Before anything else, everybody meet Charlie! Charlie is my latest travel and reading companion. He’s fiercely loyal, protective, serious, and 110% affectionate. And he wants to say, “Hello!”
So. This is Going to Hurt. Adam Kay.
97-hour weeks. Life and death situations. A constant tsunami of bodily fluids. And the hospital parking meter earns more than you.
Welcome to the life of a junior doctor.
Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay’s diaries provide a no-holds-barred account of his time as a medic on the front line.
Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this is everything you wanted to know–and more than a few things you didn’t–about life on and off the hospital ward.
You may all remember me raving and crying about When Breath Becomes Air. This is Going to Hurt came as an “other titles you may like” recommendation on Amazon and Goodreads.
This is Going to Hurt is painfully funny, informative, and not for the squeamish as there are plenty of downright disgusting parts.
I loved the experience of reading it, and I actually had plenty of literal LOL moments. And if you’ve ever been curious about certain medical procedures, there are plenty of layman’s explanations (with bonus graphic details) which really helped in understanding medical science.
One of my favourite entries / stories is that of a Jehovah’s Witness patient and the workaround doctors and surgeons do to cater to their belief of blood transfusions of any kind being a no-no.
Along with the laughs and chuckles, prepare for moments of disgust (and there are quite plenty of them) as Kay explains in graphic detail his experiences in retrieving strange objects from people’s nether regions. It’s funny though, don’t get me wrong. I just wouldn’t suggest making this book your afternoon tea or lunch break read.
I appreciated the book more when I saw this interview of Adam Kay in This Morning.
I have a strong feeling that This is Going to Hurt is better heard than read.
I can completely appreciate and relate to what Kay said in the interview: he wrote the diary entries as a stress reliever. I’m pretty much the same way. I can also perfectly understand why he now works as a comedian / scriptwriter after 6 years of practice as a junior doctor for the NHS. I understood it more hearing it from him in the clip above than reading it from the last pages of the book.
A recommended read. 3 paws up from Charlie.
Looked. Hooked. Booked. 