Author Topic: ANA Book Club?  (Read 406065 times)

ppearl214

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #15 on: March 03, 2008, 09:25:25 am »
Karen,

I am sending every bit of white light I can send your way. I'm sorry to hear you have had it so dang rough! I wish I could do more.... huggles for wellness... white light, cuz you know why! :)

Please hang tough!
Phyl
"Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness", Capt Jack Sparrow - Davy Jones Locker, "Pirates of the Carribbean - At World's End"

Sue

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #16 on: March 03, 2008, 12:46:14 pm »
Wow, that doctor gets an "F" for bedside manner.  That's rude and highly unethical, I think!  But, then I guess Doctors have bad days too.  Maybe his wife just left him, his son left town to join the circus, his daughter is 15 and preggers, and he went off his lithium!  But...still.  He shouldn't oughta treat you like that.

Sue in Vancouver
Sue in Vancouver, USA
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Omaschwannoma

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #17 on: March 03, 2008, 12:56:41 pm »
Thanks Pearl.  As you know I am over three years post surgery and the initial dx of tumor return was not so--or so they are telling me even today.  I am in recovery/rehab now from labyrinthectomy procedure done this February.  Most recent MR showed inflammation/hemohrrage in cochlea and surrounding area.  I was experiencing oscillopsia, headaches, nausea, "tiltawhirl-type" vertigo, seizure-like episodes (feeling I was 10-feet tall) and walking with cane so I wouldn't fall backwards.  This procedure is successful for me.  I feel much better, yesterday the oscillopsia has almost gone away.  No more seizure-type feelings and headaches are gone!  WOW!  This only took three years to correct!  Can't really blame my neurotologist as what I described to him sounded as if I should be seeking out neurologist for dx.  Thus came the problems as the neurologist in town insisted my tumor was there and to drive the five hours back to my surgeons office and tell him so!  Also mumbled to me as he turned his back, "This is the problem when you go out of town for surgery."  Make a long story short with him, he ordered another MR only to be proven wrong, then came the EEG's, blood tests, all negative, only to tell me to seek psych counsel!  Frustration, humiliation set in for months.  Then sought ENT in town for his dx where he listened, talked to neurotologist about possibly Menier's Disease/Hydrops and to see this guy for tx.  I drove one hour to see him fully thinking he's going to help with the MD.  Within five minutes this guy was yelling at me to keep quiet, it's his "show" and if I didn't like it, go to someone else!  All because I brought paper on treating MD and herpes virus.  He was fuming at this.  He needs anger mgmt. classes.  My husband couldn't believe this guy either.  In the end after ABR, EECOG, ENG, he dx me with nystagmus, stop taking ibuprofen as this is causing my headaches, tinnitus and to see neurologist!  Major frustration set in until I saw my surgeon at the July Symposium and posed some questions to him.  I sent him all workups and WHALLAH, my recent dx and the tx.  He was very apologetic and said he learned alot from me.  According to him I'm his third patient out of multiple hundreds he's treated that has not adjusted well after surgery.  I am now on the road to feeling like most surgery AN patients--very little problems!  
1/05 Retrosigmoid 1.5cm AN left ear, SSD
2/08 Labyrinthectomy left ear 
Dr. Patrick Antonelli Shands at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
12/09 diagnosis of semicircular canal dehiscence right ear

Gennysmom

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #18 on: March 03, 2008, 05:19:29 pm »
I tried to start a book club before, but no real takers....would still love to do it.  Matti and I are reading "A New Earth" and sharing comments about it, and although I'm signed up for the class too, I have Yoga for most of it but am trying to do it kind of vicariously. 

"I had Brain Surgery, what's your excuse"  is the best so far of the brain books.  I have "Another day in the frontal lobe" too, but haven't finished it.  Also "The brain that heals itself" is fascinating!  Would reccomend that highly!

As for non-brain related books, "The Kite Runner" is excellent!  I haven't read "A Thousand Splendid Suns" yet, but am planning to.  Shall we do a sign up?  The way we did the one here at work, everyone was assigned a book for the month, but we could do 2 or 3 months per book????  And if you guys have Skype downloaded, we can do a group chat on it!!!  Whaddya think?

Would also like to read Atonement (movie was good) and Water for Elephants sounds good too.   
3.1cm x 2.0cm x 2.1cm rt AN Translab 7/5/06
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OMG16

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #19 on: March 03, 2008, 10:18:49 pm »
Karen I am so sorry to hear about your treatment.  3 months waiting for results is just wrong.  Not to mention the other Drs their behavior is just abusive and should not have to be tolerated.  I have found to take multiple people with you to Drs appt and this keeps them in line.  My infectious disease Dr said that this is how Drs act when they are unsure of themselves and that it is their problem and should not make it yours.  He also said to never let anyone treat you this way period.  I'm very glad you are doing better.  Keep us posted.

