A Book Talk A Book Talk Emphasis Here
A Book Talk
A Book Talk Emphasis Here
Talk Verb ˈtȯk intransitive verb 1 a: to express or exchange ideas by means of spoken words b: to convey information or communicate in any way (as with signs or sounds)can make a trumpet talk make the computer talk to the printer 2: to use speech : SPEAK 3 a: to speak idly : PRATE b: GOSSIP c: to reveal secret or confidential information 4: to give a talk : LECTURE transitive 1: to deliver or express in speech : UTTER 2: to make the subject of conversation or discourse : DISCUSS talk business 3: to influence, affect, or cause by talking talked them into going 4: to use (a language) for conversing or communicating : SPEAK
Talk Verb ˈtȯk intransitive verb 1 a: to express or exchange ideas by means of spoken words b: to convey information or communicate in any way (as with signs or sounds)can make a trumpet talk make the computer talk to the printer 2: to use speech : SPEAK 3 a: to speak idly : PRATE b: GOSSIP c: to reveal secret or confidential information 4: to give a talk : LECTURE transitive 1: to deliver or express in speech : UTTER 2: to make the subject of conversation or discourse : DISCUSS talk business 3: to influence, affect, or cause by talking talked them into going 4: to use (a language) for conversing or communicating : SPEAK
Really Brief Cliff’s Notes, if you didn’t finish (or start)…. In May 2013 Paul Kalanithi was…. • 36 years old. • In his final year of NS residency at Stanford. • Married with no children. • And diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. 22 months later…. having completed his neurosurgery residency and having become a father only eight months before, Paul passed away.
Okay that was sobering… This book was unfinished and ends abruptly but his wife, Lucy, fulfilled her promise to him and got it published. She chose to have it published in its unfinished state rather then finding someone to complete it.
Why do you think so many residency programs ask their trainees to read this book? “As a resident, my highest ideal was not saving lives – everyone dies eventually – but guiding a patient or family to an understanding of death or illness” -Paul Kalanithi
Is this an important book? • • Is it important because he died? Or is it important because of what he said? Or is important because of how he changed? Or is it important because it has the potential to change those who read it? • Are there other books that you have read that have felt similar?
Discussion
Thought Capture…. .
“He was more certain than me. There’s a conversation he writes about in the book where I said, ‘won’t it make dying harder? ’ And he said, ‘wouldn’t it be great if it did? ’. ” -Lucy Kalanithi The Importance of Family
The Importance of being doctor “When there’s no place for the scalpel words are the surgeon’s only tool. ” Paul Kalanithi
The Importance of Living with Purpose “Words may inspire, but only action creates change. Most of us live our lives by accident – we live life as it happens. Fulfillment comes when we live our lives on purpose” - Simon Sinek “I would have to learn to live in a different way, seeing death as an imposing itinerant visitor but knowing that even if I'm dying, until I actually die, I am still living. ” -Paul Kalanithi
The Importance of Planning “And with that, the future I had imagined, the one just about to be realized, the culmination of decades of striving, evaporated. ” -Paul Kalanithi
“Severe illness wasn’t life-altering it was life-shattering. It felt less like an epiphany-a piercing burst of light, illuminating what really matters – and more like someone had just firebombed the path forward. Now I would have to work around it. ” -Paul Kalanithi The Importance of Perseverance
The Importance of the Journey “Maybe, in the absence of any certainty, we should just assume that we’re going to live a long time. Maybe that’s the only way forward. ” Paul Kalanithi
Ones Importance “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. ” Mark Twain
Caelica 83: You that seek what life is in death, Now find it air that once was breath. New names unknown, old names gone: Till time end bodies, but souls none. Reader! then make time, while you be, But steps to your eternity. -Baron Brooke Fulke Greville
Other Thoughts or Questions
• Hot Lights, Cold Steel; Michael J Collins • Better; Atul Gawande The Checklist Manifesto; Atul Gawande Complications; Atul Gawande Being Mortal; Atul Gawande • Do No Harm; Henry Marsh Other Books Read by Residents • The House of God; Samuel Shem • Every Patient Tells A Story; Lisa Sanders • The Emperor of All Maladies; Siddhartha Mukherjee • Performing Under Pressure; Hendrie Wesinger and JP Pawli-Fry • What Doctors Feel; Danielle Ofri • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; Rebecca Skloot • The Spirit Catches You and You Gall Down; Anne Fadiman • My Own Country; Abraham Verghese
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