happydalek | Reading List 2008

After realizing that I read only two books for fun in all of 2007, I have decided to get back to my bookworm roots this year. Quite accidentally, I'm already off to a good start. Yesterday in Borders I sat down and read Sick Girl by Amy Silverstein, a fascinating insight into life after a heart transplant. It was a big eye-opener that provided a sharp contrast to the popularized image of transplant patients as glowing with health, happiness and gratefulness. Silverstein should be applauded for her candor and honesty. The life expectancy of a transplanted heart is only ten years. Imagine being thrown into that scenario when you're only 25, and formerly in perfect health. That's Amy's story.

I consider myself an uncommonly well-informed person where health issues are concerned, but I had no idea how differently a transplanted heart works compared to a normal one, nor the grueling payoff you make in overall health for the sake of a functioning heart due to immunosuppressants, and the repeated, painful tests transplant patients must endure to keep tabs on their organ. More than ever, it highlighted to me that the "miracle cure" transplantation is often touted as by the media is still tragically crude, and lacking in good, long-term survival data.

I read all 304 pgs. of it in about 4 1/2 hrs, and I didn't buy it. *sheepish*