diabetes, insulin, and the transformation of illness /
First Statement of Responsibility
Chris Feudtner.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Chapel Hill :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
University of North Carolina Press,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
c2003.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
xxii, 290 p. :
Other Physical Details
ill. ;
Dimensions
25 cm.
SERIES
Series Title
Studies in social medicine
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-273) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
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.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
"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 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 are being transformed by drugs or medical devices 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."--Jacket.