Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

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

32 reviews

thewileyseven's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

5.0

Extraordinary and essential. Spiritually, a beginning to the conversations of how acceptance and commitment theory can be applied to end-of-life care. I am positive I will be referring to this book regularly throughout the rest of my life. 

---

Content Warnings

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

ca517's review against another edition

emotional informative

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

milliemillz's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, and Cancer

ulviyyask's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

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

laheath's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Because I encounter this on a daily basis in my work, my professional opinions definitely influence my personal opinions. I see patients and families unprepared and struggling with end of life decisions, afraid they're going to make the wrong decisions, unsure what they're loved ones would have wanted because they never had those difficult conversations, or in complete denial and somehow convinced that their loved one can live forever with enough medical intervention which ultimately only causes more suffering.

This is a must-read for anyone facing a terminal diagnosis or planning for elder care. The author does not give specific instructions for any of this but stresses the importance of determining an individual's goals across the continuum of care. This helps to ensure personalized care and to prepare family members for what may be to come, allowing them time to accept the patient's wishes. Giving the patient some control and dignity during this final stage of life often goes hand in hand with their quality of life. The author uses examples from his own family and patients, as well as research articles, to demonstrate the profound effects of patient-centered care, including long-term care, assisted living, oncology, hospice and palliative care. 

---

Content Warnings

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

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 

---

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Excrement

afondots's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

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"

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Vomit and Excrement

Minor: Pregnancy

nurr's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Terminal illness

Moderate: Ableism