Dancing At The River's Edge
A Patient and her Doctor Negotiate a Life of Chronic Illness
Alida Brill
Lockshin, PhD. Michael, Dr. (Ret)
9780980139457
224 pages
Schaffner Press Inc
Overview
An invaluable resource for medical professionals, victims of chronic illnesses, and their loved ones, this dual memoir by a doctor and his longtime patient traces the growth of their unique friendship over a span of decades. By exploring the bond between caregiver and sufferer, this sensitive account evokes not only the constant day to day frustrations and emotional toll suffered by the chronically ill, but also an understanding of the mental struggles and conflicts that a conscientious doctor must face in deciding how best to treat a patient without compromising personal freedoms. In alternating chapters, the narrative explores the frustration, joy, despair, grief, and pain on both sides of the doctor-patient relationship.
Author Bio
Alida Brill is a feminist social critic. She has written and spoken on such diverse topics as medical and sexual privacy, the ethics surrounding the right to die, the role of gender during periods of economic transition, intolerance and prejudice, and the conflict of personal versus public politics in a democracy. Michael Lockshin, M.D. is one of the world's leading experts in the long-term care of chronically ill patients. He is the Director of the Barbara Volcker Center for Women and Rheumatic Disease at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City and a professor of medicine and obstetrics/gynecology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of "Arthritis & Rheumatism," the official publication of the American College of Rheumatology, and his books for the general reader include Guarded Prognosis: A Doctor and His Patients Talk About ChronicDisease and How to Cope With It, and (as co-author) The Hospital for SpecialSurgery Rheumatoid Arthritis Handbook. He and his wife Jane live in New York.
