Heart Like Cement
Book Details
Author(s)Jay Helwig
ISBN / ASINB004QTOHAK
ISBN-13978B004QTOHA8
MarketplaceUnited Kingdom 🇬🇧
Description
Heart Like Cement
A medical autobiography by Jay Helwig
This is the non fiction book that tells how I beat an incurable, terminal disease known as amyloidosis. Amyloidosis turned my heart, literally and figuratively, into cement. It is the medical autobiography of the world’s longest surviving cardiac amyloidosis patient.
When I was diagnosed in 1994, amyloidosis was a rare, progressive, absolutely terminal disease. Most patients died within a year of diagnosis. Regression was unknown. That’s what I read and was told by doctors. There was no hope and no encouragement.
My journey through amyloidosis is a brutal, in your face, no holds barred, 109,000 + word description of doing the impossible. Dying is not a pleasant subject. I avoided thinking about death until it kicked in my door. I found a way to get off the floor and fight back.
From a normal, healthy family life in the suburbs, to a pressurized hospital isolation room, this is the story of fighting a disease with no survivors. From early indications that I was in physical distress, to attempts to get diagnosed, to my search for treatments and ultimately a cure, this story is the ultimate “Beat the Clockâ€. But it was no game, and losing meant dying.
Limitations of big time medicine are exposed. Did you really think the patient comes first, last and always? Playing God isn’t a profession, it is a calling. There are ways to use medicine’s shortcomings to your advantage. I relate how I tried to make use of every one.
My autobiography is a first person account of what I went through in excruciatingly, painful detail. No one is spared, not even me. I just wanted to live. I did everything I could to live. In the amyloidosis world, nice guys don’t finish last, they don’t live long enough to finish.
This is my story. I hope it is helpful.
A medical autobiography by Jay Helwig
This is the non fiction book that tells how I beat an incurable, terminal disease known as amyloidosis. Amyloidosis turned my heart, literally and figuratively, into cement. It is the medical autobiography of the world’s longest surviving cardiac amyloidosis patient.
When I was diagnosed in 1994, amyloidosis was a rare, progressive, absolutely terminal disease. Most patients died within a year of diagnosis. Regression was unknown. That’s what I read and was told by doctors. There was no hope and no encouragement.
My journey through amyloidosis is a brutal, in your face, no holds barred, 109,000 + word description of doing the impossible. Dying is not a pleasant subject. I avoided thinking about death until it kicked in my door. I found a way to get off the floor and fight back.
From a normal, healthy family life in the suburbs, to a pressurized hospital isolation room, this is the story of fighting a disease with no survivors. From early indications that I was in physical distress, to attempts to get diagnosed, to my search for treatments and ultimately a cure, this story is the ultimate “Beat the Clockâ€. But it was no game, and losing meant dying.
Limitations of big time medicine are exposed. Did you really think the patient comes first, last and always? Playing God isn’t a profession, it is a calling. There are ways to use medicine’s shortcomings to your advantage. I relate how I tried to make use of every one.
My autobiography is a first person account of what I went through in excruciatingly, painful detail. No one is spared, not even me. I just wanted to live. I did everything I could to live. In the amyloidosis world, nice guys don’t finish last, they don’t live long enough to finish.
This is my story. I hope it is helpful.
