The Measure of Our Days: A Spiritual Exploration of Illness

These stories are diverse--from Kirk, an aggressive venture capitalist determined to play the odds with controversial chemotherapy treatments; to Elizabeth, an imperious dowager humbled by a rare blood disease; to Elliott, who triumphs over leukemia and creates for himself a definition of success--but each, in the words of Maggie Scarf, "transmute the misery of terrible suffering into a marvelous celebration of the sweetness of human life." Far from medical case studies, these are spiritual journeys of questioning and self-awareness, embarked on by the physician as well as the patient.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Message of hope in the human spirit, 2008-02-24
No small number of my loved ones have required the care of hematologists -- mother-in-law, nephew, two aunts, father, husband. I worked closely with a group of hematologists for several years and had a close friend in that branch of medicine. How, I always wondered, do they maintain the emotional and spiritual resources needed to continue in this challenging line of work?

Dr. Jerome Groopman addresses that very question in the prologue to "The Measure of Our Days." He writes, "I identify several elements that give me hope and strength in the cold company of death. One is modern science and the potential for change it offers. Another is the wisdom and solace found in faith. And, perhaps most important, as the following stories reveal, I draw on the particular lessons -- of courage and endurance -- gained from my patients."

There is Kirk, a venture capitalist with kidney cancer who learns too late what makes a life worthwhile. Dan, a research fellow with hemophilia, contracted AIDS from Factor VIII concentrates before routine screening of the blood supply. Cindy, in her mid-thirties, tried to get over a broken relationship by taking a "freedom week" at Club Med, and came home infected with HIV; she could not face life without the love of a child so she expressed her faith by adopting an orphan from overseas.

Matt contracted AIDS from a transfusion for his acute leukemia in the year before screening of donated blood. Debbie tried to fight off her metastatic breast cancer with the principles of Tao rather than radiation and chemotherapy. Alex always insisted that he wanted to be assisted to die at the first sign of debility from his AIDS, but when the time came he clung to life and his young lover.

Elizabeth used her social status to bring a power play into her relationships. And finally, Elliott, a lifelong friend of Dr. Groopman, learned to reassess the meaning of worldly achievement.

These patients brought their personal strengths to the engagement, and in the retelling of their cases, Dr. Groopman shows his own spiritual depth and the faith that feeds it.

"The Measure of Our Days" has good layman's explanations of the medical situations involved in the eight cases. If this type of language is within your context at all, then I recommend this book to you. Its message of hope goes beyond the dire medical scenarios and speaks volumes about the human spirit.

Linda Bulger, 2008


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Touching and thought-provoking, 2007-07-07
As a nurse who has worked in Oncology, I have found this book very interesting and thought-provoking. It brought back many memories of patients and similar situations. Could anyone ask for a physician any more compassionate than Dr. Groopman? Something for all in the medical field to strive for.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

The most touching book on relationships between a good doctor and his patients..., 2007-04-14
I don't remember why or where I bought this book. I think it came highly recommended to me, as I have worked in HIV research and bioethics for the disabled for years, not as a job, but because it is what I care about. I think I accidently put this book up to sell, thinking it was another book on these same issues I had read years ago. When I got it out to send to another reader, I realized I hadn't read it. I can read quite fast when necessary and after the first few pages in this book, I realized I did not want to send it until I had read the whole thing. So I read it in one evening, and I am so glad I did.

After just undergoing a horrendous couple of years with my own personal physician who threw medication at me in hopes something would help (and he just made things worse), I needed to be reminded there are outstanding and wonderful physicians out there still who see their work not as a way to make money but a way to make a living and provide for their families while still doing the most they can for humanity. I'd read Groopman's work before. He is a very prolific writer, as well as a physician and researcher into HIV and cancer. I don't know how he does it. The man must not sleep ever, and that also earns my admiration. His patients are not easy ones. They are the more difficult ones, and he see his job as being to give them the most time he can possibly squeeze out of their conditions. And that time he gives them, he makes them as comfortable as possible and as able to continue their life's work...this is what is meant by providing people with chronic illness and even illness whose end result is death with a quality of life equal to that, or better than that, than the life they had lived before. Why? Because they know their time is limited, and they seek to fill their remaining time with the most they can stuff into it. EAch of these individuals have different ideas of what constitutes a meaningful life, and each of them learn something from Groopman during their time under his care, and their stories not only taught Groopman something, but in this book they teach the reader something.

I'd always been one of those people who didn't want to undergo chemotherapy for a cancer that would end in death anyhow. But now I understand from Groopman why you would prolong your time here, as long as it could be done in such a way as to achieve my goals and those for my family and friends, and give something back to others as I have always wanted to do (but often had to put to the side while I raised my family).

This is one of the most compassionate books I have ever read. I hate to send it away but at the same time, I want others to read it. It teaches us to put into practice our religious beliefs rather than just spout them. It isn't enough to say 'this is what I believe.' Groopman teaches us that we can put our religious beliefs into daily practice and do the most good by doing that. I would definitely recommend this book as required reading for all students in all medical fields, even research...as we too often lose sight of the very human faces that we are researching for. By putting a human face on these usually unseen people it forces us to work harder and with more focus on moral behavior, whether as researchers, or as medical personnel in daily contact with those who are suffering. Our job is not to judge, but rather to alleviate suffering... Groopman is an outstanding example to all of us, and I hope to incorporate his teachings in my own life and my own work...

Karen L. Sadler


4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Departing into darkness, 2006-06-27
If Sherwin Nuland hadn't already written "The Way We Die," Jerome Groopman could easily have used the title for this book. Dr. Groopman specializes in cancer, blood-disease, and AIDs patients, so he is very familiar with the way we die. His emphasis in this book is more on the spiritual aspect of dying, although there is also plenty of physical agony and degradation in "The Measure of Our Days."

If I had to sum up the book's theme, it would be: patients who love and are loved struggle hardest to live, sometimes way beyond the point where physicians have given up on them. When they finally do die, their deaths are more fulfilling (easier? better?) than those who die with full wallets and empty hearts.

That sounds kind of hokey, like "Love Story" as written by a doctor, but Dr. Groopman handles the theme very effectively. He's even slightly more optimistic than in his book "Second Opinions," although no one in "The Measure of Our Days" dies as romantically as Ali McGraw. Just the opposite. Most of Dr. Groopman's patients in this book die after extensive chemotherapy, surgery, and physical therapy--the whole painful and nauseous armamentarium of modern medicine (If it hasn't yet struck you how closely physicians resemble the monks of the Spanish Inquisition, you've probably never undergone chemotherapy. Both wield their instruments for our own good).

"The Measure of Our Days" speaks like a modern day Koheleth (Ecclesiastes):

"A man may have a hundred children and live a long life; but however many his days may be, if he does not get satisfaction from the good things of life..., then I maintain that the still-born child is in better case than he. Its coming is an empty thing, it departs into darkness, and in darkness its name is hidden..."

Change 'get satisfaction from the good things of life' to 'love' and I believe you will understand Dr. Groopman's measure of our days.



0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

inspiring tales of truth and human dignity, 2006-05-10
An excellent book of choice for anyone looking to find meaning in the field of health care, who feels swept away by torrents of robotic practices of academic medicine and scientific prejudices.

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