My Voice: A Physician’s Personal Experience with Throat Cancer

The book captures three years of the author's life following a diagnosis of throat cancer and tells the story of how he faces and deals with medical and surgical treatments and adjusts to life afterwards. As a physician with lifelong experience in caring for patients, the author shares his insights and perspective on these events as he undergoes the effects of a severe illness through the eyes of a patient. He endures the consequences of radiation, surgeries, and prolonged hospitalizations. He confronts medical errors, discrimination following loss of his vocal chords, and struggles to regain his ability to speak again and find new meaning to his life. The author shares his anxieties, frustrations, failures, and ultimate adjustment to life with continuous uncertainty about the future. Through the author's insights, health care professionals may become more aware of what their patients actually experience, and patients who face similar hardships may find out how to cope with them. The book was endorsed by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Read excerpts of "My Voice" at Brook's blog: dribrook.blogspot.com

Dr Itzhak Brook is a physician who specializes in Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases. He is a Professor of Pediatrics at Georgetown University Washington DC and is an expert in infections caused by anaerobic bacteria and head and neck infections. He has delivered numerous lectures all over the world and has done extensive research on respiratory tract infections and infections following exposure to ionizing radiation. He is the author of six medical textbooks, 96 medical book chapters and numerous scientific publications. Dr Brook was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006 and received radiation therapy. Two years later he had his larynx removed and currently speaks with a tracheoesophageal prosthesis.