The orange wire problem and other tales from the doctor's office / David Watts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Watts, H. David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Physician and patient--Anecdotes.

Physician and patient.

Medicine--Anecdotes.

Medicine.

Physicians--Anecdotes.

Physicians.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (207 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Western literature has had a long tradition of physician-writers. From Mikhail Bulgakov to William Carlos Williams to Richard Selzer to Ethan Canin, exposure to human beings at their most vulnerable has inspired fine writing. In his own inimitable and unpretentious style, David Watts is also a master storyteller. Whether recounting the decline and death of a dear friend or poking holes in the faulty logic of an insurance company underling, The Orange Wire Problem lays bare the nobility and weakness, generosity and churlishness of human nature. With disarming candor and the audacity to admit t

Contents:

Preface: what you might expect to find here

Facts and lies

The orange wire problem

Brain damage

Let eagles come

The chart in the window

Thank you Mr. Nicholson

Talking about Christmas

Silence knows the right questions

One cancer cell

Anathema

Telling the truth in the realm of truth

Ghosts in the machine

Blood butterfly

Is something wrong with your prostate?

The soft animal of the body

Aspirin and beauty

Notes from the center of a perpetual breakdown

Ready for anything

A critical distance

The way we know what we know

Third opinion

Hanna's volvulus

The case of the missing molecule

The pill on the shelf

Mother Teresa and the problem of care

The doctor's pill

Afterword: brilliance.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781587298493

158729849X

OCLC:

773567004