This was a difficult book to read because it's a collection of the author's thoughts about the end of her life, when she was diagnosed at age 37 with stage 4 (metastatic) colon cancer. She was a loving mother to two very young girls, wife to her husband, daughter to her parents, and sister to her older siblings. It was a devastating diagnosis and a heartbreaking journey that she took for the next almost five years, until she sadly died painful death characteristic of many stage 4 cancers. Her intent was to have this chronicle of her death published posthumously as almost a love letter to her family. What a gift for them!
I found her thoughts were raw and honest and the book was very well-written. I only wish we learned more about her life and culture as a nearly blind Chinese refuge who escaped on an over-crowded fishing boat to Hong Kong from Vietnam -- all before she emigrated to the United State at age four.
What I don't understand are the many harsh reviews. How can people criticize her painful journey towards her premature death and the treatment and other decisions she made along the way? How can reviewers tell her which spiritual or religious paths she should have taken? How can people be jealous of the fact that she studied very hard and graduated from an elite college and law school and that she and her husband made a generous living by working hard, long hours? Or that she didn't have to work while she was undergoing chemotherapy because her husband was earning a living? Why does this book necessarily have to be compared to Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air memoir, a book I also read and admire? Can't Kalanithi's and Yip-Williams's memoirs stand on their own for their own merits and the life stories they told? Why are reviewers faulting the book because it's sad and depressing at times? How could a book about a young woman and mother in her prime of life dying from cancer NOT be sad or depressing?
I just don't understand the harsh reviews. However, I recommend the book if you want to hear about how one person dealt with a devastating and painful cancer diagnosis.
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Reviews with images
Poignant, hilarious, heartbreaking reflection on the current state of medicine
‘This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries if a Junior Doctor” by Adam Kay is a tough but important read. The author starts off “After 6 years of training and a further 6 years on the wards, I resigned my job as a junior doctor. My parents still haven’t forgiven me" and finishes with “Why should anyone train to be a doctor anymore?” In between he recounts story after story of life as a medical student and trainee in obstetrics and gynecology in the UK around 2010. Between f-bombs, several stories about objects in body cavities and scrubs soaked in bodily fluids, the author weaves in his reflections on the medical profession now and where it’s going. The first 30ish pages are not engaging and I couldn’t identify with the author’s perspective but stick with the book because it comes through slowly in little hints. I finished the book thinking through the choices I’ve personally made and how tough it must have been for someone to walk away from the field he’s trained in for so long. It’s painful to be on the other side of medical training, very happy with my current career, colleagues, and choices, but remember just how hard it was to get here. The author pleas for hospitals and administration to care for the emotional wellness of physicians and all medical providers. Doctors are supposed to be superheroes and get to work no matter what but we are human too. We all need to ‘Chip away at the ingrained notion that doctors and nurses don’t need to, or shouldn’t, talk about (bad outcomes, mistakes, abuse from patients, insert more here) because that same ingrained notion is partly responsible for the huge rise in people leaving the profession, the rise in stress-related absence, illness, and…suicide. We all need someone to talk to..Care for the Carer." Excellent read. @drlorashahine
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Top reviews from other countries
Rafaëlle Demontis
Quase uma autobiografia médica.
Reviewed in Brazil on December 25, 2022
Mrs. L. A. Lee
FIVE stars ……from me……Enjoyable, funny, heartbreaking reading……I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2022