There were some technical details here, I didn't get it all of course, I have no history in medicine but I understood enough for the stories to make sense even without that knowledge. I wasn’t keen on the way it jumps around and between cases of similar illnesses but I get why he did it, it just didn’t work for me. But those friends that were able to look into the ugly face of ALS and not turn away came to realize that the essence of George had survived this calamity, and for that they have been blessed with the ongoing gift of his love, his humor, his friendship, and an inspiration for life that comes from being around him.”

Arwen Cleary had been a professional figure skater as a teenager, had retired from the Ice Capades upon its dissolution in 1995, had then raised three children, gotten divorced, and moved with her two younger children to a ranch house in Leominster, a distant suburb, where she worked part-time at a local health club. Her medical history was unremarkable: once a smoker, she had quit ten years earlier. Her travels had taken her no place more exotic than Bermuda and no more distant than Orlando. Her only hospitalizations to that point had been in maternity wards. She was remarkably fit and in seemingly good cardiovascular health, if judged only by her appearance and vital signs. But shortly after a visit to a chiropractor, she had suffered a vertebral artery dissection, a form of stroke. Dr Allan H. Ropper is a Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Raymond D. Adams Master Clinician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He is credited with founding the field of neurological intensive care and counts Michael J. Fox among his patients.To become a good clinical neurologist, you have to be intensely interested by what the brain does, how it works, how it breaks down.” Stories about a neurologist in an acute hospital. Tales of people with complex and often mind-boggling presentations, like the man who drove for half a day in circles in his car. I wish I was smart enough to become a doctor because I think their work is so interesting particularly neurology. Dr. Ropper, Reaching Down The Rabbit Hole makes this point with his tales of the variety of illnesses, accidents, and medical conditions neurologists treat. He calls neurology the Queen of medicine because of its diversity.

The brain, that eternally mysterious blancmange of grey matter, has become very fashionable these days. That may seem a curious observation, given that our brains have always been at the centre of everything we think and do. But there does seem to be a growing popular interest in all things neurological. The phrase A and O times three means "awake, oriented to self, oriented to place, and oriented to time." Some people add a fourth: oriented to situation. The problem is that everybody is "oriented times one" unless they are hysterical or dead. of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: A Renowned Neurologist Explains the Mystery and Drama of Brain Disease by Allan H. Ropper All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. I liked Dr Ropper, he came across nicely and informally, but his ego can get a bit wearisome after a while. I am trying not to hold the whole ego thing against him, after all he is a neurologist and fair enough he does an amazing job that very few people can or would choose to do.

When all his colleagues think a patient is suffering from a brain tumour or a stroke, Ropper knows that it’s herpes encephalitis. He doesn’t need to look at scans. He can tell from a bedside exam. Allan Ropper's new memoir, Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole, has the hard-boiled style of a Raymond Chandler novel. Like a real-life Dr House, Ropper follows hunches and has sudden startling insights. * The Times * Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.

Neurologists aren't very nice to each other and to other doctors consulting on a case. There is a lot of ego jousting. The author of this book tries hard to be humble, but it's evident that he has high regard for himself and his abilities and unique diagnoses. We rarely stop to think about how much of our persona is created by the forty-three or so facial muscles at our disposal, especially those that encircle our eyes. When we think of eyes, other than their color, we think mainly about their frame: the lids, lashes, and brows; a squint, a glint, an arched brow, a purposeful asymmetry. We speak with our eyes. We read other people’s faces through a myriad of micro-expressions. One of the cruelties of ALS is that it not only forces its victims onto ventilators, thus robbing them of speech, but it eventually neutralizes most of the facial muscles, reducing the expressive palette to a few basic gestures.” Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: A Renowned Neurologist Explains the Mystery and Drama of Brain Disease Book Genre: Autobiography, Biology, Health, Medical, Medicine, Memoir, Mental Health, Neuroscience, Nonfiction, Psychology, ScienceHoly cow!" I said. "It's an ovarian teratoma. You'd better send her over." It was a snap diagnosis, possibly wrong, but there was no harm in raising on a pair of aces. I had a pretty good idea what the other cards would be: memory deficits, gooseflesh, a high heart rate, and no family history of psychosis. The drooling alone was a tip-off. In a sense, the book is long argument for the primacy of old-fashioned observation over newfangled technology. The central paradox with which it grapples is that in neurology the very means a patient uses to explain himself – ie his brain – is often impaired, and so unreliable. I just ran into your Mr. Talma in the elevator lobby." Elliott, a colleague who seems to keep closer tabs on my patients than I do, had buttonholed me in the corridor outside of the ward. "When I gave him a shout-out," he said, "you'd think I'd asked him to put up bail for the Unabomber. The guy comes in here a pussycat, and when you finish with him he's Mr. What's-It-To-You-Pal. No more smiles, no more jokes. What did you do to him?"

This starts out strong, with an introduction into various complex and interesting neurology patients. We have hydrocephalus, subarachnoid haemorrhage, strokes and even ovarian teratomas. It's fascinating stuff, told in a way that feels accessible and not too weighed down by medical jargon. However, I did find the stories petered out somewhat towards the end, and I also really didn't like the way Allan Ropper describes some of his patients. Is 'blonde, very attractive, a little on the plump side, but very lovely' really appropriate? No, I think not.An in-the-trenches exploration of the challenging world of the clinical neurologist. From the quotidian to the exotic, from the heart-breaking to the humorous, the authors present an honest and compelling look at one of medicine's most fascinating specialties. * Dr Michael Collins, author of Hot Lights, Cold Steel * All went well for two years, until she returned to the hospital with sudden right facial drooping and difficulty finding words, sure signs of another stroke, but this time a stroke of a very different kind. A portion of one of the language centers of her brain had been deprived of its blood supply. Her speech was now noticeably impaired. Within a few days, she showed signs of improvement, and was again discharged on a blood thinner.