Bedside Manners: One Doctor's Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters Between Patient and Healer [Hardcover]

David Watts M.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 2005

In beautifully crafted vignettes, physician and NPR commentator David Watts explores the world of modern-day medicine and reveals the emotional truths and practical realities at the heart of the doctor-patient relationship. Bedside Manners is an engaging, often surprising investigation into what happens when we sit down and talk openly about vital issues of health and mortality.

Combining the grace and precision of a poet with the down-to-earth, compassionate manner of a doctor who deals with the problems of real people every day, Watts describes situations both odd and touching: the patient who stays awake during an endoscopy to ward off demons; the woman who recites poetry to get through a frightening treatment; the man who arrives at Watts’s office bearing Internet research on syndromes that have little to do with his own condition; and the seventy-four-year-old architect who faces a tough cancer diagnosis with dignity and courage.

Readers will come away from these tales of difficult diagnoses, irreverent colleagues, brave survivors, and examining-room poseurs sharing Watts’s own sense of humbled astonishment. As he tells each story, Watts closes for the reader the protective distance many doctors employ, and touches all of us who have felt vulnerable in the position of patient. Refreshing, wry, and reassuring, Bedside Manners holds important lessons for both healers and those who seek their help.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Sickness brings out the worst in people.... Many of my patients exhibit neurotic behavior.... But generally, their basic attitude is that of prayer—an almost desperate pleading for mercy at the hands of illness." These words by Watts, a poet and commentator on NPR as well as a practicing physician, exemplify his nuanced and thoughtful attitude toward his patients. Both empathetic and practical, Watts relates encounters that have informed his ability to understand, diagnose and treat sickness. In "The Morbius Monster," a youngish man suffering from severe indigestion asks to be heavily sedated during an endoscopy, but even while unconscious resists the procedure. Through intuition and sensitive questioning, Watts elicits an account of early child abuse, and with the patient's cooperation, talks him through a second test with local anesthetic. In another case, Watts describes the day when, beset by the demands of his schedule, he reluctantly went to a convalescent home to visit Codger, an elderly Jewish man who was a garrulous curmudgeon. After listening to Codger's tale of how he came upon the death camps as an American soldier in WWII, Watts concludes that by making the time to see and listen to this patient, he made a human connection. All of the incidents related here, whether sad, frustrating or inconclusive, are unfailingly compelling.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

As he relates stories his patients have shared with him, stories in which he has participated, both as physician and storyteller, it is easy to see that Watts loves words, and not just his own but his patients' as well. His storyteller's ear is fully attentive while he meets with a man whose 93-year-old wife is refusing medical intervention for her gangrenous leg, with the sexy young drug addict he "inherited" when his mentor died, and with the recently struck bicyclist--who he is almost certain will die--that he encounters as he drives his son to a piano lesson. The power of what they say, and what is unsaid, leaps from the page as Watts draws us into these anonymous sufferers' most personal stories. Watts' gift for sensing what is not said in their discussions of the illnesses and deaths of themselves and their loved ones allows him to fill the pages with penetrating images. This book virtually defies classification. Is it poetry, medical nonfiction, or some delightful combination of them? Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harmony (February 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400080517
• ISBN-13: 978-1400080519
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,455,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His Horse Wanted Prose, March 15, 2005

By 

Melanie Austin, MD (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bedside Manners: One Doctor's Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters Between Patient and Healer (Hardcover)

Be forewarned-in David Watts' new book, "Bedside Manners", you may encounter yourself. Whether cast in the role of the caring physician, the neurotic patient, an idealistic trainee, husband, or father, the sensitive reader can explore a vicarious experience in the stories of David Watts' newest book in a very honest and often revealing way.

Previously published as a poet, Dr. Watts has produced his first prose work with this collection of stories in "Bedside Manners". By his own admission, this native Texan writes: "[S]ometimes you have to go where the horse wants you to go. My horse apparently wanted prose and wanted it to speak of the struggles of doctors and patients."

