the medical jargon. The last half of the book was fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Cancer, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Excrement

ulmaridae's review against another edition

"People die only once. They have no experience to draw from. They need doctors and nurses who are willing to have the hard discussions and say what they have seen."

"I am leery of sugessting the idea that endings are controllable. No one ever really has control. Physics and biology and accident ultimately have their way in our lives. But the point is that we are not helpless either. Courage is the strength to recognise both realities. We have room to act, to shape our stories. Though as time goes on, it is within narrower and narrower confines. A few conclusions become clear when we understand this: that our most cruel failure in how we treat the sick and the aged is the failure to recognize that they have priorities that go beyond merely being safe and living longer. That the chance to shape one's story is essential to sustaining meaning in life. That we have the opportunity to refashion our institutions, our culture, and our conversation in ways that transform the possibilities for the last chapters of everyone's lives."

"The vital questions are the same. What is your understanding of the situation and it's potential outcomes? What are your fears, and what are your hopes? What are the tradeoffs that you are willing to make, and not willing to make? And what is the course of action that best serves this understanding?"

"The goal is not a good death. It is a good life, all the way to the end"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Cancer, Chronic illness, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Vomit and Excrement

Minor: Pregnancy

cprince99's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I loved how Atul used his clinical knowledge, lived experience, and true humanitarian passion to explore this topic! He covers everything related to mortality; the challenges, the history informing how we treat our elderly in the present-day, what & why we should be doing more for our elderly, and how to confront the question we all should know the answer to; what is most important to us as we reach the end of our lives? 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Death, Medical content, and Chronic illness

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Warning: do not listen to this audiobook while driving you will tear up 

I found this to be a seamless blend of Dr. Gawande’s personal and professional experiences with end of life care for the elderly and terminally ill. The kindness and compassion shown is moving and makes you really think about how you would want to spend the last months of your life and what really matters to you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Grief, Medical content, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Medical trauma, Suicide, and Terminal illness

hayleyvem's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, and Drug use

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Addiction, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

archer3's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

Incredibly insightful and well-written. A thought-provoking work that everyone should read at least once. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Cancer, Death of parent, Death, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Grief, Vomit, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, and Drug use

Minor: Suicide, Car accident, and Suicidal thoughts

violetsto_'s review against another edition

informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This book is great, informative, and incredibly heartbreaking. Gawande perfectly mixes facts and statistics with human stories that really personify and ground the information. The anecdotes (whether about patients, friends, assisted living/nursing home residents and innovators) are the bright lights of this book, even when they are tragic and depressing. Gawande's own personal story of aging and loss is especially meaningful to the narrative and point he's trying to get across with this book.

This book sparked interesting thoughts and conversations about autonomy, the "value" of life, freedom, etc. as well as how the medical system can be both helpful and harmful.

As a person with parents that are starting to reach "elderly," this book scared the heck out of me but also gave me a lot of information I think I will be very glad to have in the near future. It gave me a starting point for some difficult conversations that I will likely have to have with my parents and other loved ones eventually. 

While I think this book would be interesting and helpful to almost anyone (especially those with loved ones who are getting older or dealing with terminal illness), I do have one warning that is likely not surprising: some of the anecdotes in this book can be really difficult to get through. Be kind to yourself while reading and give yourself breaks if needed. If I didn't have a deadline to get this finished by, I think I would have taken much longer to read it. The stories near the end are especially difficult.

Note: Read this for book club at the medical school I work at. (It was very interesting hearing the perspective of a few doctors who had read this book!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Chronic illness, Terminal illness, and Medical content

norwegianforestreader's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Body horror, Blood, Cancer, Death, Excrement, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent, Dementia, and Grief

gtrue21's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide, Abandonment, Ableism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Cancer, Death of parent, Dementia, Death, Confinement, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Forced institutionalization