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Reviews tagging 'Addiction'
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
3 reviews
himpersonal's review against another edition
4.75
1. I waited through every page to read at least one acknowledgment of Henrietta Lacks, but there wasn’t a single word. Her cells were harvested from her by John’s Hopkins without her consent. She was never compensated or even told. Yet, her cells, which still grow today, were instrumental in everything this book talked about, including cancer research and advancement, development of the polio vaccine, atomic bomb research, gene cloning, genome mapping, and so much more. Seriously!!!! She couldn’t be mentioned even once????? Every single doctor learns from her cross which are still in use and still in propagation!
2. A couple of callouts that felt like micro aggressions toward Asian scientists: at one point, there was a lot written about how women’s breast cancer was being radically and surgically removed, by which that meant cutting out even their collar bones so that women couldn’t hold up their shoulders. Yet it was the Chinese doctor who was fired for butchery and none of the white doctors who set up the baseline for how these surgeries should be performed???? And another chapter, anotherChinese doctor is accused of conveniently forgetting how to speak English when he was upset. This is actually very normal behavior for people who speak English as a second language, and I would bet anything that anyone who speaks a second language would default to their native languages when upset.
Those were the two major annoyances I had with the book, but emotionally, this was a drain. Firstly, it’s a lot of medical content. Most of it is in understandable lay terms, but I couldn’t help but think of my mom and sister-in-law the whole time. My mom died of a treatable cancer three weeks after diagnosis because she’d been told for years that her complaints about her inability to eat was all in her head and often prescribed an antidepressant, even though she insisted she wasn’t depressed. She was in stage four by the time we got a definitive diagnosis from MD Anderson. She was told her only viable option was palliative care because the cancer had spread too far, and her liver was too weak to handle treatment, including immunotherapy. Until she heard the word “hospice,” she was in denial and fighting hard to live. When the doctor used that word, she couldn’t understand because to her, that meant she was dying, but she was there in front of him alive. Unfortunately, we had the worst hospice care experience. My brothers and I did a lot of local research and collected references from friends, but somehow we got the most inexperienced and least compassionate team from Houston Hospice. Her cancer would’ve been treatable if doctors had taken her seriously. She didn’t need to suffer as much as she did those last few weeks.
My sister-in-law, on the other hand, had discovered breast cancer through self-examination later that same year. She’d been breast feeding my nephew, so she thought it was a blocked duct, but she got it checked out and learned she was in stage two triple negative breast cancer. She and my brother were very proactive. They saw what happened with my mom and sought the best care in their area. She’s deeply analytical, so she knew what her plan was after gathering all her information, and regardless of bedside manner, she was in control of her treatment. I’m so proud of her. She’s fully healthy now, but it was being proactive and advocating for everything she wanted that got her there.
So yeah, this book was emotionally hard to read for me. What I learned is that we have come a long way, but we still have so much longer to go. One of my goddaughters is sixteen and ready to take cancer on. She is ranked in the top 4% of her class at one of the best high schools, is taking six AP classes in her junior year, have worked already with University of Texas and Texas Children’s Hospital, and is laser focused on tackling cancer through research and as an oncologist. I have so much faith in this girl. If all her colleagues had this kind of commitment and passion, I know we’ll make big strides.
Not quite a 5 for reasons stated, but close enough and rounding up.
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
mbrogs2024's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Medical content
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Vomit, Grief, and Medical trauma
Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Violence, and War
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Gore, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Excrement, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Classism
Eugenics mentioned in passing.