As far as the book club goes I believe the decision has been made for non-fiction.  Now all we need to do is vote on which book and what time frame.

I'm easy so just let me know what you all decide.
I believe you are given choices in life and it is not what has happened to you that defines who you are.  It is how you handle the situation and finding the positive in an almost hopeless situation that counts the most.  My son is my hero and I have had the pleasure of learning this from him.

Kate B

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #20 on: March 04, 2008, 06:45:27 am »

Now all we need to do is vote on which book and what time frame.

I'm easy so just let me know what you all decide.

I am easy too...My three suggestions: Two are on the NY Times List..Elephants is #2 and My Sister's Keeper is #31 cause it is several years old; however it remains on the list....My third choice is Loving Frank (about Frank Lloyd Wright's personal life) This book is beginning to circulate as a book club choice  by people in Suburban Chicagoland.

Water For Elephants or My Sister's Keeper

From Publishers Weekly: Water For Elephants
With its spotlight on elephants, Gruen's romantic page-turner hinges on the human-animal bonds that drove her debut and its sequel (Riding Lessons and Flying Changes)—but without the mass appeal that horses hold. The novel, told in flashback by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski, recounts the wild and wonderful period he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus he joined during the Great Depression. When 23-year-old Jankowski learns that his parents have been killed in a car crash, leaving him penniless, he drops out of Cornell veterinary school and parlays his expertise with animals into a job with the circus, where he cares for a menagerie of exotic creatures[...] He also falls in love with Marlena, one of the show's star performers—a romance complicated by Marlena's husband, the unbalanced, sadistic circus boss who beats both his wife and the animals Jankowski cares for. Despite her often clichéd prose and the predictability of the story's ending, Gruen skillfully humanizes the midgets, drunks, rubes and freaks who populate her book. (May 26)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


From Publishers Weekly re My Sister's KeeperThe difficult choices a family must make when a child is diagnosed with a serious disease are explored with pathos and understanding in this 11th novel by Picoult (Second Glance, etc.). The author, who has taken on such controversial subjects as euthanasia (Mercy), teen suicide (The Pact) and sterilization laws (Second Glance), turns her gaze on genetic planning, the prospect of creating babies for health purposes and the ethical and moral fallout that results. Kate Fitzgerald has a rare form of leukemia. Her sister, Anna, was conceived to provide a donor match for procedures that become increasingly invasive. At 13, Anna hires a lawyer so that she can sue her parents for the right to make her own decisions about how her body is used when a kidney transplant is planned. Meanwhile, Jesse, the neglected oldest child of the family, is out setting fires, which his firefighter father, Brian, inevitably puts out. Picoult uses multiple viewpoints to reveal each character's intentions and observations, but she doesn't manage her transitions as gracefully as usual; a series of flashbacks are abrupt. Nor is Sara, the children's mother, as well developed and three-dimensional as previous Picoult protagonists. Her devotion to Kate is understandable, but her complete lack of sympathy for Anna's predicament until the trial does not ring true, nor can we buy that Sara would dust off her law degree and represent herself in such a complicated case. Nevertheless, Picoult ably explores a complex subject with bravado and clarity, and comes up with a heart-wrenching, unexpected plot twist at the book's conclusion.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly re Loving FrankHoran's ambitious first novel is a fictionalization of the life of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, best known as the woman who wrecked Frank Lloyd Wright's first marriage. Despite the title, this is not a romance, but a portrayal of an independent, educated woman at odds with the restrictions of the early 20th century. Frank and Mamah, both married and with children, met when Mamah's husband, Edwin, commissioned Frank to design a house. Their affair became the stuff of headlines when they left their families to live and travel together, going first to Germany, where Mamah found rewarding work doing scholarly translations of Swedish feminist Ellen Key's books. Frank and Mamah eventually settled in Wisconsin, where they were hounded by a scandal-hungry press, with tragic repercussions. Horan puts considerable effort into recreating Frank's vibrant, overwhelming personality, but her primary interest is in Mamah, who pursued her intellectual interests and love for Frank at great personal cost. As is often the case when a life story is novelized, historical fact inconveniently intrudes: Mamah's life is cut short in the most unexpected and violent of ways, leaving the narrative to crawl toward a startlingly quiet conclusion. Nevertheless, this spirited novel brings Mamah the attention she deserves as an intellectual and feminist. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.



