Graphic Novels and Memoirs

Graphic novels are powerful educational instruments for patients, 
their families, medical professionals and students.  A list of these 
was compiled in 201? by . These books are in the broad genre of 
pathography. 

See: Graphic Novels and Memoirs. 

The Long Road Home

One Step at a Time by G.B. Trudeau

This is an amazing graphic novel.

Story synopsis: Former football star and coach Lieutenant DB, a military reservist,  gets his left leg blown off by an RPG whilst on patrol in a Humvee outside Fallujah. As he drifts in an out of consciousness he is Medevac’d to a field hospital for resuscitation.  From the field hospital ward he makes the call home to tell his wife he has lost a leg, quipping that the good news is that he is down to his ideal weight. So begins his journey home, via Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, where he is joined by his wife Boopsie, to Walter Reed Army Medical Center,  then to Fisher House and then home, where one gets the feeling that his journey is only just beginning. His stuggle to readjust to life as an ‘amp’ is counterpointed by excellent black humoured gags. He’s an ‘AK’ (above knee) so he gets the ‘cool’ hardware- a C-Leg that costs as much as a Lexus.

It has a sequel, that I haven't read ye called The War Within that is available online!

Graphic novels have the potential to tell a story really well. "The Long Road Home" is a valuable resource.

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Sick (2018)

by Porochista Khakpour

“Sick, A Memoir” appears to be an illness narrative of the chaos variety.  There are three types of illness narratives and they have been extensively dissected and discussed by Arthur Frank in “The Wounded Storyteller.”  Often, there are overlaps between the chaos, quest and restitution stories.  Chaos is the most disturbing and difficult story, because it can not be well articulated and leaves the witness uneasy.  We all prefer hearing about someone who overcame adversity and triumphed.  Hamlet asks. “Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer/The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?”  The chaos actor is adrift on the “sea of troubles” and can not make sense of what is happening.

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I have not read the book yet.  It will come out on Audible on 7/10/2018.

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p53 and Me

by Shekinah N.C. Elmore, MD

NEJM May 24, 2018

This is an extraordinary Perspective  piece in the New England Journal by a young oncology resident who has the p53  mutation. This is seen in people with Li-Fraumani syndrome.

" A mutation like mine threatens to consume your whole imagination, especially with regards to the future. You start making crazy calculations..."

" Genetic knowledge is power only if both clinician and patient are equipped to move beyond a result and toward action, even if that merely means living well with what we know."

 She feels that people like her need to be studied not just for the data of their genomics but to help build programs for learning to teach people how to live with the uncertainties that their mutations will engender. 

This short essay is has many valuable teaching moments. She says, "I want as many of my days as possible to be untethered to the scans, biopsies and long waiting room sojourns. This is a cry from one who has been there for minimally disruptive medicine.

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Portraits of Resilience

by Daniel Jackson

MIT Press 2017

Amazon Link.

This is an important book. The students, faculty, and staff who are portrayed are bravely candid. 

The impetus for the book likely derived from and attempt to understand and impact on the high suicide rate of MIT students.  There are many reasons for this and it is not the purport of the book to delve into them.  Suicide rate is the tip of the iceberg of depression, anxiety and burnout and sometimes just bad luck that patients experience; and MIT with its rigorous curriculum may be a more stressful venue for students than most, if not all, other institutions of higher learning.

Portraits in Resilience is a must read for any in the caring or teaching professions.

Link to review. 

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Dying

by Cory Taylor, (2016)

Everybody dies too early or too late.  Sartre

Cory Taylor was a brave, articulate, outspoken Aussie 

who died in 2016, at age 61, of melanoma. This 

memoir is honest and raw. It describes a chaotic 

family with lots of dysfunction. 

At 141 pages, it's a short book that is a quick, easy 

educational read for care-givers and patients.

If you are interested see Google Docs Notes. 

The Mothers

by Brit Bennett

This is an important novel about the abortion with special reference to the African-American community.  It was written over a seven year period by an author who was 24 when it was published in late 2016.  It is a captivating story that gives insights into abortion, the black community, teenagers and the striving of some kids to choose a differentlife.


NY Times Review.