Description
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 Dr. 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, thanks to drugs or medical advances, are being transformed 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.
About the Author
Chris Feudtner is a pediatrician at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA where he focuses on ways to improve the quality of life for children with complex chronic conditions and for their families.
Book Information
ISBN 9781469623733
Author Chris Feudtner
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint The University of North Carolina Press
Publisher The University of North Carolina Press