Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

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

7 reviews

recorderkfk's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

I cried a little at the end reading this. I'm 29 and have as of now, seen only two significant deaths in my life. Learning about the choices my parents went through for both of their fathers was no comparison at all to how thoroughly Atul Gawande talks about aging and dying in this book. 

It's the type of book that I think everyone should read, when they're in a good frame of mind to be both reflective analytical at how aging just suddenly becomes dying and the questions we face at the end of our lives, makes life worth living, what will really matter to us in the end. The book is full of a lot of patients stories making it accessible and less clinical. Highly recommend this book, and Gandhi's other book of the checklist manifesto.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death of parent and Excrement

Minor: Mental illness and Drug use

mothstrand's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Vomit and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Excrement

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

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

katrinarose's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Blood, Excrement, and Suicide