Dr. Watts distills his stories from moments in the life of a seasoned physician. Some of these stories from medical school and residency training are filled with idealism and hope. Others stem from the work he has done with terminally ill patients, helping them transition to death-each along a unique path.

These tales in turn are juxtaposed against those of patients who are driven to seek care, attention and solace for factitious medical problems. Dr. Watts deftly examines how patient care can influence those personal relationships that practitioners have with their own families-affects which can heal or reveal emotional scars.

In his writings, Dr. Watts masterfully records the feelings that a patient evokes in him during a medical encounter: "A strange sense of frustration, almost impatience, came over me. I wasn't sure why." He speaks of the guilt that inevitably follows. These are feelings known only to practitioners; few will admit to having them, and thankfully patients remain unaware of them.

I found some of these patient encounters to be humorous, some ironic, others heart-breaking or frustrating, some poignant-but all authentic. As I read through these vignettes I sensed a closeness with Dr. Watts and his patients. His writings will evoke a camaraderie among physician readers-a homecoming of sorts. In the busy world of day to day practice, where the human touch is many times displaced by the endless paperwork of medical charts and insurance claim forms, Dr. Watts has found a way to acknowledge these frustrations and continue to be a compassionate physician.

A doctor to his patients and a voice for his colleagues-for those who struggle with the demands of life, family, and vocation-Dr. Watts is a healer in the truest sense. Reading these stories will change lives. They just might change your life, too.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping stories from the doctor you wish was yours, August 26, 2005

By 

Frank Chen (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bedside Manners: One Doctor's Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters Between Patient and Healer (Hardcover)

This is a beautifully written memoir from the doctor you wish was yours. The book's subtitle perfectly captures the substance of this book: "one doctor's reflections on the oddly intimate encounters between patient and healer." If you've ever wondered what a doctor is thinking as he or she examines patients, here's your chance to eavesdrop.

In story after story, you get a taste of the life's richness -- from the joy of learning a self-diagnosis is not nearly as dire as the actual problem to the tragedy of a beautiful young girl who keeps coming back to the hospital because her boyfriend refuses to admit he's got a STD, from the gripping story of a patient reliving his WWII experience coming upon a concentration camp before it was widely known such camps existed to the mystery of a medical student injuring herself essentially for the attention.

You see it all this richness through the eyes of a doctor who has a poet's sensitivity and fluency with language. Here's an example of the beautiful prose throughout this book: "My stethoscope glides over the surface of the abdomen like a stone skipping over a flexible sheen of water, listening first, not to disturb the delicate organs huddled and hiding below."

The doctor also has a great sense of humor. Here's what happens when the father of one of his hopital staff nurses arrives at this office:

We've got a problem, my reception says.
Yes, I say. He wasn't suppoed to come today.
Not that, she says. He's HMO.
HMO. HMO. Poor bastard. Sick with restrictions.

(I typed out those lines pretty much as they are appear in the book -- the good doctor leaves out lots of the typical punctuation that accompanies dialog, which sometimes makes you wonder who's speaking. But surprisingly the light punctuation style works well overall by helping to seemlessly blend the interior and spoken dialog.)

Doctors face life and death everyday, a vantage point few of us have in our too-busy-to-slow-down lives. And while this book is not a didactic or prescriptive "here's how you should think about life" book, its stories naturally make you think about your own outlook and approach towards living.

The jacket cover says Dr. Watts is a regular commentator on NPR and indeed some of these stories are based on his NPR contributions. Reading them definitely makes me want to search the NPR archives as well as tune in for his next broadcasts.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem of a book. I loved this book., September 21, 2006

By 

A. Caplin (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bedside Manners: One Doctor's Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters Between Patient and Healer (Hardcover)

I loved this book. It really gets to the heart of the matter on so many levels. Each story is a snapshot of intimate interactions. David Watts is a wonderful storyteller. It's real and honest.