The Light Within: The Extraordinary Friendship of a Doctor and Patient Brought Together by Cancer [Hardcover]

Lois M. Ramondetta (Author), Deborah Sills (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 13, 2008

When Lois Ramondetta and Deborah Sills first met in a hospital in Texas, theirs was an unequal relationship. Ramondetta was a gyencologic oncology fellow, summoned to a stubborn patient’s room for the unglamorous task of bullying her into drinking her pre-surgical laxative-and Sills, obstinate, difficult, and demanding, was that patient. At forty-nine, with terminal ovarian cancer and a mind of her own, Sills didn’t think she had much in common with the brash young physician. But as her time in and out of the hospital went on, Sills and Ramondetta’s doctor-patient relationship began to develop into a kind of soul-deep friendship that most people are never privileged to experience. Light Within follows these two remarkable women through the next decade of their life journeys. Sills was there as Ramondetta struggled to hold together a disintegrating marriage and family during the trying last years of her fellowship, divorced, rose up in her profession, and eventually began training residents of her own while finding happiness in a remarriage. Meanwhile, Sills didn’t let her worsening cancer interfere with the business of running her own full life and active career as a professor of religion. Sills and Ramondetta spoke together at conferences on the intersection of doctors, patients, and spirituality, and travelled together to foreign lands like Turkey to speak at universities until Sills passed away in spring of 2006. This book is the lovingly crafted result of their amazing friendship. Light Within is the moving story of two friends whose lives are inextricably intertwined, even as each struggles with universal questions of children, love, careers, coping with illness, and coming to terms with death. Rich, beautiful, and lyrical, this memoir is less the story of two women’s confrontation with death than a celebration of the joys of life.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“…Comes from the hearts of two people involved in this experience of cancer. By sharing, as doctor and patient, they give us all an opportunity to be educated about life and living. So read on and enhance your lives with the wisdom the light within each of us can reveal.” (Bernie Siegel, MD author of Love, Medicine & Miracles and Help Me To Heal )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (May 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061359416
• ISBN-13: 978-0061359415
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #344,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and Enlightening, May 28, 2008

By 

Cleland "Ancient Techie" (Houston, TX, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Light Within: The Extraordinary Friendship of a Doctor and Patient Brought Together by Cancer (Hardcover)

It seems odd to read a memoir by someone you know, describing events to which you were something of a witness, but I found my friend Lois Ramondetta's newly published book, The Light Within, to be a great read and a moving account of her friendship with co-author Deborah Rose Sills that began when Sills was a patient at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and ended with Sills' death from ovarian cancer in 2006. Lois is a Gynecological Oncologist and met Sills in 1998 when Lois was a newbie cancer doctor at M. D. Anderson. The book weaves together a number of threads and discusses cancer and its treatment from the perspective of both patient and physician, alternating passages written by Lois with passages written or dictated by Deb. It's also an account of the personal lives of the two women and describes how their growing relationship enriched both of those lives. Highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Light Within, May 21, 2008

By 

Charles J. Dunton - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Light Within: The Extraordinary Friendship of a Doctor and Patient Brought Together by Cancer (Hardcover)

As a physician in this area, I was deeply moved by this book. I urge all cancer physicians to read it. The depth of thought and emotion from the authors are compelling. I would urge anyone battling a cancer to read it. It will help explain the uncertainty, fear and concerns one has while fighting a disease. It also reaches deep into why we live and love. It is uplifting and sad at the same time. The authors are congratulated on sharing such a personal experience for others to benefit from.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Read, August 2, 2008

By 

Samuel Epstein (Austin TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Light Within: The Extraordinary Friendship of a Doctor and Patient Brought Together by Cancer (Hardcover)

This book is an extraordinary account of a deep friendship between a terminal cancer patient and a surgeon - the sort of thing that "is not supposed to happen." The physician allows her empathy for the dying patient to blossom into a full-blown, outside-of-the-hospital friendship including international travel together, and culminating in the writing of this book. The patient, a professor of comparative religion, maintains her zest for life and outgoing personality until the disease gets the best of her. The physician, having an undergraduate degree in comparative religion, is taken in by deep conversations and the importance of living in the present insisted on by the patient. The two form a poignant picture of caring friends, interrupted only by the disease itself. Quite a story! One of those "can't put it down" books.