The book is suffused with a spirit of indomitable courage and faith in a God who is difficult but benign. -- The Globe and Mail, June 22, 2002
Product Description
From the juvenile diabetes that took away her sight, the heart disease that called for bypass surgery, to the cancer that resulted in a double mastectomy and which eventually took her life in August 2001, Dr. Jane Poulson was both a fighter and survivor. In this inspirational autobiography finished shortly before her death, Jane Poulson shares her hard-earned insights into human frailty, vulnerability and courage. Despite the daily challenges she faced, Dr. Poulson, "the blind doctor," continued to serve the public as a specialist in pain management and palliative care.
The Doctor Will Not See You Now is a remarkable spiritual autobiography in which Dr. Poulson takes the reader by the arm, as it were, through the story of her career as a sighted medical scientist who became blind in the first year of her professional career. She learned not only to accept every challenge to her health, but also how to live and work in a sighted world. And she did more than survive, she went on to a stellar career as a phsician, teacher and researcher. In 1987 she was awarded the Order of Canada.
Her story is also about her search for meaning as a doctor learning to accept life with a failing body. Through the daily challenges of the medical profession as well as the complicated details of her own life story, Jane Poulson learned to trust in God, who told her to live her life fully "even as it appears to be closing in on me."
The person Dr. Poulson showed to the world was serrene, good-humoured and insouciant. Her acknowledgement of fear, of anxiety and depression would have surprised most people who knew her. Yet it's small wonder that so few guessed her private thoughts. "She was a skilled pianist and singer. She gave superb and lively dinner parties. She danced with single-minded energy!" (From the Globe and Mail obituary written by her friend, journalist Michael Valpy.)
Jane Poulson's autobiography is a profile in courage and faith. No reader will fail to be astonished and inspired by her accomplishments and her intractable optimism. Her spirit defiantly lives on in this joyful, courageous, completely unique book.
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