Rating: 
Summary: As I Live and Breathe
Review: I greatly enjoyed this book, it was very informative. I also have a PID because our disorder is very rare I at times feel like I am fighting this battle all alone. The author tells her story very well, some of the same things I have gone through, but some I have not. Each person is different. I would recommend this book to anyone especially those dealing with PID patients.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointment
Review: I liked this book a lot for about the first half. I've always been interested in medical non-fiction and this was, for the most part, fascinating. Until page 151, where she wrote, "Death is not pretty. In the movies, people lie in bed in lace nightgowns, their breath slows, they reach their hands out and, in a quiet sigh, they expire. I have seen many people die, and none have died like that. They rage. There is terrible pain and confusion. Their bodies bruise and bleed. They moan." While I certainly don't expect to die "movie-style", I found her descriptions unsettling. I am pushing 70, am in excellent health and until reading that, I have had no fear of the process of death. Now I am uneasy about it.The "Begotten" chapter seemed to me just more of the same from the first half. I learned more than I wanted or needed to know about this remarkable woman. "Begetting" was just plain boring to me. Been-there-done-that sort of thing. I skimmed most of that chapter. (Of course I am happy for her.) I felt that the book was worth reading, but I'm afraid I can't recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: I liked this book a lot for about the first half. I've always been interested in medical non-fiction and this was, for the most part, fascinating. Until page 151, where she wrote, "Death is not pretty. In the movies, people lie in bed in lace nightgowns, their breath slows, they reach their hands out and, in a quiet sigh, they expire. I have seen many people die, and none have died like that. They rage. There is terrible pain and confusion. Their bodies bruise and bleed. They moan." While I certainly don't expect to die "movie-style", I found her descriptions unsettling. I am pushing 70, am in excellent health and until reading that, I have had no fear of the process of death. Now I am uneasy about it. The "Begotten" chapter seemed to me just more of the same from the first half. I learned more than I wanted or needed to know about this remarkable woman. "Begetting" was just plain boring to me. Been-there-done-that sort of thing. I skimmed most of that chapter. (Of course I am happy for her.) I felt that the book was worth reading, but I'm afraid I can't recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Well Written and Compelling
Review: I really couldn't put this book down once I got started, which was about 44 hours ago. This book is autobiography or memoir (I really don't know the difference) and is a quick read at 243 pages because Jamie Weisman herself is only 36 or 37 years old. What is compelling about this book is Weisman's honest look at her congenital immune deficiency, the way she has dealt with and the way it has affected the significant people in her lives (her parents, her husband). A big part of the way that she has chosen to deal with this disease is by going to medical school and becoming a doctor. One of the most powerful passages in the book is when she writes, "...... I start medical school. I come to know far more about immune deficiencies than my father does. I find my own doctors and Emory University and begin making my own decisions about my health care...... I have relieved my father of the double burden of not only loving me while I am sick but also having to be my doctor" (pg 194). This passage is powerful for me because, to my mind, she has taken responsibility for her life, gained as much knowledge as possible about her condition, and is relying on herself to manage it. I also really liked the fourth chapter, "All Too Human", where she talks about the inevitability of errors in medecine. Doctors are people, too; hospitals are worked in by people. Too many people just treat doctors like omniscient gods but they are not; they are limited and fallible people, like everyone else. The third chapter, "Beautiful Failure", is mainly about a surgeon who removed a hideous lump from her face and gave her back her appearance. There is a twist and it is really a powerful and beautiful chapter. The book lost a little steam for me in Chapters 5 and 6 though it picked up a bit after that. Weisman is now a mother and the final chapter "Begetting", is mainly about her struggles to become pregnant and her fears of complications due to her condition. All in all, a courageous struggle, an interesting look at the practice of medecine and an honest look inside one person, and her family's, life. ...
Rating:
Summary: This is a great book!
Review: I'm a doctor, and i have never before read a book that so compellingly describes both the patient experience and the frustrations of learning to practice medicine. Dr. Weisman writes personally about her dependence on and aggravation with medicine and its many, many limitations. She weaves tales of candor and passion that capture how she, of all people, can make medicine her life work, and maintain it as a source of hope for her illness, when both the people and theories of medicine have failed her time and again, often with life-threatening consquences. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever had any contact with the medical profession.
Rating:
Summary: An unsentimental look at death and life with illness
Review: Weisman could successfully write about any topic; that she chose to write about medicine, death and illness is like having a friend answer a question that you don't dare ask. The book gives a grim and graphic picture of what it is like to watch someone die from cancer. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone in the late stages of a terminal illness. There is plenty of despair in these pages. But there is also hope. Weisman has accepted that she will never be cured, that she will always need regular gamma globulin and interferon treatments, that she may one day get lymphoma. While ill she marries, earns a medical degree, has a baby, writes a book and takes care of the dying. Her cure for the fear of death is indeed living. This book is instructive for anyone considering medical school, for those curious about death and for those interested in the ethics, economics and diagnostic challenges of modern medicine. In the end, it is an inspiring read for most anyone.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling and deeply moving read
Review: Weisman is an extremely gifted writer, and I suspect a gifted healer as well. She has the rare ability to communicate personal and painful experiences in a way that is universally accessible. Reading her book, I felt at times that I couldn't put it down, that I got carried by the lyricism of her language. At other times I found that I could not read more than a section at a time, because the content of the stories she tells -- about her experiences both as a hurter and as a healer -- are so full of genuine struggle and sentiment that I became overwhelmed. Weisman tells of her own struggles and frustrations without self-pity; she tells of those of her patients' and loved ones' without self-aggrandizement. This is a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: A True Medical Mystery!
Review: Written by Jamie Weisman, a physician-patient with a rare, hard-to-diagnose illness, the reader sees all facets of a medical mystery. What was really frightening to me was the length of time it took to diagnose Weisman's condition, despite the fact that her father, a doctor, was always there, questioning, observing, yet unable to help. She endured years of frustration, pain, anguish, and physical deformity before being diagnosed with a congenital immune deficiency.It is controlled through monthly treatments with gamma globulin and by self-injections every few days with interferon. There is, however, no cure. Her illness inspired Weisman to go to medical school, and she is now a physician at Emory in Atlanta. She writes eloquently about how she practices medicine while dealing with her illness. Her harrowing story makes for tough but compelling reading. I could have done without the last sections, "Begotten" and "Begetting", or at least a shorter account of her attempts to have a child. Otherwise this book read like a medical thriller.
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