3 excellent new books.
Disclaimer: I have no financial connection to any of these books.
My husband’s recent overnight stay in the local hospital is a perfect example of how our health services delivery system works. All the countless number of doctors did was to rule out a heart attack by ordering a series of increasingly expensive tests. As we were both frightened, we wanted to know what was going on. The main doctor used this fear to recommend tests in such a way that we felt he’d be committing suicide not to consent. Once the rounds of tests were completed, she then used are fear to strongly advise an overnight stay (“if anything happens, your husband could be a vegetable unless care is immediate.”).
I was able to use my intensive care experience and knowledge to refuse some testing as I fought for some level of knowledgeable control. If particular enzyme levels in his blood were zero at admission, and zero 6 hours later, there was no point in repeating them 16 hours later, despite encouragement of the physician based on the “just in case” concept. We left nearly $10,000 poorer, with no official idea of what was going on.
Once wrong personal information was entered and locked into the system, it could never be changed despite our requests. The inaccuracies contributed to more stress as he already had to tell his complete story to every single person entering his cubicle. “You tell me the story again to be sure I got the details right” was what he was told when he protested that he had, “just told 4 people the whole story already.” We were on a runaway train, hurtling somewhere at light speed to a far destination, the Promised Land of Feeling Better and Being Okay.
When you are scared about dying, it doesn’t matter how much anything costs; if you want to live, you surrender your bank account and future earnings in the primal desire to avert disaster. Mr Bush correctly names our fear of death the fuel for much of our current health services delivery system, aka modern health care.
Mr Bush is a nephew of a president, and the cousin of another; he is far more expressively intelligent than his cousin. He paints a clear picture of why and about how medical care has turned into a series of expensive tests in a runaway fee for service factory system. He offers insights from the real world of business medicine that made me view that system in a new light, and gain understanding of why it is such an expensive mess.
My favorite critical books are those that also offer ideas for improvement. Mr Bush uses business models that have worked wonderfully in other arenas to support his ideas. Highly recommended.
My husband’s recent overnight stay in the local giant hospital factory is also a perfect example of how little doctors listen to patients and rely instead on machines and test results. After nearly $10,000 in charges, including an echocardiogram and an overnight stay, he came home with no diagnosis. All the doctors did was to rule out a heart attack. During our crisis, when the main physician was tending to us, she was also tending to her cell phone, and saying that she was very busy and that someone else, the resident would carry out her plan. We left the next day, after a sleepless night, without any any in-depth discussion, and with only prescriptions for more testing.
No doctor ever identified that my husband’s chest pain was the result of overeating, with resultant stomach distention pressing on his heart, distorting its shape and making its presence felt, and subsequently leading to symptoms that terrified him enough to boost his blood pressure. As I have been through this before, when his fear of a heart attack led to panic and expensive hospitalization, I was able to stay calm this time, and say, “We’ve been through this before. Let’s just get home and you lie down and rest.” Then we got home and I measured his blood pressure; twice, it was 188 over 119. I got scared and we went to the ER. There was no waiting at the ER gate once the magic words were uttered, “I am having chest pain.”
The one who figured it out was me, and I work for free. He was never short of breath, nor sweating, or unable to converse intelligently. His initial tests, EKG and oxygen levels were in normal ranges. His symptoms started going away once we were in an ER cubicle, waiting to be seen. He even said so, and no none listened. If a physician had noticed his improvement, and sat down and chatted, we could have been home after a few more hours, instead of the next day.
The wonderful part of this book is that it is immediately useful as it provides scripts for dealing with physicians. Once these scripts are read, they stick in my mind. Examples of how these scripts work, forcing the physician to look beyond the chief complaint, the drop-down menu, and to connect with the whole person reinforce their value. That is enough to make this book worthwhile, and highly recommended.
Who doesn’t love a true love story? This tale of a surfer girl turned graduate student meeting a Libyan and being surprised into love is well-crafted, clear and deep. While the superficial details are about two people who meet, connect, marry and birth two children, the story is really about the differences between cultures and the willingness to let love open one’s soul and transform one’s being.
My favorite type of books are small but not tiny, and succinctly written; more reasons I enjoy this book. It contains statements that inspire revisiting and reflection, such as, “To validate our own pain, we deny the pain of others. But only in acknowledging others’ pain can we achieve our full humanity.” (p. 252). I enjoyed the impact of such statements as they settled through the layers of my soul, making me pause to think as I read. I find myself going back to re-read particular passages and being envious of a spiritual awakening such as I have never had. Reading how a woman raised in the USA bridged the enormous chasm between different worlds to her Libyan husband, and about how she came through the years of shared life to discover the meaning of love and the value of prayer is fascinating. Highly recommended.
