Description
A powerful and inspiring memoir about how one mans cancer diagnosis led to him become a doctor and advocate for change in the healthcare system
At the age of twentyeight with his Beijingbased science communications business doing well and a new relationship blossoming Ben Bravery woke from a colonoscopy to be told he had stage 3 colorectal cancer
As a scientist Ben understood the seriousness of his condition Cancer had quite literally whacked him in the guts after all But what he didnt expect was how being a patient and a young one at that would make him feel Why hadnt he been better prepared for the embarrassment and vulnerability of lying naked on the radiation table Why wasnt he warned about the sheer number of tubes he would discover coming out of his body after surgery Why did it feel like an imposition to ask doctors about his pain on their ward rounds And why did he have to repeat the same information to them over and over again During eighteen long months of treatment including aggressive chemotherapy Ben felt scared overwhelmed sometimes invisible and often alone
As he recovered it struck Ben that after everything hed been through he couldnt go back to his former career He needed a change and he wanted to make change He wanted to become a doctor He passed the entrance exam and dived headfirst into the challenges of medical school including an unrelenting timetable terrifying ward rounds and the difficulty of maintaining compassion under pressure
Now driven by his experience on both sides of the healthcare system this patientturneddoctor gives a noholdsbarred account of how he overcame the trauma of his illness to study medicine and shares what he believes student doctors doctors patients and their families need to do to ensure that the medical system puts the patient at the very heart of healthcare every day
Honest powerful eyeopening and sometimes heartwrenchingly funny this is an inspiring memoir that shows that no matter our situation we all need to be treated with care and compassion right until the very end
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