Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain General practitioner Exposes Life on the Surrounded by Books
- ISBN13: 9780812973402
- Shape up: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Katrina Firlik is a neurosurgeon, one of only two hundred or so women among the alpha males who dominate this high-pressure, high-prestige medical specialty. She is also a superbly gifted novelist–witty, insightful, at once deeply humane and refreshingly wry. In Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, Dr. Firlik draws on this rare combination to make a neurosurgeon’s Kitchen Confidential–a unique insider’s memoir of a fascinating profession.
Neurosurgeons are celebrated for their huge egos and aggressive self-confidence, and Dr. Firlik confirms that timidity is indeed rare in the field. “They’re the kids who never lost at musical chairs,” she writes. A brain general practitioner is not only a highly trained scientist and clinician but also a mechanic who of necessity develops an intimate, hands-on familiarity with the gray matter surrounded by our skulls. It’s the balance between cold-edge medical technology and manual dexterity, between instinct and expertise, that Firlik finds so appealing–and so trying to master.
Firlik recounts how her background as a general practitioner’s daughter with a strong stomach and a keen interest in the brain led her to this rarefied specialty, and she describes her challenging, atypical trek from medical student to fully qualified general practitioner. Among Firlik’s more memorable cases: a young roofer who walked into the sickbay with a three-inch-long barbed nail driven into his forehead, the result of an accident with his partner’s nail gun, and a sweet small seven-year-ancient boy whose untreated earache had become a furious, potentially fatal infection of the brain lining.
From OR theatrics to thorny ethical questions, from the surprisingly primitive tools in a neurosurgeon’s kit to glimpses of future techniques like the “brain lift,” Firlik cracks open medicine’s most prestigious and secretive specialty. Candid, smart, clear-eyed, and dependably engaging, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe is a mesmerizing behind-the-scenes glimpse into a world of incredible competition and immense rewards.
From the Hardcover edition.
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As a clinician who deals with many of the patients Dr. Firlik must see, I must admit I was biased and perhaps sexist in expecting a more compassionate view from on of the few women in this field. Yeah, we all have to be tough and competent in our professions, but still, yech; I’d rather rot than go below the knife of this callous general practitioner.
How “laughable” to measure the extent and worth of the patient according to her “handshake” analogy: whether one lives or dies by their surgical prospects of I guess, this wonder-skill of a neurosurgeon. And what empathy; to go to such lengths as to make sure a young girl’s hopes to retain her hairline for her superficial high school boyfriend to help her cope with a huge medical suffering undoubtedly beyond her years of maturity. Gee, shouldn’t she have een there in post-op with a small bit more constructive advice? Ok- so our Doctor here not a pyschologist as I am.
And, oh the battlefields of having to run between emergency operations, to ponder only for a moment as our general practitioner said: “Gosh I wonder about the life I hold here in my surgical hands -has he/she has a boyfriend/girlfriend? But no time -as the next casualty awaits?” Sorry -are we laboring in the battlefiend with Drs. without Limits? Oh no! Report has it that, it is just a silent night in ER where our “prankster” but oh so superior general practitioner has time to to dog some poor inferior dermatoloigst, calling him up for a non-surviving emergency some silent night in ER.
Once, my autistic patient of 3 who howled in pain over an infectious bacterial disease was admitted to some sickbay after 4 days of immense pain he may possibly not converse in of. Thank God for the dermatologist on call at 1:30 am who saw the bacterial infection turning septic. This kid finaly slept that night which happens seldom even when he is well. Anyway, his mom slept that night. Yeah, he wasn’t dying but wow, what incredible insensitivity this woman has in supposing her skills singularly define the measure of a excellent physician.
There are incredible neurologists and neurosurgeons out there (See Keith Black in L.A. – legions ahead in heart and talent) who should write and deserve our attention. Sorry Dr. – I don’t reckon you learned much at all even if you can weild a huge drill.
Tammy Boyer
Rating: 1 / 5
I bought this books with the hope of being able to use it for a course I’m teaching. I guess I was expecting something more by the side of the lines of Oliver Sacks (a high-bar to set expectations, I’ll admit), and this book fell far small.
The first chapter starts out with an fascinating discussion of brain matter, but the chapters then devolve into random autobiographical tidbits which are meant to be amusing, but I get the feeling “you had to be there.”
Not not compulsory.
Rating: 2 / 5
I painstakingly loved this book. Although the author is a neurosurgeon, she used language that the lay reader can know. For those who are fascinated with the way the brain works, this book is for you. She introduced the reader to several of her patients (pseudonyms, of course), and it was simple for me to connect with them. There was only one time I became queasy in reading about a particular patient with an advanced disease, and I normally have a weak stomach when it pertains to blood and the like.
Because she deals with life and death on a daily basis, I wanted to have read that she possesses a belief in God and eternal life, but her own private beliefs did not deter me from learning from her profound experiences in the operating room and beyond.
Rating: 4 / 5
House of God, Intern, Year of the Intern, and this book are about, among other things, young physicians learning the ropes. House of God takes no prisoners and pulls no punches and is by far the most authentic book of the group. Another Day is just another book about appearance of age in the specialty of neurosurgery. The author’s right personality comes through the heavy handed editing and misdirections forced on her by well meaning and sales keen people at Random House. But not enough to make reading worth even as. This is a fake book made for broadcast consumption by putting lots of sugar on the dog-eat-dog realities of modern medicine and modern neurosurgery. They (I say they because this is a group written book) are aptly about neurologists: Neurologists do wear bow ties. They often have beards. And they nearly everlastingly reckon they know more than neurosurgeons. But this neurologist knows enough about neurosurgeons to know that no neurosurgeon may possibly write a simple and simplistic book like this without extensive help.
Rating: 1 / 5
I really sought after to like this book, as I have a vested interest in the topic but, it just did not work for me – on so many levels.
Not enough fascinating patient tales, not enough anything really to hold my interest.
There are other better books on this topic, I suggest you read them, not this.
Rating: 1 / 5