Reviews tagging 'Grief'

This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, by Adam Kay

46 reviews

rebeccaldixon13's review against another edition

emotional funny informative medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Grief, Child death, Pregnancy, Blood, Death, and Abortion

saviross's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

3.0

Very interesting to hear about these experiences working across various hospitals. At times, I honestly felt happy Adam is no longer working as a doctor, as sometimes his comments about patients were jarring and insensitive. I understand though that it is a very challenging job and, at the same time, Adam told many stories that made his care for patients very clear. I did enjoy Adam's writing though, and his ability to be humorous during times of stress was amazing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Injury/injury detail, Death, Fatphobia, and Grief

bnelson13's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

5.0

Another book, that if I could give it more than 5 stars I would! Mostly funny, slightly gross, this book is comprised of diary enteries from Dr. Adam Kay's time in Obgyn in various hospitals throughout the UK working for the NHS from 2004-2010. Certain terminology that may be lesser known is described in helpful footnotes throughout the entire book. 

Kay writes how difficult it is working in a system that doesn't quite support doctors, midwives, nurses and other hospital staff, and the impacts on their personal lives that also suffer. Kay has since left the healthcare industry but wrote this novel in solidarity, as an insight into hospital life for the general population after the government started to attack the NHS and saying that doctors are only in it for the money in 2016. 

A very insightful read, if you thought working in a hospital was already difficult, it's actually 10x worse than what you had thought. As it is, now in 2023, and with Covid still running rampant, it's clear that a lot of healthcare systems are crumbling due to lack of staffing, lack of care for staff, and governments out to make as many monetary cutbacks as they possibly can. I think we're on a slippery slope with the healthcare system now, and this book is proof that things need to change. Very eye opening. Well worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Blood

Moderate: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Abortion, Death, Vomit, Child death, and Infertility

Minor: Cancer, Excrement, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, and Alcoholism

smupple's review against another edition

funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Injury/injury detail, Vomit, Child death, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Pregnancy, Drug use, Excrement, Infertility, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Grief and Cancer

Minor: Drug use, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

bookbird's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

This must be my third or fourth reread of this incredibly special book. Kay is a master storyteller, and it's his finely balanced combination of light and dark that make this book so impactful. A must-read for anyone who has ever had even the briefest experience of the NHS.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Mental illness, Abortion, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Fatphobia, Gore, Terminal illness, Vomit, Cancer, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Excrement, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Miscarriage, and Self harm

kh32's review against another edition

challenging funny informative sad fast-paced

3.5

Favourite quotes:
“It now seemed extreme and unreasonable in terms of what was expected of me, but at the time, I’d just accepted it as part of the job. The extra mile was the normal distance.”

“The depth of the lows is the price you pay for the height of the highs.”

“She bursts into tears, and out come all the will nevers, the crushing realization that forever is just a word on the front of Valentine’s cards.”

“The other thing I realize is that none of her many, many concerns are about herself; it’s all about the kids, her husband, her sister, her friends. Maybe that’s the definition of a good person.”

“He must realize we have the same chat every time, but it clearly doesn’t matter—he just wants to know there’s someone out there who cares. And actually, that’s a very large part of what being a doctor is.”

“I dress him again, look up to a God I don’t believe in, and say, ‘Look after him.’”

“You don’t cure depression, the same way you don’t cure asthma; you manage it. I’m the inhaler he’s decided to go with and I should be pleased he’s gone this long without an attack.”

“Medicine is the host who manages to keep you at the party hours after you first think about leaving.”

“It’s funny—you don’t think of doctors getting ill.”

“Think about the toll the job takes on every medical professional, at home and at work. Remember that all of them do an absolutely impossible job to the very best of their abilities. Your time in the hospital may well hurt them a lot more than it hurts you.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Child death, Injury/injury detail, Death of parent, Infertility, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Miscarriage, Blood, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Abortion

carina_dreamer's review against another edition

funny informative lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

3.0

• Mais um emprestado pela bestie em Novembro e só o terminei em Dezembro. Quis lê-lo porque os exemplos que ela me contava pareciam hilariantes.

• Este livro é um memoir que decorre ao longo de 7 anos (se não me engano) enquanto Adam sobe na carreira de médico e também os motivos que o levaram a abandonar.

• Atualmente Adam é comediante e escreve guiões para a televisão e cinema. Com essa informação conseguem imaginar a sátira ao sistema de saúde britânico que aqui vai? Até quem não pertence à medicina e é um simples utente consegue perceber as semelhanças entre o sistema de saúde deles e o nosso. Por entre as piadas deu para ter empatia pelo que os médicos sofrem no seu trabalho.

• Cada capítulo aborda uma breve explicação de cada patamar na carreira, as responsabilidades e deveres, assim como os casos insólitos no trabalho e na sua vida pessoal.
Rondam à volta de 20 páginas cada, o que devia ser fácil de ler, mas conseguia ser um pouco monótono, sempre o mesmo registo, por isso demorei um pouco a terminá-lo.

• Ri-me sim com as situações, mas também me assustei um pouco com os casos de ginecologia que por ali passavam (ter bebés é assustador).

• Aconselho a quem não tem muito interesse em livros de não-ficção porque é bom para limpar o palato entre géneros literários. Pode também ser uma leitura em que façam intervalos entre os anos, quase como ler contos.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Medical content

Moderate: Gore, Injury/injury detail, Blood, Abortion, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Infertility, Pregnancy, Death, and Miscarriage

Minor: Grief

eleyasolyn's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief

leonormsousa's review against another edition

challenging funny informative fast-paced

5.0

QUOTE

"So I told them the truth: the hours are terrible, the pay is terrible, the conditions are terrible; you’re underappreciated, unsupported, disrespected and frequently physically endangered. But there’s no better job in the world."

WHAT I ENJOYED

• the bigger message: no health care provider does what they do for money, they do it to help other people and for passion
• incredibly funny and witty
• very honest and raw, maybe a consequence of the descriptive and factual tone: the author does not try to paint himself or anyone else in a good or bad light
• great insights into the life of a medical care taker (doctor): 
  • the lack of working conditions
  • their struggles with balancing work with personal life
  • the pressure and the emotional weight they’re under
  • the feeling of unreadiness and how they grow as doctors with time
  • working in public vs private healthcare
• the side notes explaining the more medical/technical terms really help guide us common people
• the author narration in the audiobook is exceptional

WHAT I DIDN'T ENJOY

• if you’re not from the UK or are not familiarized with its health and education systems, there might be a couple of things that you don’t grasp as well. it's not something that affects your reading experience much and tbh a google search can probably solve it... 

RECOMMENDED TO

• everyone!
• i feel like it’s an essential read to better understand and appreciate the work of health care providers
• i imagine it might be especially interesting for other healthcare providers since they will probably relate to some of the experiences
• the only exception to my recommendation is if you have triggers connected to medical content & pregnancies (recommend checking the full list of TWs)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Blood, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Terminal illness, Body horror, Death, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Abortion, Child death, Drug use, Excrement, Infertility, and Medical trauma

nelsvy's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Medical trauma

Minor: Suicide, Eating disorder, Grief, Infertility, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Abortion, and Miscarriage