Life in the Balance

March 1, 2008
Graboys, a top Boston cardiologist, devoted his life to his work and his patients. He was at the top of his field and was physically and socially active. At the relatively young age of 63, Graboys now finds himself in the role of the patient and no longer able to work as a physician owing to Parkinson's disease and an associated progressive dementia. Graboys struggles with tremors, involuntary jerks of his hands and arms, sweats, and cognitive dysfunction. Navigating new places or keeping up a telephone conversation have become challenges for a man who used to make complex medical decisions. Graboys describes how his disease has affected every aspect of his life: work, family, social, physical, and appearance. He also gives an honest view of how he struggles to deal with the challenges, anger, bitterness, and guilt he feels. Enhancing his memoir are segments from family members and friends. This well-written memoir of a life shattered by Parkinson's disease will give readers, patients, and their caretakers an honest account of life with the disease. Recommended for most libraries.Dana Ladd, Community Health Education Ctr., Tompkins-McCaw Lib. for the Health Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Libs., Richmond

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2008
At the top of his professional game at Bostons Brigham and Womens Hospital and on the Harvard Medical School faculty but at a personal nadir after the death of his wife, cardiologist Graboys began presenting physical and mental signs he at first wrote off as after-effects of prolonged stress and exhaustion. Despite his best efforts to control the situation, first through denial, then by reducing his private-practice patient load, the symptoms doggedly progressed. In the meantime, he remarried. But when he passed out on the wedding day, he knew his problems were more serious than he wanted to admit. Before long, he was diagnosed with the double whammy of Parkinsons disease and Lewy body dementia, an associated degenerative disease. In this stirring and chilling memoir, he takes an unblinking look at himself as his mind and body suffer unrelenting hits from those progressive illnesses. An unforgettable doctor-as-patient account, including reflections by Graboys daughters, sons-in-law, and members of the families blended by his marriage.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)