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Inside/Outside: A Physician's Journey with Breast Cancer
Janet R. Gilsdorf, M.D.
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To doctors, cancer means cells growing out of control; to patients, cancer means a life spinning out of control. Janet R. Gilsdorf, who writes with quiet but devastating honesty about her experience with breast cancer, offers an eye-opening glimpse, through her unique dual perspective as physician and patient, of both sides of the medical divide.
The medical system delivers cures, answers, and relief from pain to those who seek its help, but it can also offer misinformation, shattered expectations, horrible options, and inhumane consideration of the people it is supposed to serve. As Gilsdorf takes us on a journey across the terrifying landscape of cancer, she discovers that there are oases of unfathomable beauty to be found.
Inside/Outside is compelling, sometimes scary, reading as it puts us inside Gilsdorf's skin. It ponders a vast array of profound choices most of us will be confronted with in our lives: thinking versus feeling, knowing versus not knowing, hanging on versus letting go, loving versus hating, and the immeasurable territories of life between the poles. Even as it touches on these universal human themes, ultimately Inside/Outside is a story of one person's courage, hope, and survival in the face of terrifying odds.
The medical system delivers cures, answers, and relief from pain to those who seek its help, but it can also offer misinformation, shattered expectations, horrible options, and inhumane consideration of the people it is supposed to serve. As Gilsdorf takes us on a journey across the terrifying landscape of cancer, she discovers that there are oases of unfathomable beauty to be found.
Inside/Outside is compelling, sometimes scary, reading as it puts us inside Gilsdorf's skin. It ponders a vast array of profound choices most of us will be confronted with in our lives: thinking versus feeling, knowing versus not knowing, hanging on versus letting go, loving versus hating, and the immeasurable territories of life between the poles. Even as it touches on these universal human themes, ultimately Inside/Outside is a story of one person's courage, hope, and survival in the face of terrifying odds.
Janet R. Gilsdorf, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Division of Infectious Diseases, Medical School, and Professor of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, at the University of Michigan. She is also Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Mott Children's Hospital; Director of the Cell and Molecular Biology in Pediatrics Training Program; and Director of the Haemophilus influenzae Research Laboratory.
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Cover
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Title
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Copyright
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Dedication
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Foreword
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Author's Note
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Contents
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ONE / The Diagnosis
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CHAPTER 1. “Physician, heal thyself”
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CHAPTER 2. Egalitarianism Bumps against Personal Needs
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CHAPTER 3. The Power of Language
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CHAPTER 4. Telling My People
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CHAPTER 5. “Lies, damn lies, and statistics”
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TWO / The Three Hells: Surgery, Chemotherapy, Radiation
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CHAPTER 6. Biology for Artists and Linguists
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CHAPTER 7. The Nodes Know
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CHAPTER 8. Interlude. Adrift.
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CHAPTER 9. Pain and Mutilation
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CHAPTER 10. La morte, la vie
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CHAPTER 11. Kill My Cancer but Don't Kill Me
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CHAPTER 12. Rapunzel, Rapunzel . . .
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CHAPTER 13. Seeing Purple Seashells and Other Unexpected Things
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CHAPTER 14. Iatrogenesis
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CHAPTER 15. Friends, Forever
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CHAPTER 16. And Then They Burn You
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THREE / Reentry and Beyond
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CHAPTER 17. Emerging
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CHAPTER 18. It Never Goes Away
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CHAPTER 19. The Road to Wellness Goes through Monterey, California and Almaty, Kazakhstan
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CHAPTER 20. Restructuring a Life
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Citable Link
Published: 2006
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
- 978-0-472-11579-2 (hardcover)
- 978-0-472-02182-6 (ebook)