The Patient From Hell

Well maybe I should give the full title: The Patient from Hell: How I Worked with My Doctors to Get the Best of Modern Medicine and How You Can Too written by noted climatologist Stephen H. Schneider. Normally I dutifly read books by patients but as a whole they don't tend to hit the mark. In this book I'm happy to report: this is a book any lymphoma patient will want to read. When Schneider was diagnosed with Mantle Cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (MCL), he took advocating cutting edge treatment to a new level (hence the patient from hell moniker). Actually his approach makes sense and it will to you too - called Bayesian updating, in a nutshell it is going along a course and using the latest data to update the course. This is in contrast to many medical center treatments where they know your start point (your exact diagnosis) and the final outcome they want (a fixed treatment protocol) but refuse to deviate from defined protocol.



Well written (with co-author Janica Lane), it provides patients of all types (including all lymphomas) with methodologies you, your caregivers/advocates, and your medical team can use to maximize the effctiveness of your treatments.



I intend to pass the book on to my wife who was my caregiver and advocate - she will relate strongly with Schneider's wife, Terry Root, who helped him immensely with both his care and in researching cutting-edge treatment information.



I highly recommend reading this book.



Amazon currently has a 34% discount on it too - that helps alot :-)