Patient by Patient: Lessons in Love, Loss, Hope, and Healing from a Doctor's Practice [Paperback]

Emily R. Transue (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2009

Emily Transue earned her credentials in medical school, but learns lessons of a different kind when she embarks on private practice. Her patients, some delightful, some difficult, all come to her for medical advice but, they are not the only ones gaining from the experience. As Dr. Transue guides them through routine exams and life-challenging crises she learns much about life and death, hope and fear and being the physician she wants to be. These lessons carry over into her personal life as she struggles with heartwrenching illness and loss in her own family. Throughout, she is a keen observer of her patients, their families, and their lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Advance praise for Patient by Patient:

“Quiet, funny, and sad, the daily life of this fully alive physician becomes a model for the life of the fully alive self.  Doctors and patients seeking renewal, inspiration, laughter, and wisdom will find them all in this deftly written book. It is filled with hope and with courage and with joy.” -Rita Charon, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine, Columbia University

“An intimate portrait of the doctor-patient relationship. Emily Transue offers insightful and engaging reflections on the interplay of health and illness.” -Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, author of Incidental Findings, Editor-in-Chief, Bellevue Literary Review

About the Author

Emily R. Transue, MD, author of On Call, is a native of Toledo, Ohio, and a graduate of Yale College and Dartmouth Medical School.  She did her residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle.  She works as a general internist at a multispecialty group in Seattle, and is a clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Washington.  She received the Providence-Seattle Medical Center Outstanding Educator of the Year award in 2003, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.  She has also published stories and poems in JAMA, Dartmouth Medicine, and elsewhere.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1 Reprint edition (April 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312372795
• ISBN-13: 978-0312372798
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,347,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Empathy and humor make practice perfect, August 19, 2008

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Patient by Patient: Lessons in Love, Loss, Hope, and Healing from a Doctor's Practice (Hardcover)

Internist Transue's memoir of her early years in practice begins in trepidation and excitement. In her years of training, there were many diagnoses and decisions, but always a supervisor to pass judgment on her findings. Not any more.

"From here on, though I could and often would ask advice of my colleagues, there would be nobody above me. I was on my own. With that first patient, that fact in itself was terrifying."

Trained to think in crisis mode in the hospital, she has to adjust to the new rhythm of primary care in which many people are not sick, or not very. But some are.

Transue introduces a variety of patients, some old and ill, some young and healthy, some dying. Through it all, her patience and ability to listen characterize a practice that combines compassion with confidence and laughter with tears.

Though her days are varied she naturally dwells deepest on those whose days are ending. A terminal diagnosis is only the beginning of their care and Transue involves her patients in decision making, striving to balance longevity, dignity and comfort, no small task in these days of many options.

Transue also weaves her own life into the narrative, which provides further depth. Her father, a brain cancer survivor with progressive dementia as a direct result of his treatment, is a heart-wrenching case. As he slips further from her, a new grown-up dynamic develops with her very elderly grandparents.

Self-aware but not self-absorbed, Transue matures over the course of her book, learning acceptance and turning it into wisdom. She's funny and outspoken as well as deeply empathetic. Except for time frustrations and health-care bureaucracy issues, she doesn't address any negatives in her practice - no hypochondriacs or personality clashes or patients who won't be helped.

Transue, whose first book "On Call," was a memoir of residency, will make many captivated readers wish she was their doctor.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for to be physicians, August 27, 2008

By 

Mark (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Patient by Patient: Lessons in Love, Loss, Hope, and Healing from a Doctor's Practice (Hardcover)

Dr Transue eloquently lays out the struggle every new physican goes through: how to balance your professional life with your real life. Most, if not all, residents unergo this "shock" when trying to transition from student to doctor. I highly recommend this book to anyone, but especially to those who are progressing through a medical career.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful story of a doctor's first years in practice, December 13, 2009

By 

mikemac9 "mikemac9" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Patient by Patient: Lessons in Love, Loss, Hope, and Healing from a Doctor's Practice (Hardcover)

This delightful book covers the years from starting as a full-fledged doctor out of training to becoming comfortable in the role. As with many books about lives in medicine these days, the book reminds us that there is a real person on the other end of the stethoscope -- a person with family, personal tribulations, and emotions about their patients. A person who gets tired at work. While perhaps disconcerting to realize since we all want our doctors undivided attention and a freedom to say anything without judgment, the real story is how hard doctors work to live up to that standard. I would think books like this should be required reading for those in college thinking of careers in medicine.

The writing in this book is simply superb. My suspicion is Dr. Transue could write about just about anything and it would be captivating; her description of her grandparents and trips to visit them is as well written as anything I've seen in novels, and her medical stories really convey the feeling of the moment to the layman. Had she not been a MD and become a writer, or should she decide mid-career to change careers, I am sure she'd be successful. Even at this stage, perhaps a column in the New Yorker like Dr. Gawande to reach a broader audience?

The only drawback I see in this book, and perhaps its my personal opinion, is over her role in the lives of her patients. Whereas a book such as the ones by Dr. Michael Collins tell you about wrestling with decisions, about whether the pressures the medical setting and doctors bring to bear are really in the patient's best interest, such retrospection is lacking from this book. Dr. Collins is haunted by such events, Dr. Transue narrates them.

In closing, after reading this book I feel as if a bright and exceptionally articulate friend in medicine sat down with me and said "this is what its like". The reader comes away from this book with a renewed appreciation for medicine and what doctors do for us.