Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon by Nick Trout Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon
Book Review: Light-hearted Veterinary Memoir
Summary: 2 Stars
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. Book Review: enjoyable but full of errors
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Book Review: Animal Lovers Will Love this Book
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: Book not as good as jacket cover
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoyed some of the stories, but speed-read a lot of the book, as it either was not news to me or more than I cared to know about veterinary science.Book Review: The Pleasure And Pain Of Mending Our Four-Legged Friends
Summary: 5 Stars
This book makes me wish I had become a vet.
In "Tell Me Where It Hurts" Dr. Nick Trout explores the ups and downs of the life of a top tier veterinary surgeon. He compresses a lifetime of poignant, frequently funny, and sometimes heart rending experiences into a single exhausting day. I had thought about being a vet when I was young, and this book is closer than any other I have read to summarizing what the journey to skilled professional veterinarian is really like.
The book opens and closes with the story of "Sage", a German Shepard with a potentially life threatening stomach disorder. It is the perfect case to explain the uncertainties of the world of veterinary medicine, and ultimately serves to explain the trials and joys of the job. Along the way there are many detours, including sections on methods of veterinary training in different countries, the emotional tolls of the job, the changing demographics of the profession, and the increase in exotic animals in common practice. I was especially amused by the diversion into the world of "ferret legging" on p. 201. "Ferret legging is a centuries-old English sport in which the contestant stuffs a pair of ill-tempered ferrets down his pants." Several restrictions apply, including a total ban on undergarments of any sort. The winner is the person who can keep the ferrets in their pants the longest. The current record holder is a 72 year old Welsh coal miner named Reg Mellor who has kept two ferrets in his pants for the unbelievable time of five hours and twenty-six minutes. Humorous diversions such as this break the tension of the life-or-death decisions that the majority of the book deals with, and are a welcome relief after some of the more nail-biting sections.
My only critique of the book would be the rather enormous over-weighting of canine cases in the book, although I don't know if that is representative of Dr. Trout's practice, or if he simply prefers dogs to cats. Any animal lover should love and appreciate this book in its entirety, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.