Customer Reviews

Living with Multiple Sclerosis: A Handbook for Families

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book offers a realistic view of life with MS. Its refreshing approach to this subject, with andedotes from others with and those who live with them, offers a great information by ways of nutrition, treatment and mental issues.

I found very little in this book that I couldn't have found online from other sources for free. The first chapter spends too much time discussing the symptoms of MS and how people who are experiencing these symptoms should be tested for MS instead of trying to convince themselves they have something else. (Gee, thanks.) Then it discusses all the tests that will be performed to diagnose MS. Well, the reason I'm reading this book in the first place is because I have already been tested and been diagnosed. Much of the rest of the book is ancedotal stories from people with a variety of symptoms, some of which are very alarming and depressing. Overall, this book made me nervous, and less willing to learn more about MS. I was looking for helpful and practical info about MS, and didn't find it. What I did find were scary facts about the worst aspects of the disease. I needed better from this book, and didn't get it.

An eye-opener of a book, offering not psycho-babble, but genuine insight into the coping mechanisms, both helpful and hindering, that patients and families often use in the path to adapting to the changes incurred by chronic illness. Not just for those with MS, this book offers general insights into the challenges of physical and emotional adaptation to crises in life that everyone endures. It offers insight into forging a stronger familial bond, through working together through the crisis. Real examples of successes and failures at communication, which affect so much of the adaptive cycle, fill the book. There is much encouragement to be realistic, and helps to find the middle ground between denial and hopelessness.If you've ever despaired over the words, "you're not fighting this hard enough" you will find encouragement here. If you have felt your life will never again have meaning, you will find encouragement here.

Also contains helpful hints on practical physical issues.