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My Voice: A Physician's Personal Experience With Throat Cancer
The book captures three years of the author's life following a diagnosis of throat cancer and tells the story of how he faces and deals with medical and surgical treatments and adjusts to life afterwards. As a physician with lifelong experience in caring for patients, the author shares his insights and perspective on these events as he undergoes the effects of a severe illness through the eyes of a patient. He endures the consequences of radiation, surgeries, and prolonged hospitalizations. He confronts medical errors, discrimination following loss of his vocal chords, and struggles to regain his ability to speak again and find new meaning to his life. The author shares his anxieties, frustrations, failures, and ultimate adjustment to life with continuous uncertainty about the future. Through the author's insights, health care professionals may become more aware of what their patients actually experience, and patients who face similar hardships may find out how to cope with them.The book was endorsed by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Read excerpts of "My Voice" at Brook's dribrook.blogspot.com
282 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 28, 2011
I was interested in reading this book about Dr. Brook's experience with throat cancer because of my own personal experience. Dr. Brook hopes that this book will be read by the people who treat patients with head & neck cancer but I'm pretty sure that it isn't going to be read by the ones who really need to read it.
Dr. Brook is a doctor (now retired) and infectious disease specialist with many years of experience in treating diseases of the head and neck, especially in children. In spite of being a doctor himself, he goes against all the advice I have heard, and chooses a familiar hospital over a specialty hospital and a familiar doctor over an experienced one.
What surprised me about this book was how often Dr. Brook was surprised. He was surprised when a doctor's verbal instructions to a nurse for another patient were carried out on him -- twice. He was surprised that his surgeon on rounds gave him only 15 minutes and didn't listen to any of his questions. He was surprised that a hospital did throat surgery on him and other patients and then couldn't dig up an extra pad of paper for him to write them a note. Eventually he learned to carry his own white board and markers but he never made emergency flashcards in advance (mine said things like STOP! PAIN! and CAN'T BREATHE!)
He didn't acknowledge it but Dr. Brook received A LOT of special treatment because he is a doctor. He could walk into a doctor's office and be seen immediately without an appointment. At one point in the book Dr. Brook goes in to have an MRI on a Saturday. On Monday he thinks nothing of strolling into the radiologist's office to discuss the results with the radiologist. When they see something suspicious on the MRI, Dr. Brook wants a biopsy performed immediately. His own surgeon is in the operating room with another patient and Dr. Brook doesn't want to wait so he contacts another surgeon who hasn't treated him and, in 90 minutes, he is in surgery having a biopsy. Minutes after the biopsy is complete they have the results for him. For me, roughly the same process took from August 16 to November 24.
When Dr. Brook wrote an article relating some of his experienced and submitted it to the Journal of the American Medical Association they agreed to publish it only after he removed criticism of his doctors. Dr. Brook had this book published so that he could tell the whole story but he still changed all of the names of doctors who treated him, unlike Grant Achatz who named names in Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat.
Dr. Brook came to the United States from Israel and writes with an accent. I thought that this made the book feel more personal but others may be a little distracted by it.
Dr. Brook is a doctor (now retired) and infectious disease specialist with many years of experience in treating diseases of the head and neck, especially in children. In spite of being a doctor himself, he goes against all the advice I have heard, and chooses a familiar hospital over a specialty hospital and a familiar doctor over an experienced one.
What surprised me about this book was how often Dr. Brook was surprised. He was surprised when a doctor's verbal instructions to a nurse for another patient were carried out on him -- twice. He was surprised that his surgeon on rounds gave him only 15 minutes and didn't listen to any of his questions. He was surprised that a hospital did throat surgery on him and other patients and then couldn't dig up an extra pad of paper for him to write them a note. Eventually he learned to carry his own white board and markers but he never made emergency flashcards in advance (mine said things like STOP! PAIN! and CAN'T BREATHE!)
He didn't acknowledge it but Dr. Brook received A LOT of special treatment because he is a doctor. He could walk into a doctor's office and be seen immediately without an appointment. At one point in the book Dr. Brook goes in to have an MRI on a Saturday. On Monday he thinks nothing of strolling into the radiologist's office to discuss the results with the radiologist. When they see something suspicious on the MRI, Dr. Brook wants a biopsy performed immediately. His own surgeon is in the operating room with another patient and Dr. Brook doesn't want to wait so he contacts another surgeon who hasn't treated him and, in 90 minutes, he is in surgery having a biopsy. Minutes after the biopsy is complete they have the results for him. For me, roughly the same process took from August 16 to November 24.
When Dr. Brook wrote an article relating some of his experienced and submitted it to the Journal of the American Medical Association they agreed to publish it only after he removed criticism of his doctors. Dr. Brook had this book published so that he could tell the whole story but he still changed all of the names of doctors who treated him, unlike Grant Achatz who named names in Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat.
Dr. Brook came to the United States from Israel and writes with an accent. I thought that this made the book feel more personal but others may be a little distracted by it.
June 3, 2020
very detailed - information about an illness from a really different perspective - seems that health care can be really troublesome for the average person, someone without the expert knowledge this doctor has - living with a tragic handicap, the doctor ends the story optimistically
November 5, 2018
Great read 👍👍
This book was amazing. It helps one uh understand some of the thoughts and emotions of someone in this particular predicament. I appreciate Dr. Brook penning his and sharing his experiences.
This book was amazing. It helps one uh understand some of the thoughts and emotions of someone in this particular predicament. I appreciate Dr. Brook penning his and sharing his experiences.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews