Medical Diseases

Allie Cashel has suffered from chronic Lyme disease for 16 years - but much of the medical community refuses to recognize her symptoms as the result of infectious disease. In Suffering the Silence: Chronic Lyme Disease in an Age of Denial, Cashel paints a living portrait of what is often called post-treatment Lyme syndrome, featuring the stories of chronic Lyme patients from around the world and their struggle for recognition and treatment.

In this book, Stephen G. Post offers new perspectives on the worth and dignity of people with Alzheimer's and related disorders despite the negative influence of "hypercognitive" values that place an ethically unacceptable emphasis on human dignity as based on linear rationality and strength of memory. With vignettes and narratives, he argues for a deeper dignity grounded in consciousness, emotional presence, creativity, interdependence, music, and a self that is not "gone" but "differently abled."

Finding a cancerous lump in her breast seven weeks after a clean mammogram was terrifying. But fitness expert and race announcer Fitz Koehler refused to play the victim or allow cancer to steal her extraordinary career or time with family. In My Noisy Cancer Comeback, Fitz reveals the juicy and gory details of her 16-month battle, all while zigzagging across the United States.

Patti M. Hall’s life is pitched into an abyss of uncertainty when a golf ball-sized tumour is discovered in her teenage son’s head and he is diagnosed with gigantism, a disease of both legend and stigma. After scrambling to access a handful of medical experts in the field, Patti learns that her son could grow uncontrollably, his mobility could be permanently limited, and his life could be cut short without timely and aggressive treatment. Patti’s attention shifts fully to her son, away from her relationships as well as her own career and health.

Leaving London to return home to rural South Wales, Robyn finds that it's her old life - same teddy bears resting on her pillow, their bodies tucked under the duvet; same view of the garages behind which she'd had her first cigarette and first kiss - but so much has changed. Her dad, the proud, charmingly intelligent self-made man who made people laugh, was in the grip of early onset Alzheimer's. His brilliant mind, which saw him building power stations and literally bringing light into the lives of others, had succumbed to darkness.

Hi! I'm Ann Hester, M.D., the board-certified physician with over 25 years of experience who wrote this book to empower you like never before. Please, think of me as Ann, a friend who happens to be a physician who will share a wealth of information to help you change your healthcare trajectory forever. Patient Empowerment 101 will impact how you approach your medical care for the rest of your life. It's a fun read, full of pictures, charts, and questionnaires. No boring medical jargon here. You can even access a website that reinforces concepts taught in the book. In addition, you can take ...

Dr. George Cotzias lived a large life. He stood over six feet tall; he drank Metaxa like milk; he smoked cigarettes as if eating candy. He bullied patients, sometimes looming over their wasted bodies. He had “a stare as strong as death”. His passion for women, his wife, and others was infamous. His voice boomed through the halls of the hospital where he was chief of physiology research.

Living in the Belgian Congo with her husband in the 1960s, Fran’s mother became pregnant with a daughter. However, right after she gave birth in the hospital, she felt strange. Unbeknownst to anyone, another daughter was on the way, but before anybody responded, an hour had passed. Because of the delay, Fran was born with cerebral palsy. Growing up with her siblings in Africa, Fran always felt different. When everyone else was playing and having fun, she would watch and wish she could join in.

Chet Tremaine is living his best life. A successful lawyer with a loyal best friend, the arts and culture of New York City at his doorstep, and a peaceful retreat in Connecticut, Chet has it figured out. Even when a freak tennis accident leaves him blind in one eye, Chet is confident he'll be able to bounce back. But then he starts hallucinating: unknown children playing in his living room, pine needles seasoning his salad, wire grids barring access to his bathroom. His doctor allays his worst fears, only to deliver an even more shocking diagnosis.

Every 69 seconds, someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Of the top 10 killers, it is the only disease for which there is no cure or treatment. For most people, there is nothing that they can do to fight back. But one family is doing all they can. The DeMoe family has the most devastating form of the disease that there is: early onset Alzheimer's, an inherited genetic mutation that causes the disease in 100 percent of cases, and has a 50 percent chance of being passed onto the next generation.

Diagnosed with a late-stage cancer after years of bungled and inadequate medical attention...and then to discover the best-practice chemotherapy is not available in your province. A true story, The Cancer Olympics is a suspenseful and poignant treatment of an unthinkable situation, an account of advocacy and survival that explores our deepest values regarding democracy, medicine, and friendship.

The End of Miracles is a twisting, haunting story about the drastic consequences of a frustrated obsession. A woman with a complex past wants nothing more than to become a mother, but struggles with infertility and miscarriage. She is temporarily comforted by a wish-fulfilling false pregnancy, but when reality inevitably dashes that fantasy, she falls into a depression so deep she must be hospitalized.

Crash: Stories From the Emergency Room is a gripping anthology series that takes readers inside the hectic world of emergency room medicine through the eyes of different doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and paramedics. Each book contains a collection of stories told from their unique perspectives as they cope with the controlled chaos and high stakes of trying to save lives. The stories range from high-adrenaline rescues following accidents and disasters to quieter but equally emotional moments dealing with terminal illness and end-of-life care. While some recount dramatic cases that pushed...

In The Cancer Code, Dr Jason Fung offers a revolutionary new understanding of this invasive, often fatal disease – what it is, how it manifests and why it is so challenging to treat. In this rousing narrative, Dr Fung identifies the medical community’s many missteps in cancer research – in particular, its focus on genetics, or what he terms the ‘seed’ of cancer, at the expense of examining the ‘soil,’ or the conditions under which cancer flourishes.

Code Blue: Tales from the Emergency Room plunges readers into the frenetic, high-stakes world of emergency medicine, providing an intimate look at the life-altering moments that unfold within hospital walls. Curated from the firsthand accounts of healthcare professionals, each story offers a raw, poignant snapshot of the challenges, decisions, and emotional journeys encountered in the ER. From the heart-wrenching to the heartwarming, these narratives shed light on the human spirit's resilience in the face of crisis, and the compassion and heroism of those dedicated to saving lives. More ...

What's one of the leading causes of premature death in the Western world? Loneliness. And whom does loneliness kill? Who does it not? For every citizen in every one of the world's technologically advanced nations--from homemakers to businesspeople, from college students to school dropouts, from the elderly to the young--loneliness is an unrecognized, unguarded-against stalker.

In his downtown Toronto condo, Dr. Chen awakens to the sound of streetcars below, but it is not the early morning traffic that keeps him from sleep. News banners run across his phone: Fentanyl Crisis; Toxic Drug Supply; Record Number of Deaths. From behind the headlines, on the same screen, glow the faces of his patients, the faces of the what-ifs: What if he had done more, or less; or something different? Would they still be alive?

A journey through the deepest valleys and highest peaks of parenting. When a two-month old baby falls ill, his apparently ordinary symptoms turn out to signal a rare and lethal immune deficiency. For parents Miguel Sancho and Felicia Morton, the discovery that their son, Sebastian, has chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) upends their lives and leaves the family with few options, all of them terrifying.

This taut yet lyrical memoir tells of the author’s experience with a baffling illness poised to take her sight, and gives a deeply felt meditation on vulnerability and on what it means to lose the faith you had and find something better. One day at the end of 2009, during a routine eye exam that Nora Gallagher nearly skipped, her doctor said, “Darn.” Her right optic nerve was inflamed, the cause unknown, a condition that if left untreated would cause her to lose her sight.

-Extraordinary encounters. Unexpected humor. Endless challenges. Life-threatening diseases. Unthinkable trauma.- From peculiar conditions and mysterious ailments to remarkable recoveries and perplexing medical mysteries, Stat: Crazy Medical Stories, draws from real-life accounts. Each chapter unveils crazy medical cases as narrated by the healthcare professionals themselves. The stories take you on a captivating journey across various disciplines, including general medicine, surgery, psychiatry, and more. Prepare for a rollercoaster of emotions; you’ll laugh, cry, and be shocked as you ...