Name: Counting Backwards
Rating: 4 (2 reviews)
ISBN: 9780393254433

Henry Jay Przybylo

A moving exploration of the most common but most mysterious procedure in medicine.

A Doctor's Notes on Anesthesia

Counting Backwards

A moving exploration of the most common but most mysterious procedure in medicine. For many of the 40 million Americans who undergo anesthesia each year, it is the source of great fear and fascination. From the famous first demonstration of anesthesia in the Ether Dome at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846 to today’s routine procedure that controls anxiety, memory formation, pain relief, and more, anesthesia has come a long way. But it remains one of the most extraordinary, unexplored corners of the medical world. In Counting Backwards, Dr. Henry Jay Przybylo—a pediatric anesthesiologist with more than thirty years of experience—delivers an unforgettable account of the procedure’s daily dramas and fundamental mysteries. Przybylo has administered anesthesia more than 30,000 times in his career—erasing consciousness, denying memory, and immobilizing the body, and then reversing all of these effects—on newborn babies, screaming toddlers, sullen teenagers, even a gorilla. With compassion and candor, he weaves his experiences into an intimate exploration of the nature of consciousness, the politics of pain relief, and the wonder of modern medicine. Filled with intensity and humanity, with moments of near-disaster, life-saving success, and simple grace, Counting Backwards is for anyone curious about what happens after we lose consciousness.

Counting Backwards: A Doctor's Notes on Anesthesia

altlovesbooks

I've had one minor surgery in my life, and I don't even think I know who the anesthesiologist was. I'm a bit of a needle-phobe, and I remember being absolutely wigged out about the idea of an IV in my arm. A "bit of a pinch" is an understatement, but I remember the person administering the IV was super nice and encouraging. I remember getting wheeled away, and then I remember waking up and being told I had to leave because it was like 5:30pm and these people had to get home (it wasn't at a hospital, more like a specialized clinic, I guess, not a 24/7 operation). I'm assuming things went smoothly, but after listening to this audiobook I regret not learning more about the whole "going under" portion. 

Dr. Przybylo specializes in anesthesiology, putting people under, keeping them there during the operation, and bringing them back out again. He's a bit proud of his profession (as I would be too, were I in his shoes), and this book explains his practice and the history of it through example cases he's encountered. I learned a lot about the early days of being put under for painful operations, the drugs used, the changes in the field. As with many things taken for granted in the medical industry, there's a lot more going on here than I knew about. I particularly liked the story involving the gorilla, and the exchanges between him and various kids throughout the book.

Super interesting stuff that I'm glad I took some time to read about. I'm hoping to keep some of this stuff in the back of my head, just in case I'm put in that position. Not necessarily to pick their brains, but maybe give my anesthesiologist something better to work with to ease my anxiety rather than the mundane chitchat they have to come up with on the fly. "Hey, I read a book once...."

Counting Backwards A Doctor's Notes on Anesthesia

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