The Long Tale Of Tears And Smiles explores an immigrant oncologist’s journey of triumphs and struggles, from growing up in Syria, to the tragic death of her brother, to her experiences as a young immigrant medical student and trainee in the USA. Walk through her anguish witnessing the civil war in Syria and its devastation; see her become a practitioner, watching the field of oncology evolves throughout the years.

This narrative-driven case study interweaves the stories of the patients Bitar has cared for with her own life stories; it reflects on how her patients’ lives and the stories of their survival or death inspired and changed her life starting and raising a family. Each patient’s approach to illness and end-of-life is as unique as they are, and each person’s journey contains unexpected lessons.

In the space between life and death, Bitar’s profession thrives; and in that space, she can search for the meaning of her existence.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Confession
• Prologue
• I BACK, BACK THEN & NOW
  • Inspiration from the Attic
  • The Light at the End of the Tunnel
  • The Nostalgia of the Nose
  • The Strength from Within
  • Dying Is the Easy Part
  • Miles for Hope
• II THE FELLOWSHIP
  • Accidents
  • Why Get the Children Involved?
  • Where Do Dreams Go?
  • When Apples Lodge in Throats
  • A Lesson in Empathy
• III A DOCTOR AND A MOM
  • Where There Is an End, There Is a Beginning
  • Fatherly Voice
  • The Other Side of Life
  • Fear in Doses
• IV THE SECOND CHILD
  • Peeking Through the Curtains of Despair
  • Some Things Do Not Change Even If We Try
  • The Places We Move into and the Places We Leave Behind
  • When Words Catch Your Fall
  • Smiles Can Defeat Anger
  • And We Sail into Our Sea of Ignorance to Be Blessed
• V THE DEATH OF MY BROTHER
  • The Eyes Speak the Unspoken
  • Looking at It from a Different Angle
  • Making Lemonade from Sour Lemons
• VI GROWING UP WITH THE KIDS
  • Small Faces Answer Big Questions
  • Digging in to Find the Way Out
  • Beyond the Illusion of Magic
  • A Light in a Dark Room
  • Counting My Blessings from Afar
  • Covered with the Stitches of Gratitude
• VII WARS
  • Where Does the Man Go?
  • The Irony of the Fight
  • How the Past Liberates the Future
  • The Borders That Were Never Crossed
  • Love Doesn’t Have to Be Literate
• VIII VERSES
  • Crunching Time to Live Twice
  • Does the Mind Have Only One Map?
• IX THE TEENAGE YEARS
  • Hypocrisy Uncovered
  • There Need Be No Solution
  • Who Made the Rules and How to Break Them
  • Not in My House
  • The Healing Balm That Has No Medicine in It
  • Peeling the Layers
• X THE AFTERWORD
  • It Ends Where It Started
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments