Description
Book SynopsisPoems centered on survival and perseverance in the face of long-term illness. Delivered a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia with a ten percent prognosis for survival, Dr. Dianne Silvestri surrenders her white coat for a hospital gown. Aided by her attentive medical team, family, and friends, she navigates the surreal world of chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation, and subsequent threats from graft-versus-host disease and serious infections of her compromised immune system.
But I Still Have My Fingerprints speaks to the difficulties of “surviving survival.” With a clear eye for irony and analogy and a commitment to curiosity and truth, Silvestri writes through her struggles and victories. She gives us poems with unique perspectives, fresh images, and unquenchable optimism, in her perseverance to redefine life beyond what was lost.
Trade Review“Silvestri’s fine lyric poems are written with the clear vision of the physician who herself becomes the patient with a serious illness (‘beached / my white coat surrendered’). She travels with honesty and courage her ‘long essential / diversion’ from the everyday of her life. There is the night phone call with bad news (‘I endure for the verdict at dawn’), followed by the complicated journey through pain, treatments, fears, losses, consolations, leading to a ‘first-ditch list’ of hopes. An inspiring, merciful, beautifully-written collection.” * Ann Taylor, author of 'Sortings' *
"Dianne Silvestri, MD, a poet as well as a retired dermatologist, has provided readers with the emotionally moving and artistically creative story of her cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship... Silvestri has accomplished a medical humanities miracle in integrating personal candor, vivid exposition of medical procedures, and distinctive poetic techniques." * Journal of Poetry Therapy *
Table of ContentsDear Doctor
Emergency Phone Call from My Doctor, 11pm
Cosmic Questions
Daunorubicin
Chemotherapy
The Night Phlebotomist
Doctor as Patient
For the Patients with Hair Loss
Skullcap
Poem for George
A Bag of Blood
The Hospital Mail
Hospital Housekeeping
Aubade
Conversation with My Grandson
Seated on My Hospital Bed
Bone Marrow Biopsy
Off Script
Donor Search
Dear Healthy 28-Year-Old Man
Isolation Room, Leukemia Floor
Countdown to a New Birthday
Awaiting Reconstitution
Swallow This
Chimera
Drug-Induced Tendon Tear
Demolition
Advance Directives
Time Out
After a Month Away
It Would Be So Nice To Have
Back Home, Day 459
Lying on the Patient History Form
Summer’s Reprieve
Citrus aurantium
Graft vs. Host
The Nurses There
Choosing the Right Pumpkin, Farm Stand, Natick, MA
Appointment at the Oncology Clinic
MRI
Feature Film: Drug Study KEP DR78
PTSD
Darkroom in the Converted Laundry Room
Readmitted: This Time to the Overflow Ward
You May Resume Your Normal Activities
Please Define Longer
A Club for Those of Us Who Almost Died
Runoff
With Feathers
Wanted: Lust
Flashback on a Sunny Day
Rose Quartz Geode I Found in the Woods
Maintenance Fatigue
Waiting Room Waiting
Retail Therapy
Victory Garden
An End to the Ends
New Life
Glossary
Acknowledgments
