Anatomy of an Illness

My mom recently had a knee replacement and I went to Florida to help her through her rehab process. I am a registered nurse, as is my sister, who had done the shift previous to me, helping my mom throughout her post-operative process and hospitalization as well as helping her get settled in her rehab center.

It was interesting seeing the healthcare world through my seventy-eight year old mom's eyes. I watched both the docs and nurses shift from one foot to another as she gave tangential (and often inaccurate) answers to their simple questions. She wouldn't ask for pain meds until she was already in out of control pain. She refused to use the pain scale. She wouldn't ring the bell if she needed something. She couldn't seem to keep track of who was who and who did what and that it didn't make sense for her ask the nursing assistant for her pain meds, or for the charge nurse to get her a pillow. She defered to her doctor, even though he was a jerk, and wouldn't ask him any questions because he “seemed busy”

It is this concept that made Anatomy of An Illness an interesting read for me. If you remember, when the book came out it was considered somewhat revolutionary. There is absolutely no research based anything in the book, which is Norman Cousin's account of healing himself through laughter and happiness and prayer. I realize now why people reacted to the book at the time was because Cousins was doing something people of his generation never did: taking healthcare into their own hands. If you want a first hand look at what it feels like for older people at the other end of the stethoscope, re-read Anatomy of An Illness.