Bittersweet : diabetes, insulin, and the transformation of illness / Chris Feudtner.

By:

Feudtner, John Christopher

Series: Studies in social medicinePublication details: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c2003.Description: xxii, 290 p. : ill. ; 25 cmISBN:

0807827916 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

616.4/62/009 21

LOC classification:

RA645.D5 F485 2003

NLM classification:

WK 810

Contents:

Irony in an era of medical marvels : diabetes history as a study of health and hope -- A disease in motion : the cycles of diabetic transmutation -- Illness unfolding : the transformed experience of diabetic patients -- Getting the point : the daily work of diabetes -- The want of control : ideas and ideals in the management of diabetes -- Pregnant longings : mounting medical intensity in the pursuit of motherhood -- Predicaments of dangerous safety : identity, responsibility, and life with a chronic illness -- Medicine and the marshaling of hope : confronting the increasingly complicated choices of incomplete control.

Summary: Publisher description: One of medicine's most remarkable therapeutic triumphs was the discovery of insulin in 1921. The drug produced astonishing results, rescuing children and adults from the deadly grip of diabetes. But as Chris Feudtner demonstrates, the subsequent transformation of the disease from a fatal condition into a chronic illness is a story of success tinged with irony, a revealing saga that illuminates the complex human consequences of medical intervention. Bittersweet chronicles this history of diabetes through the compelling perspectives of people who lived with this disease. Drawing on a remarkable body of letters exchanged between patients or their parents and Dr. Elliot P. Joslin and the staff of physicians at his famed Boston clinic, Feudtner examines the experience of living with diabetes across the twentieth century, highlighting changes in treatment and their profound effects on patients' lives. Although focused on juvenile-onset, or Type 1, diabetes, the themes explored in Bittersweet have implications for our understanding of adult-onset, or Type 2, diabetes, as well as a host of other diseases that, thanks to drugs or medical advances, are being transformed from acute to chronic conditions. Indeed, the tale of diabetes in the post-insulin era provides an ideal opportunity for exploring the larger questions of how medicine changes our lives.

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Shelving location	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	NMC Library	Stacks	RA645 .D5 F485 2003 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		33039001217008

Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-273) and index.

Publisher description: One of medicine's most remarkable therapeutic triumphs was the discovery of insulin in 1921. The drug produced astonishing results, rescuing children and adults from the deadly grip of diabetes. But as Chris Feudtner demonstrates, the subsequent transformation of the disease from a fatal condition into a chronic illness is a story of success tinged with irony, a revealing saga that illuminates the complex human consequences of medical intervention. Bittersweet chronicles this history of diabetes through the compelling perspectives of people who lived with this disease. Drawing on a remarkable body of letters exchanged between patients or their parents and Dr. Elliot P. Joslin and the staff of physicians at his famed Boston clinic, Feudtner examines the experience of living with diabetes across the twentieth century, highlighting changes in treatment and their profound effects on patients' lives. Although focused on juvenile-onset, or Type 1, diabetes, the themes explored in Bittersweet have implications for our understanding of adult-onset, or Type 2, diabetes, as well as a host of other diseases that, thanks to drugs or medical advances, are being transformed from acute to chronic conditions. Indeed, the tale of diabetes in the post-insulin era provides an ideal opportunity for exploring the larger questions of how medicine changes our lives.

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