Healing- When A Nurse Becomes A Patient by Theresa Brown, RN

Healing- When A Nurse Becomes A Patient by Theresa Brown, RN

Published by Algonquin Books ISBN 9781643750699

Hardcover, $27.95, 272 pages

Theresa Brown, an RN who worked in oncology and hospice, is at a followup scan to her mammogram when a mass is found in her breast. She takes us through her journey as nurse and patient in her moving memoir Healing-When A Nurse Becomes A Patient.

Brown describes in intimate detail being told by the radiologist that she sees "an ugly mass". She writes of calling her college aged twin daughters to pick her up and telling her family what is happening, and it puts every woman in her place. We all have that fear in the pit of our stomach when we go for that mammogram.

Brown also shares her story working as a nurse, what she learned there, and the nurses (good and bad) with whom she worked. As the mother of baby twins and a toddler, Brown felt she knew that speed was most important in her work as a nurse. Her preceptor taught her that it was more important to take time with the patient to truly discover what was going on.

Brown's journey as a cancer patient through the medical system in this country was eye-opening for her. As a nurse who worked in a hospital setting one would think she would know how to get the best care, but she had to transverse many mazes to get the treatment she needed.

Like everyone else, she turned to Google for answers to her questions, but that led to what she called "rabbit holes".  She learned to trust the "safe sites- American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute and the CDC". She found that some breast cancer blogs and websites sponsored by pharmaceutical companies were untrustworthy.

She shared her experiences choosing a surgeon, having to wait too long for results, and arriving at the outpatient surgical center only to be told brusquely that "she wasn't on the list".  After her surgery, she had to undergo four weeks of radiation threatments, and she takes us along with her.

Theresa Brown has a PhD in English, and her writing is crisp, detailed and informative. She doesn't waste a word in this important and personal memoir. One of Brown's biggest takeaways from this experience is that for-profit health care doesn't work for patients. When the biggest motivator is a profit for health care companies and their shareholders, patient care suffers. 

Her other big takeaway is that "treatment can be imbued with kindness and compassion so that caring for ohers feels like the act of grace that it is." The care that people get should not depend on where they live, their skin color or the amount of money they have. Health care is a basic human right.

Healing is an important book, as most of us will face health care crises either as a patient or as the loved one of a patient. I highly recommend it. Brown is also the author of The Shift, about her work as a nurse.

Thanks to Algonquin Books for putting me on Theresa Brown's book tour.

Friday 5ive- April 8, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post featuring five things that caught my attention this week.

1) My birthday was on Thursday, and it's a big birthday so there are lots of festivities. My friends from the Book Cellar celebrated with a luncheon with quiche, salad, a delicious lemon blueberry cake, flowers, and gifts. It was delighftul! I came home to find three more floral arrangements- one each from hy husband, my older son and his wife, and my younger son. Our apartment smells and looks fantastic!

 2) My wonderful husband took me to dinner at The River Cafe, just over the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a lovely Michelin-starred restaurant, tucked away in the DUMBO section right on the water. The menu is a three-course prefixe and it was amazing. I had Tortelloni as my first course, handmade pasta filled with butternut squash and buffalo mozzarella, with a crispy pork guanicale that was so tasty. The Black Sea Bass second course was the best fish I've ever had. For dessert, I had the Chocolate Brooklyn Bridge, such an intricately designed dessert. The giant lobby floral display is spectacular as well. It is a special occasion splurge dinner for sure, one I highly recommend.

3) The laundry room in our apartment building got a makeover with all new machines and now there is an app that you can use to start the machines.  You can put money on the app (no more losing your laundry card), use your phone to start the machines, and even get an notification when your laundry is done. It also tells you how many machines are currently in use so you don't have to lug your laundry down the elevator to the laundry room only to find all of the machines in use. Technology can be good.

4) We're watching Showtime's miniseries Superpumped-The Battle For Uber, created by the same people who produce Billions on Showtime. Joseph Gordon Leavitt portrays Uber founder Travis Kalanick, and Kyle Chandler plays venture capitalist Bill Gurley, who heavily invested in Uber. It's a fascinating look at how Uber became the behemoth disrupter it is, and the rise and fall of Kalanick. We are really enjoying this one. 

5) I read two excellent books this week. Fiona Mozley's Hot Stew, is a fantastic novel about the residents in a building in the Soho section of London. A restaurant occupies the first floor, and a brothel takes up most of the upper floors. The owner wants to evict everyone and raze the building to build luxury condos, but the ladies who work in the brothel will not leave. Mozley brilliantly builds her story and introduces us to all the interesting characters, and how they tie into each other. Algonquin Books is on roll publishing so many powerful books like Thrity Unrigar's Honor, Elena Medel's The Wonders and Kaitlyn Greenidge's Libertie. My full rave review of Hot Stew publishes on Monday.

I read a nonfiction book from Algonquin as well. Theresa Brown's memoir Healing- When A Nurse Becomes A  Patient shares her story of being diagnosed with breast cancer and working her way through the health care system as a nurse and patient. She shares her eye-opening experiences, and many of them are not positive ones. I read this one in just a few hours, unable to put it down. My full review publishes on Tuesday. 

Have a great week everyone.