Biography & Autobiography: Science, Technology & Engineering

Things I remember, or was told is the memoir of outspoken Wellington GP Carol Shand, who since the early 1960s has spent her life fighting for change in medical, social and legal issues that she considered important: maternity care, access to contraception, abortion law change, a...nd improved response to sexual assault complaints.
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Hilarious and heart-breaking stories from a life on and off the wards by Adam Kay, multi-million copy bestselling author of This is Going to Hurt

At the age of twenty-eight, with his Beijing-based science communications business doing well and a new relationship blossoming, Ben Bravery woke from a colonoscopy to be told he had stage 3 colorectal cancer. As a scientist, Ben understood the seriousness of his condition. Cance...r had quite literally whacked him in the guts, after all. But what he didn't expect was how being a patient, and a young one at that, would make him feel. Why hadn't he been better prepared for the embarrassment and vulnerability of lying naked on the radiation table? Why wasn't he warned about the sheer number of tubes he would discover coming out of his body after surgery? Why did it feel like an imposition to ask doctors about his pain on their ward rounds? And why did he have to repeat the same information to them over and over again? During eighteen long months of treatment, including aggressive chemotherapy, Ben felt scared, overwhelmed, sometimes invisible and often alone. As he recovered, it struck Ben that after everything he'd been through he couldn't go back to his former career. He needed a change - and he wanted to make change. He wanted to become a doctor. He passed the entrance exam and dived headfirst into the challenges of medical school - including an unrelenting timetable, terrifying ward rounds and the difficulty of maintaining compassion under pressure. Now, driven by his experience on both sides of the healthcare system, this patient-turned-doctor gives a no-holes-barred account of how he overcame the trauma of his illness to study medicine and shares what he believes student doctors, doctors, patients and their families need to do to ensure that the medical system puts the patient at the very heart of healthcare every day. Honest, powerful, eye-opening and sometimes heart-wrenchingly funny, this is an inspiring memoir that shows that no matter our situation we all need to be treated with care and compassion, right until the very end.
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As a nurse for nearly fifty years, Keith Cox provided expert care and comfort to countless people facing the unimaginable. With insight and sensitivity, A Caring Life takes us behind the scenes of his remarkable nursing career and the moving stories of hope, determination and los...s that underpinned it. Along the way, he shares lessons gained from a career spent confronting mortality, from finding joy in difficult circumstances to understanding that true strength comes in thinking of others and being part of a community. Over the years, Keith has seen dramatic advances in medical treatment, as well as the limits of what medical intervention can achieve - which is why compassion and grace are his guiding principles, both on the ward and in his own life. A Caring Life is the inspirational story of a nursing trailblazer who has learnt firsthand the value of human connection and kindness, in challenging times and in everyday life - and the satisfaction of living a life of service and meaning.
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10... 9... 8... 7... 6... That's about as far as you get, counting backwards, as you lie in an oversized paper napkin, waiting for surgery to begin - and that's all most people know about what I do.