Synopses & Reviews
In the bestselling tradition of Norman Cousins' Anatomy of an Illness, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Gregory White Smith tells how he and others have made medical miracles happen by working within the traditional medical establishment and explains how all patients -- even critically ill patients -- can take control of their treatment and their lives.
When Gregory White Smith was thirty-four, he was handed a death sentence: the brain tumor that had been quietly benign for more than a decade suddenly turned malignant and was deemed inoperable. And the doctors gave him only three months to live. Alone in the Mayo Clinic at Christmas times, Greg tranquilized himself with a steady diet of cinnamon buns and television. When he heard the television weatherman announce, "Better break out those umbrellas tomorrow", he realized that weathermen, like doctors, make educated guesses based on their experiences, but their predictions -- whether about rain or life expectancy -- are just that: predictions, not truths. And predictions, like the weather report, can be wrong.
Dusting himself off, Greg determined to change his doctor's prognosis by doing everything he knew how -- and by learning the things he didn't know. A lawyer and writer by profession, Greg was a born researcher, and with his partner, Steven Naifeh, he began looking for a better way. They went to doctors all over the world looking for every conventional therapy they could find -- radiation, surgery, and combinations of the two. And when that failed, they turned to more experimental treatments. Somewhere along the way, with the combination of medical skill, personal faith, and unwavering determination, Steve and Greg made a miracle-- in the form of Greg's remarkable recovery.
The point is not so much that Greg has been cured (actually, he still has the tumor, but it has been significantly reduced and the doctors refer to it once again as benign), but that Greg learned to take responsibility for his own life, his own health, and in fact, his survival. "Making Miracles Happen" explains how patients -- even critically ill patients -- can take back control of their lives, regardless of the prognosis they've been given.
Synopsis
Ten years ago, Gregory White Smith's doctors gave him three months to live. He's still here. Discover how he, and many others in this life-changing book, beat the odds and survived.
The news was grim. Doctors at the prestigious Mayo Clinic told Greg Smith--young, handsome, and hard at work at the book that would one day win him a Pulitzer Prize--that he had an inoperable brain tumor. They gave him three months to live. Ten years later, Greg is fit, active, and managing his tumor with an experimental hormone therapy.
Like Greg, the other courageous people in this book--whose illnesses range from cystic fibrosis to cancer--have returned from the threshold of death. They are all medical miracles. Now you can learn how they made those miracles happen. Not a survivor's memoir, but a survivor's handbook, this extraordinary book weaves the insights of doctors and the wisdom of patients into a road map anyone can follow out of the dark fears of dying.
Discover:
The one thing that makes the difference between life and death --taking control
Practical steps to finding the best doctor and the best care
Your own research...how to do it, why your life depends on it
What you need to ask before beginning an experimental treatment
Why even if there isn't a cure now, there may be tomorrow--and how to live long enough to get it...and moreAbout the Author
Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh have collaborated on many books, including The Mormon Murders, Final Justice, A Stranger in the Family, and Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, which was a National Book Award finalist and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. They are also co-editors of the well-known reference works The Best Doctors in America and The Best Lawyers in America. Their most recent book was On a Street Called Easy, in a Cottage Called Joye. They live in South Carolina.