{"id":18470,"date":"2011-07-28T08:54:12","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T12:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=18470"},"modified":"2016-01-06T02:38:41","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T07:38:41","slug":"simply-human-a-doctor-confronts-his-patients-illnesses-and-his-own-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=18470","title":{"rendered":"Simply Human: A Doctor Confronts His Patients&#8217; Illnesses and His Own Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/After-the-Diagnoses-cover.jpg\" rel=\"mfp\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18482 alignleft lazyload\" title=\"After the Diagnoses - cover\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/After-the-Diagnoses-cover.jpg\" alt=\"After the Diagnoses - Book cover\" width=\"225\" height=\"342\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/After-the-Diagnoses-cover.jpg 225w, https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/After-the-Diagnoses-cover-197x300.jpg 197w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>\u201cThis is the diabetes book I have been waiting for,\u201d I said to my husband when I was just a few chapters in to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B004KAB4EM\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=asw07-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B004KAB4EM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>After the Diagnosis: Transcending Chronic Illness<\/em><\/a>, by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/11\/30\/science\/30conversation.html\" target=\"_blank\">nephrologist Julian Seifter<\/a> and his wife, editor and writer Betsy Seifter.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWhy?\u201d Jimmy asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I flipped through pages of patient stories. I examined phrases and passages of insight I had underlined for re-reading. I reflected on this difference between <em>After the Diagnosis<\/em> and the many book on diabetes I had read or browsed over the years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Finally, I answered. \u201cSomehow, this book makes me feel understood. This isn\u2019t advice so much as acceptance and\u2026 \u00a0empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Not about diabetes only, the subject of the Seifters\u2019 book is more broadly chronic illness. \u00a0In his practice as one of the country\u2019s leading kidney specialists, Dr. Seifter has treated patients with a variety of conditions in which kidney function was, in some serious way, implicated or affected. He tells stories about people with cancer, kidney diseases (there is more than one that fits under this umbrella), hepatitis, fibromyalgia, chronic alcoholism, and less commonly known conditions such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmedhealth\/PMH0002410\/\">polyarteritis nodosa (PAN)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also tells his own story, in fragments and over the course of the book, about his diagnosis as a young doctor with diabetes and his long coming-to-terms with the illness he kept secret.\u00a0 He kept diabetes secret from his colleagues and even, in a way, from himself, by his discomfort with thinking of himself as a patient.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What makes this book special, and why I recommend it to ASweetLife readers, is this dual perspective on the experience of disease. Dr. Seifert knows it from both angles when he writes about paying attention to illness:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"aligncenter\">\n<p class=\"wp-caption\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>The doctor is interested in the level of attention that\u2019s ideal for managing the illness, but the patient seeks the level of attention that\u2019s ideal for managing his or her life. It\u2019s a matter of bargaining. The doctor will never succeed without acknowledging the person who goes home from the office visit to contend with family, work, children, pets, bills, car repairs, plumbing, taxes\u2014not to mention appetites, longings, fears. (72)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The bargaining between doctor and patient parallels the bargaining a person does with himself or herself, and \u2013 because of his personal experience with diabetes \u2013 Dr. Seifert understands what it feels like to live in that place between the ideal (for example, the attainment of the so-called perfect HbA1C) and the real (the frustratingly high or low blood sugars). Patients and doctors both have \u201cdreams of omnipotence\u201d (165), he acknowledges. <a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/a-sweet-life-staff\/featured\/jane\/blogs\/type-1-blogs\/the-weakness-in-me\/17596\/\">I have such dreams<\/a>, too, and yet still I find comfort in these words:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>No health policy or medical Ten Commandments will ever entirely tame the randomness of the universe or control all the variables affecting people\u2019s health. Simply being alive means being vulnerable to time, chance, illness, death. (165)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_18483\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18483\" style=\"width: 280px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Julian-Seifter.jpg\" rel=\"mfp\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18483  lazyload\" style=\"margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px;\" title=\"Julian Seifter\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Julian-Seifter.jpg\" alt=\"Julian Seifter\" width=\"280\" height=\"250\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Julian-Seifter.jpg 280w, https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Julian-Seifter-100x90.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18483\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julian Seifter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even though those of us with diabetes have unusual health challenges to face and manage, there is something about our experience of illness that is simply human. Dr. Seifert shows readers the vulnerable side of himself, too, and how his experience of diabetes has been anything but straightforward and masterful. In fact, at the end of the book, he confesses to the irritation he feels when his wife (also his co-writer) gives him their secret signal that he needs insulin, or conversely some Life Savers (221).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The richness and craft with which the patient stories in this book are told make <em>After the Diagnosis<\/em> a page-turner, perfect for summer reading. Its honesty and compassion make it deep, reflective, and ultimately therapeutic.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>To read an essay by Dr. Julian Seifter, click <a href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/a-sweet-life-staff\/featured\/symptoms-visible-and-invisible\/16927\/\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Book Review: After the Diagnosis: Transcending Chronic Illness by Julian and Betsy Seifter <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":18487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1432],"tags":[126],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.9 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Doctor Confronts his Patients&#039; Illnesses and his own Diabetes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Not about diabetes only, the subject of the Seifters\u2019 book is more broadly chronic illness. 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