World Famous Comics: Nick Trout Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon
Nick Trout Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon
By: Nick Trout Publisher: Broadway Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Broadway Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 304 Publication Date: March 11, 2008 Release Date: March 11, 2008
It’s 2:47 a.m. when Dr. Nick Trout takes the phone call that starts another hectic day at the Angell Animal Medical Center. Sage, a ten-year old German shepherd, will die without emergency surgery for a serious stomach condition. Over the next twenty-four hours Dr. Trout fights for Sage’s life, battles disease in the operating room, unravels tricky diagnoses, reassures frantic pet parents, and reflects on the humor, heartache, and inspiration in his life as an animal surgeon. And he wants to take you along for the ride.…
From the front lines of modern medicine, Tell Me Where It Hurts is a fascinating insider portrait of a veterinarian, his furry patients, and the blend of old-fashioned instincts and cutting-edge technology that defines pet care in the twenty-first century. For anyone who’s ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at your veterinarian’s office, Tell Me Where It Hurts offers a vicarious journey through twenty-four intimate, eye-opening, heartrending hours at the premier Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston.
You’ll learn about the amazing progress of modern animal medicine, where organ transplants, joint replacements, and state-of-the-art cancer treatments have become more and more common. With these technological advances come controversies and complexities that Dr. Trout thoughtfully explores, such as how long (and at what cost) treatments should be given, how the Internet has changed pet care, and the rise in cosmetic surgery.
You’ll also be inspired by the heartwarming stories of struggle and survival filling these pages. With a wry and winning tone, Dr. Trout offers up hilarious and delightful anecdotes about cuddly (or not-so-cuddly) pets and their variously zany, desperate, and demanding owners. In total, Tell Me Where It Hurts offers a fascinating portrait of the comedy and drama, complexities and rewards involved with loving and healing animals.
Part ER, part Dog Whisperer, and part House, this heartfelt and candid book shows that while the technology has changed since James Herriot’s day, the humanity and compassion remains unchanged. If you’ve ever had a pet or special place in your heart for furry friends, Dr. Trout’s irresistible book is for you.
Loving Surgery, empathizing with animals, laughing at owners A delightful book showing Dr. Trout's skill with narrative. The ongoing stories, of Sage the dog with the stomach that was literally turned, and Barron, the dog with the difficult and sad diagnosis, gave the book shape and narrative curve. I loved the cautionary story about the cat who had swallowed something stringy. The tangential material, both about Trout's own life (a young man massaging a puppy to life) and weird animal lore (ferrets in one's pants), provided rich and rewarding reading.
I do wish he'd had more cat anecdotes, of course, since I am a cataholic.
One tiny criticism: an ongoing villain in the story is Sage's owner's daughter, who is an engineer and holds a doctorate. If she was truly as unfeeling toward animals as Trout paints her, she no doubt deserves the disdain with which he paints her. (And I wonder if she ever picked up his book and recognized herself). BUT: doctors of engineering with Ph.D.'s are just as much doctors as veterinarians or MDs. They hold lives in their hands as much as do doctors of medicine or veterinary science.
Doctors of Engineering keep airplanes in the air and bridges from collapsing. The degree of doctor was invented before it was assigned by public opinion to medical doctors. So I wish Trout hadn't ended his book with the snarky comment, "Perhaps she {Dr. Hartmann} uses the title . . . to get bumped from coach to business." I have a Ph.D., but it sure never helped me get a better seat on an airplane! As to his supposition that she used the doctorate "to bully her way into our phone system," I have to ask if Angell Animal Medical Center is so elitist that the owners of poor dying animals have to bully receptionists to get information or help.
The length to which I've gone in this screed might suggest I don't like the book, but I did like it, He does anecdote very well, and it's clear he loves both animals and the art and technology of surgery, maybe the latter a bit more than the former. He conveys both loves beautifully.
Pet Lovers Should Feel Right At Home Here Nick Trout has written a charming "day in the life" account of being a surgeon in Boston's Angell veterinarian hospital. When I started I wondered if this was going to be nothing more than a serialized piece from Dog or Cat Fancy that had been expanded into book form, but my skepticism was quickly dispelled and I found myself charmed by both his sensitive and funny approach to both the pets and their owners. Anyone who owns and cherishes their pet would probably find alot to appreciate and identify with here.
Light-hearted Veterinary Memoir This light-hearted memoir recounts a day in the life of a veterinary surgeon via a series of surgical vignettes intermingled with remembrances and reflections. The structure of the book is somewhat choppy, and there's very little momentum moving the story along. Nevertheless, this book is likely to entertain animal lovers or people curious about veterinarians, and it won't demand much of your brain power.
enjoyable but full of errors This was an enjoyable story, but the errors were like fingernails across a blackboard. The book does not appear to have been copyedited or proofread. One blooper reads: "When I first met Ms. Wicks, I was physically bowled over by her...tricolored silky fur and energy." I think maybe that should read "her dog's." A couple is described as "balling" their eyes out in the waiting room - what a picture that brings to mind! Punctuation is bizarre, and if one word can be confused with another, it is: reign for rein, peak for peek, etc. Of course, these are not the author's fault, but they did detract from the reading experience for me.
Animal Lovers Will Love this Book At first I found the jump-around style of storytelling distracting. I kept wanting it to read like the James Herriot books -- a chapter for this case, a new chapter for that case. Once I understood that the whole book was going to be back and forth, I was good with it and enjoyed the reading immensely. Of course, the back and forth style fits this book since it is one day of following Trout in the hospital. There isn't a definitive chapter between all patients, especially in surgery, what with post-op check-ups and all. And so the narrative is juggled in the same manner that Trout juggles between multiple cases at once.
This was a delightful read. I loved to learn some of the updated methods and options for treatments in the animal world. Medicine is worlds beyond what Herriot practiced in his day! Trout has wonderful insight into the ways of both animals and their humans. Anyone who understands the bond between a person and his pet will enjoy this book.
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