Where is the Mango Princess? A Journey Back from Brain Injury by Cathy Crimmins
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Book Reviews of Where is the Mango Princess? A Journey Back from Brain Injury
Book Review: A Father's Brain Injury, A Child's Distress
Summary: 5 Stars
Cathy Crimmins, a professional writer of considerable talent tells the riveting story of her husband Alan's recovery from a brain injury acquired in a boating accident. When you finish this book, not only will you have been engrossed by her family's story, you also will walk away with a greater understanding of brain injury. Caregivers, who are also parents of small children, should consider this book essential reading. Crimmins writes with emotion, candor, and a sarcastic biting humor that may disturb some readers. But her story is a gritty one. Cathy and Alan struggle to cope with his major personality changes, which include disinhibition, nastiness, daily multiple angry outbursts, and frequent profanity, sometimes directed at their seven-year-old daughter, Kelly. And here lies one of the tragedies of brain injury--a child forced to live with one parent, who is an abusive survivor, and another parent, who is too distracted to be an attentive mom. Alan's recovery--from outward appearances--could be deemed "successful." In contrast to many survivors, Alan returned to his profession as a probate attorney. His long-term memory is fine and he retained all he knows about law and banking. But, like most survivors, he is easily fatigued, an impairment that complicated his efforts to return to work. This remarkable book relates how one family, in perhaps a non-traditional manner, achieves a "reasonable facsimile" of their old life following a brain injury.Book Review: A must for all involved with a Brain Injury
Summary: 5 Stars
Although brain injuries take many forms, this book is a great start for anyone who has either suffered from some form of brain injury or the family members of patients. CE Crimmins tells a true tale of a horrible accident but she peppers it with her humor and her real feelings about what has happened to her family and her marital relationship. She understands and points out the inability of members of society who are not informed on this subject to understand what a very long recovery process is involved with any brain injury. I found it particularly poignant in the areas of looks normal/acts normal, but in fact, is not normal! In other words, Ms. Crimmins illuminates that although brain injury suffers may appear totally recovered the recovery process takes upward of one year. Ms. Crimmins also assists individuals who have suffered any type of brain injury in understanding how it feels to be the family member rather than the patient. The author gives her own valuable knowledge through her experience that provides hope that others will have patience and the information necessary to realize how many physical and mental issues continue to plague patients after surgery and during recovery - including the effects of the medications. Ms. Crimmins also describes the battles with the HMOs in a powerful way.I loved this book and could barely put it down.
Book Review: It opened my eyes and warmed my heart
Summary: 5 Stars
When someone close to you suffers an accident, and ends up in a hospital bed in a coma, the world around you collapses. This happened to us on April 6th 2003, when Mickey was involved in a car accident and was in a coma for over 2 months. This book has been incredibly helpful. It contains a lot of priceless information, information you CAN understand, complementing it with loads of personal experiences.
Thanks to the very easy language (it can be read as a novel) it has allowed everyone in my family to understand and accept the choices and changes we wnet though and are still going through with a TBI survivor. It has also helped us understand and help Mickey in his recovery process.
I have cried and laughed on endless nights with this book.
I have underlined passages and read them over and over (something I dont do very often)
I have shared this book with the rest of my family, friends, Mickeys friends and caregivers and even some doctors....
Thank you Cathy Crimmins for helping US stay confident, focused, and happy....
This book opened my eyes and warmed my heart.
To anyone going through this terrible ordeal... there IS HOPE at the end. Dont despair!
Book Review: Tells the truth
Summary: 5 Stars
With wit and humor, this book provides a horribly accurate depiction of a TBI and its aftermath, as well as a surprising amount of insight into the functioning of both healthy and damaged brains. Guess what? The 1 in 20 figure (percentage of TBI survivors who get all the help they need) is not only true, but a likely overestimation. I was sent to the prestigious Sister Kenny institute, but my jaw literally dropped when I read about all the followup care this TBI survivor received (which I didn't.) I was shocked to read the exact same problems I experienced. The subject of this book was lucky enough to have caretakers who at least had some idea of what they were getting into-- well, at least somebody was told something, I certainly wasn't. I had more respect for myself than ever before after reading this book. I survived, too. This book may not be such an intensely personal experience for you, but you will be glad you read it! Everyone needs to be educated about TBI!!Book Review: Reads Like a Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
This was one of four books that I had to read for an Intro to Communications Disorders class that I took last semester. I was pleasantly surprised what a good read it was. After reading this book I checked into my insurance to see how much coverage I would have for accidents like this one. It also made me think about how fragile life is and how your life can turn on a dime. The brain is complex and vulnerable to trauma both externally and internally. The book also helped me to communicate with my husband about these kinds of accidents. If your language center gets damaged then you can't communicate. I told him that if that happened to either one of us then one really helpful piece of advice is to find a book such as this to see whats going on in the injured person's head. I really appreciate that people take the time to write about their experiences even very traumatic ones such as this.