Normal
Again : Redefining Life with Brain Injury
by Dennis P Swiercinsky (Author)
From
Book News, Inc.
Swiercinsky (a neuropsychologist who specializes in brain injury)
has written a useful handbook on how life continues after a brain
injury. Guiding the reader through the medical experience as well
as the personal one, the text includes numerous autobiographical statements
and anecdotes. Appendices contain useful terminology, a guide to hospital
equipment, description of medications, and neurological tests and
procedures. There is no index. Writer's Showcase is an imprint of
iUniverse.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Life-changing
traumatic brain injury can be a devastating and frustrating experience
for an individual and his or her family. Or, brain injury can be a
significant—yet not catastrophic—event that sets the stage
for an evolving discovery of what it means to become “normal”
once more. Normal Again: Redefining Life with Brain Injury combines
professional neuropsychological information and perspective alongside
first-person accounts of the brain injury experience and the satisfactions
of growing from it. Content is self-help oriented for persons with
injury as well as for their families. The book provides insights about
the cognitive and emotional consequences of brain injury for a broader
audience, including educators, therapists, and medical professionals.
I
Had Brain Surgery, What's Your Excuse?: An Illustrated Memoir
by Suzy Becker
From
Booklist
To say that Becker, the author-illustrator of the best-seller All
I Need to Know, I Learned from My Cat (1990), has a funny way of looking
at things would be an understatement. Quick quips and a deft hand
are her stock-in-trade, her peculiar perspective defining not only
her life but also her livelihood. The diagnosis that the intermittent
seizures she'd been experiencing were the result of a mass on her
brain that would require surgical removal left Becker with one fear:
after the operation, will I still be me? Becker's hilarious, hell-raising,
and frequently heart-wrenching account of her johnny-gowned journey
through the medical maze of MDs, MRIs, and HMOs is joyous testament
to the fact that she made it out not only alive but with all her essential,
irrepressible Becker-ness still intact. Comically accompanied by keepsake
notes, clippings, and her own inimitable cartoons, Becker's mirthful
memoir should be required reading for anyone who has ever been seriously
ill; might one day become seriously ill; knows someone who was, is,
or might be seriously ill; or all of the above. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Coping
With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (Coping With...)
by Diane Roberts Stoler, Barbara Albers
Hill (Contributor), Diane Stoller
Coping
With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, describes the most common physical,
mental, and psychological symptoms of brain injury, explaining why
each occurs and what can be done about it, as well as offering practical
suggestions for coping with the problem. Also covered are financial,
insurance, and family issues; the rehabilitation process; and eventual
outcomes. An extensive resource section provides additional guidance
and sources of support.
"Very
few books about brain injury, if any, are as comprehensive and far-reaching
as Dr. Diane Stoler's. Coping With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury answers
many questions haunting survivors and family members. I strongly recommend
this text as required reading for anyone affiliated with the brain
injury community." - George
A. Zitnay, Ph.D. President and CEO, Brain Injury Association, 1998
Confronting
Traumatic Brain Injury : Devastation, Hope, and Healing
by William J. Winslade, James S. Brady
Amazon.com
Author William J. Winslade suffered from a traumatic brain injury
(TBI) as a 2-year-old, when he fell from his second-story porch and
landed straight on his head. He's one of the lucky ones who's recovered
fully, both physically and emotionally; his only souvenirs of the
fall are a three-inch scar and a dent in his skull. He warns that
of the 2 million Americans who suffer from TBI each year (most of
them from car and motorcycle accidents), up to 100,000 of them will
die prematurely. More than 90,000 of them will face up to a decade
of extensive rehabilitation, at a cost of up to $4 million each. Even
a TBI as seemingly minor as a concussion can have devastating long-term
physical consequences, causing seizures, memory loss, learning disabilities,
and more. However sorry these problems may be, he writes, "the
truly debilitating deficits" are the less-obvious emotional effects,
"such as social isolation, [which] take their own insidious toll."
Winslade is on mission to spur massive attention to TBI, both from
the public and the government, to increase awareness to prevent these
injuries, and to improve resources for when injuries do occur. And
the profiles of TBI victims in this sobering book should move anyone
with a soul to action. Without slipping into melodrama, he presents
harrowing tales of the dramatic personality changes that can result
from TBI. Winslade ends on a practical, moving note, advocating several
ways that TBI can be prevented from raising the driving age to banning
pro boxing. "Consider the misery and money that we would save
by cutting in half the number of Americans killed or severely disabled
by brain trauma every year," he writes. Until simple preventive
measures are taken and until the "long national slumber"
of ignorance ends, he warns, TBI will continue to be the leading cause
of disability and death in children and young adults. --This text
refers to the Hardcover edition.
