Overview

An obsessive, mystical, terrifying, and even phantasmagorical exploration of anesthesia's shadowy terra incognita. -The New Yorker Anesthetize: to render insensible First there's the injection, then the countdown-and next thing you know, you're awake. Anesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness is the story of the time in between, an exploration of that most crucial and baffling gift of modern medicine: the disappearing act that enables us to undergo procedures that would otherwise be impossibly, often fatally, painful. In the past 150 years, anesthesia has made surgical intervention routine, from open-heart surgery to the facelift. But how much do anesthesiologists really know about what happens when their patients go under? Can we hear and retain what's going on? Is pain still pain if we don't remember it? How does the unconscious mind deal with the body's experience of being sliced open and ransacked-and how can we help ourselves through it all? Kate Cole-Adams weaves her own personal experiences with surgery and its aftermath with the explorations and personal accounts of others, doctors and patients alike-accounts of people who wake under the knife, who experience traumatic reactions, dreams, hallucinations, and submerged memories-accounts that evoke and illuminate the provisional nature of the self. Haunting, lyrical, sometimes shattering, Cole-Adams leavens science with personal experience, and brings an intensely human curiosity to the unknowable realm beyond consciousness.

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9781619029507

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Reviews

Praise for Anesthesia A work of splendid richness and depth, driven by a curiosity so intense that it hazards at times the extreme boundaries of the sayable. --Helen Garner, author of Everywhere I Look Kate Cole-Adams has written an insightful and moving exploration of general anesthesia: a must-read for anesthetists and their patients. --Professor Kate Leslie, head of research in the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management, Royal Melbourne Hospital; former head of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists This book is a compelling exploration from a patient perspective of the still poorly understood phenomenon of 'anesthesia', and of the uncertain border between being unconscious and awake. Much of this material will be new not only to patients but also to many practitioners. --Professor Jaideep Pandit MA, BM, DPhil, FRCA, FFPMRCA, DM, Consultant Anaesthetist, Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & Fellow St John's College Praise for Walking to the Moon A beautiful novel about the things that matter--love, loss and courage. --Carrie Tiffany, author of Mateship with Birds It's not until after a full first reading that the solid form of the novel coalesces and the subtle beauty of each passage, each deftly crafted image, becomes apparent...Cole-Adams's elegant prose is a kind of alchemy, turning the ephemera of loss, abandonment and a coma into finely spun gold. --Good Reading Cole-Adams writes evocatively, melding places...into an exploration of Jess's inner world... Walking to the Moon is a deeply thoughtful and at times engrossing book. And the timbre of the prose is quite gorgeous--simultaneously tough and tender. --Adelaide Advertiser This temporal, contemplative examination of loss and healing...rewards slow and careful reading... Cole-Adams captures beautifully [the] twilight world that exists somewhere between sleep and wakefulness with language that is so languid, at times it seems lifted from a dream... the pieces start to fall quietly into place to celebrate the resilience and recuperation of a woman reclaiming control of her life. The result is deeply rewarding and there are moments of sheer beauty along the way. --Australian

Praise for Anesthesia <p/> A work of splendid richness and depth, driven by a curiosity so intense that it hazards at times the extreme boundaries of the sayable. --Helen Garner, author of Everywhere I Look <p/> Kate Cole-Adams has written an insightful and moving exploration of general anesthesia: a must-read for anesthetists and their patients. --Professor Kate Leslie, head of research in the Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management, Royal Melbourne Hospital; former head of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists <p/> This book is a compelling exploration from a patient perspective of the still poorly understood phenomenon of 'anesthesia', and of the uncertain border between being unconscious and awake. Much of this material will be new not only to patients but also to many practitioners. --Professor Jaideep Pandit MA, BM, DPhil, FRCA, FFPMRCA, DM, Consultant Anaesthetist, Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & Fellow St John's College <p/> Praise for Walking to the Moon <p/> A beautiful novel about the things that matter--love, loss and courage. --Carrie Tiffany, author of Mateship with Birds <p/> It's not until after a full first reading that the solid form of the novel coalesces and the subtle beauty of each passage, each deftly crafted image, becomes apparent...Cole-Adams's elegant prose is a kind of alchemy, turning the ephemera of loss, abandonment and a coma into finely spun gold. --Good Reading <p/> Cole-Adams writes evocatively, melding places...into an exploration of Jess's inner world... Walking to the Moon is a deeply thoughtful and at times engrossing book. And the timbre of the prose is quite gorgeous--simultaneously tough and tender. --Adelaide Advertiser <p/> This temporal, contemplative examination of loss and healing...rewards slow and careful reading... Cole-Adams captures beautifully [the] twilight world that exists somewhere between sleep and wakefulness with language that is so languid, at times it seems lifted from a dream... the pieces start to fall quietly into place to celebrate the resilience and recuperation of a woman reclaiming control of her life. The result is deeply rewarding and there are moments of sheer beauty along the way. --Australian

Author Information

Kate Cole-Adams is a journalist and novelist. Her debut novel, Walking to the Moon, was published in 2008. She lives in Melbourne with her family.

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