It made me a better physician and friend

books:


	• The Light Within: The Extraordinary Friendship of a Doctor and Patient Brought Together by Cancer Lois M. Ramondetta, Deborah Sills William Morrow, 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Compelling Read

This book is an extraordinary account of a deep friendship between a terminal cancer patient and a surgeon - the sort of thing that "is not supposed to happen." The physician allows her empathy for the dying patient to blossom into a full-blown, outside-of-the-hospital friendship including international travel together, and culminating in the writing of this book. The patient, a professor of comparative religion, maintains her zest for life and outgoing personality until the disease gets the best of her. The physician, having an undergraduate degree in comparative religion, is taken in by deep conversations and the importance of living in the present insisted on by the patient. The two form a poignant picture of caring friends, interrupted only by the disease itself. Quite a story! One of those "can't put it down" books.

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An incredibly moving story.

I connected to this book on so many levels...as a breast cancer survivor; a caregiver/support person for many friends and relatives with cancer; and a former MD Anderson employee with a special interest in the complexity of physician-patient communications and relationships. It's quite remarkable that Dr. Ramondetta was able to step beyond the traditional "limitations" of her role as a cancer doctor, in order to develop such a deep and enduring relationship with her patient Deb. Clearly, both their lives were the better for having met each other. How inspiring it must have been for Deb to know that her cancer diagnosis created the opportunity to have such a wonderful relationship.

I hope everyone who has or will encounter Cancer World (that means all of us, eventually) has a chance to read this book. Kudos to Dr. Ramondetta and Deb for taking the time and spending the emotional energy to create this wonderful legacy and testament to the power of love and friendship.

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spirituality and Medicene

Spirituality and medicine seems an unlikely combination until you read The Light Within. Finally we have a doctor who addresses the need for doctors to get involved with their patients lives when those patients are faced with a terminal illness. The interweaving of the two stories allows us to understand what the real meaning of spirituality is for both the doctor and the patient. Each helps the other to grow and deepen their own lives in-spite of difficult emotional setbacks. Even though the patient dies the reader is left feeling positive and grateful to have had the chance to get to know these two remarkable women. In this time of difficult medical connections which seem to revolve around paperwork and short visits it is heartening to know that there is a Dr. Ramondetta who is out there fighting for all of us.

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It made me a better physician and friend

How deeply moved I was by this book! I could relate to so many of the situations described. I want you to know that I will be a better physician because of this beautiful story. It is refreshing and "enlightening" to know that we can become personal friends with our patients!

excellent read

This is a fascinating account of the intersection of two lives, one a patient with a fatal ovarian cancer and the other a very caring physician . What makes the book so interesting and startling is the unique dispositions and personalities of the main characters and how this chance association produced a vibrant chemistry that enriched both of their lives as well as others upon whom the 'light within" was reflected. The book is very well written and is a must read for physicans and patients alike.

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reviews: page 1, 2

The luminous true story of a friendship that shed the boundaries of the doctor-patient relationship and became less a confrontation with death than a celebration of the joys of life

When young gynecologic oncology fellow Lois Ramondetta was first summoned to the room of a new patient, neither she nor the forty-nine-year-old professor of religion she encountered named Deborah Sills thought they had much in common. They certainly had no idea that they were about to embark on a transcendent odyssey that would become a soul-deep friendship. Now their heartfelt story, The Light Within, follows these two women through a decade of friendship and "big lives"?husbands, children, friends, and careers?ultimately crossing the country and traveling to foreign lands, where they spoke and wrote together about the intersection of doctors, patients, and spirituality. Both women searched together and openly for answers with honesty and intimacy until Deborah passed away in the spring of 2006.

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