Jamie Weisman is a doctor with true empathy. Empathy is not just feeling pity
for someone, but is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes and walk
around in them. To know what that person knows in that situation, to understand
exactly how they feel. Jamie Weisman suffers from a congenital immune deficiency
disorder.
It
took eleven years of misdiagnosis, unnecessary surgery, bone marrow biopsies and
the insult of being called a hypochondriac. After all of this, being around good
and bad doctors, Jamie decided to become one herself. Her unique understanding
of what a patient feels gives her the ability to comfort her patients, to help
them understand what they are being told and how it will affect them. She can
put herself in their shoes and walk around because she’s been there.
Written like a journal, As I Live and Breathe tells the story of
Jamie’s medical problems and treatments, her training in medical school, and early life as a
doctor, wife and mother. Her situation arouses curiosity before readers have
even opened the front cover. How
do you get by day-to-day with a lifelong illness? Once you are ill, why do you
decide to go into medicine? Still, some might hesitate to read her story. Not
everyone is a
big fan of superhumans, the people who never feel the negative emotions that
drag the rest of down. Some might be afraid that As I Live and Breathe will be so full of the
goodness of Jamie Weisman that they'll want to puke. Not so. Weisman gives an
honest portrayal of her reactions. She is flawed and imperfect. Jamie gets
depressed, angry and frustrated just like the rest of us -- even more so, because
she must battle her own body on a daily basis.
Weisman's memoir truly inspires reevaluation of one's life, and the things
that many consider to be problems. I know that I began to be very thankful for
my health after reading this book. My problems with work, friends and family
seemed very small. For this reason alone, As I Live and Breathe is
worth reading. After you’re done reading, you’ll find plenty more reasons to read it
again.