« Last Edit: March 04, 2008, 06:58:17 am by Kate B »
Kate
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Omaschwannoma

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #21 on: March 04, 2008, 08:25:56 am »
My recent book I am reading and find very interesting is Survival of the Sickest, Dr. Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince.  A medical maverick discovers why we need disease.  This was given to me by my neighbor who suffers from and in the process of a cure for lyme disease.  I recommend this one IMHO. 
1/05 Retrosigmoid 1.5cm AN left ear, SSD
2/08 Labyrinthectomy left ear 
Dr. Patrick Antonelli Shands at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
12/09 diagnosis of semicircular canal dehiscence right ear

Lorenzo

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #22 on: March 04, 2008, 11:29:49 am »
all sounds like a great idea, but not for me. I can't read much anymore. Would take me a year to read a book. Last one took me three months. And I used to read one every couple of weeks! Darn. Sigh...  lol  My preferences for the last few books: 'In praise of Slow' by Carl Honore; 'Complications' by Atul Gawande; the Suzy Brecker one mentioned earlier; 'What should I do with my life' by Po Bronson; 'Stiff' by Mary Roach (not to everybody's taste); and a couple of others I can't remember.
Ciao, Lorenzo
CK, Stanford, Drs Chang and Hancock, Dec 04,
doing great now.

lori67

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #23 on: March 04, 2008, 12:11:00 pm »
Ok, first, K - you should not be reading at stop lights.  Especially if I happen to be behind you when the light turns green.

i'm not much of a reader anymore (who has time?), but i just finished Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" and "For Just One More Day" (or is it "another" day...).  They were both great and easy, quick reads.

Other than that, if it doesn't involve Cookie Monster, Ernie and Bert or Sam I am, I probably haven't read it yet.

Lori
Right 3cm AN diagnosed 1/2007.  Translab resection 2/20/07 by Dr. David Kaylie and Dr. Karl Hampf at Baptist Hospital in Nashville.  R side deafness, facial nerve paralysis.  Tarsorraphy and tear duct cauterization 5/2007.  BAHA implant 11/8/07. 7-12 nerve jump 9/26/08.

matti

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #24 on: March 04, 2008, 01:42:58 pm »
Lorenzo - Since my surgery nearly 10 years ago, I find it very difficult to read a book. I get very fatigued from the sensory overload and must stop and close my eyes for 10 minutes (thank youTony for that tip).  The same issue occurs while on the computer.

Suzanne/Shoegirl - did you have problems getting the video stream on Oprah's book club last night. I was only able to see 10 seconds of it. I hope they correct the problem for next week.

Cheryl
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Lorenzo

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #25 on: March 04, 2008, 01:48:09 pm »
Cheryl, I used to read for an hour or more every night before sleep, as way of winding down from the day. Now, I open a page, read half of it, and I'm more likely to sleep with the book on my face than reading. I don't even remember what i read. I tend to get stuck on the same page, never mind the same chapter! During the day I just can't concentrate much on reading either. Just very frustrating, and one of the things I miss the most post treatment! Sigh.
Ciao, Lorenzo
CK, Stanford, Drs Chang and Hancock, Dec 04,
doing great now.

ppearl214

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #26 on: March 04, 2008, 02:01:41 pm »
I'm in the same boat Cheryl and Lorenzo. Focus/concentration is difficult, esp. when reading... although (kbonner and I have spoken about it here in the past) doing puzzles like Sudoku and such does help me with focus.....I did read a book last week (easy read, finished in 3 days, over 200 pgs) and it was a struggle, but was able to complete it (CB was so proud of me!  I think he bought me a fattening treat as a congrats on my focus present....as he knew it was a tough struggle for me).

Phyl
"Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness", Capt Jack Sparrow - Davy Jones Locker, "Pirates of the Carribbean - At World's End"

Lorenzo

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #27 on: March 04, 2008, 02:04:32 pm »
i just went to read a food magazine and I just gave up on that too. Not my reaing day obviously!!  LOL
CK, Stanford, Drs Chang and Hancock, Dec 04,
doing great now.

ppearl214

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #28 on: March 04, 2008, 02:12:22 pm »
i just went to read a food magazine and I just gave up on that too. Not my reaing day obviously!!  LOL

It was the wrong kind of food you were reading about, hence, lack of focus... go for a more exotic choice of food style... you know, like how to cook 80 meals using octopus... that'll help! ;)

Phyl
"Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness", Capt Jack Sparrow - Davy Jones Locker, "Pirates of the Carribbean - At World's End"

OMG16

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Re: ANA Book Club?
« Reply #29 on: March 04, 2008, 02:38:52 pm »
Lorenzo and Phyl my son to has to work so hard at reading that he does not retain the info.  He has been doing visual rehab exercises that help.  Have you seen a good neuro-opthamologist that can see how your eyes are working together for tracking and what not.  There are also books on tape, not really the same though.  I will sometimes read outloud to my son.  It could be fun for you guys and your lovely significant others to try this.  Just some of my thoughts.  Wishing both of you well and kisses to your forehead of course.  :-*  :-* 16
I believe you are given choices in life and it is not what has happened to you that defines who you are.  It is how you handle the situation and finding the positive in an almost hopeless situation that counts the most.  My son is my hero and I have had the pleasure of learning this from him.