My Own Medicine: A Doctor’s Life as a Patient

At forty-two, Geoffrey Kurland, a pediatric pulmonologist specializing in such deadly diseases as cystic fibrosis, was diagnosed with hairy cell leukemia, a rare cancer with a statistically low survival rate. A remarkably fit man in training for 100-mile “extreme” races whose job is equally high performance, he is forced to confront the challenge of his own mortality. He tries to cope by turning inward in a desperate search for ever-elusive answers. As the doctor becomes a patient and lives through the terror and pain that he had until then only experimental at a remove in his young patients, he learns invaluable life lessons that will ultimately make him a better doctor.

This is Kurland’s memoir of his diagnosis, treatment, and return to health and “normal” life-an unforgettable testament to the resilence of the human spirit.