Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole: A Renowned Neurologist Explains the Mystery and Drama of Brain Disease

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However, even if the authorial double act has nudged some of the writing away from the scientific, those parts that are more Ropper and Adams than Ropper and Chandler, more clinical looking glass than Wonderland, make for an improbably intriguing read. I could see that over the course of the previous week, Hannah had begun the transition from resident to full-fledged physician. I could see it in her bearing, in the assertive physicality with which she carried out her examinations, in the firmness of her tone with some of the more difficult patients, and in the controlled sympathy she adopted in family meetings when she had to deliver bad news. She had turned out to be one of our strongest clinicians. Despite the diagnostic brilliance described in this day-in-the-life portrayal of Dr Ropper’s professional life, the titular rabbit is not that which is traditionally pulled from a hat. Rather, the title refers to the White Rabbit’s entry into Wonderland, where a bewildered Alice is advised by the Red Queen to believe six impossible things before breakfast.

This book never engaged me entirely. It was supposed to be anecdotal--stories about neurology. I found the stories too brief, but that was largely because the author never had a chance to follow up on long-term outcomes. Once he had solved the problem, the patient either died or went home. A teratoma is an unusual tumor that contains cells from the brain, teeth, hair, skin, and bone. Most teratomas are harmless, but they have the potential to wreak havoc by causing encephalitis. When you see it, the syndrome is unmistakable: an ovarian teratoma stimulates an antibody that will produce the very ensemble of symptoms that were described to me over the phone. CT imaging scans are everywhere, as illegible to the general viewer as a Rorschach test, but deemed the (often bogus) sine qua non of scientific credibility for all matters psychological. 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 *

Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole A Renowned Neurologist Explains the Mystery and Drama of Brain Disease Yes, good, good, fine," Vincent replied. He was sitting up in bed, watching television with a smile of bemused innocence. Vincent Talma was a picture of contentment. His room on the tenth floor of the hospital tower commanded an outstanding view of Fort Hill Park in Boston's Roxbury section, but Vincent took no notice. Along with twenty-nine of our other patients, he had been waiting for a visit from the neurology team on their morning speed rounds.

Full Book Name: 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, Science A week earlier, Cindy Song, a sophomore at Boston College, had started acting a bit withdrawn. Her roommate was concerned enough to call Cindy's sister. The first phone call was not too worrisome. "Not a big deal," the sister said. "She gets that way. Just give her time. She'll be okay." The next call could not be taken so lightly. 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. Neurological illness manifests in frequently bizarre symptoms. Some of them are similar enough to previous cases in the doctor's experience that he or she can by inductive reasoning come up with a dead-on diagnosis.

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. By the time Vincent Talma and Cindy Song had settled in at the Brigham, Arwen Cleary had been there for four days. She came by ambulance on the morning of July 1, and was admitted to neurological intensive care from the Emergency Department later that evening. Of the three cases, hers was the least clear-cut, the most troubling, and one that had the potential to become an absolute shambles. According to her medical records, her problems had begun two years earlier, when she showed up at a central Massachusetts hospital with disabling nausea, difficulty walking, and vomiting. 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. A moderately interesting story of the life of a neurologist, marred by the gigantic ego of the author. I'm sure you need a gigantic ego to do the job and there are plenty of stories where he gets stuff wrong (at first, before getting it right obv) but the overall impression is of being sat next to someone at a dinner party who starts off seeming an absolutely fascinating and enthralling raconteur and by the third course you're wondering who you ought to stab in the eye with a dessert fork: yourself or him.

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Dr Allan Ropper(the author) comes across as the doctor we would all want to have if the chips were down. He seems very approachable and concerned for his patients on the basic, human level as well as treating their illnesses. Holy 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. Gilbert, the medical student who had made the initial exam, recorded this as "orientation times one." In stark educational contrast is the decision to visit George, a patient not seen since being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease more than five years before. George is at home, tetraplegic and ventilated. Ropper describes a conversation wherein he explains to George, and George’s wife, his recent role in allowing a patient with motor neurone disease to die. Ropper asks “Are you a little bummed out that I would be part of this?”. Thankfully, they assure him that they are in support of people making their own decisions under such circumstances.

Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole, by Dr Allan Ropper and BD Burrell, is very much in the latter tradition. Ropper is a distinguished neurologist at Harvard Medical School. He has many fascinating tales to tell, but he doesn’t. Burrell does. Or at least Burrell is the prose man, turning Ropper’s professional stories into tight little homilies of neurological and existential meaning. Yet this unreliability is itself a window into another reality, the distorted Alice in Wonderland world to which the title refers and in which neurological patients are wont to find themselves tormentingly trapped.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. PDF / EPUB File Name: Reaching_Down_the_Rabbit_Hole_-_Allan_Ropper.pdf, Reaching_Down_the_Rabbit_Hole_-_Allan_Ropper.epub The difference in American healthcare (as opposed to the British) was very obvious here. It still astounds me that healthcare is considered a privilege in the states. The discussion about medical ethics and neuropsychiatry are two of my favourite aspects of the book. As with all books of this genre, there are some tongue in cheek moments and some which some readers may raise an eyebrow at.