Rating: 
Summary: Could Have Wrote This Myself
Review: "Where Is The Mango Princess" does a wonderful job of educating the reader about brain injury and recovery. I felt like I was invited into the family and privy to some very personal information. I think that Cathy Crimmons not only wanted to educate her readers about this topic, but also wanted to express the multitude of emotions associated with this life-changing event. Perhaps I felt a strong affinity for Ms. Crimmons because my young husband recovered from a brain injury and my young daughters and I lived this story. I was amazed as I read this book, thinking to myself "That is exactly what I thought (said, felt) at that moment too!" It was my "support group in a book". We cried, but we laughed a lot too and so will the person who shares this story with "us".
Rating:
Summary: A must for all involved with a Brain Injury
Review: 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.
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Summary: Must read for the TBI community
Review: An excellent book about the life of a TBI survivor and how brain injury not only changes the life of the survivor, but also the life of his/her family. Crimmins writes with clarity about her husband's accident, rehab, and subsequent deficits. She pulls no punches when she describes HMOs and their lack of caring and understanding. Being the mother of a TBI survivor I can certainly relate to much of what Crimmins has to say about Alan's cognitive problems. This book should be read by anyone who works with TBI survivors and their families. Unless one walks in the shoes of a TBI caregiver it is very difficult to understand what we experience. Where is the Mango Princess? gives a firsthand account of what many of us go through on a daily basis.
Rating:
Summary: If you work with TBI patients--get it
Review: As a student of communication disorders (Speech therapy), I had read about TBI (traumatic brain injury). However, this book gives an insider's look at how patients deal with this devastating occurance. The patient and his family is changed forever when a serious brain injury occurs. Ms. Crimmins does an excellent job of explaining the details of how their lives are torn apart and then painstakingly rebuilt. This book is one that all professionals who work with TBI patients should keep in their library to loan out to families when they ask what the future will be like. It is easy to read, insightful and even optimistic.
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Summary: The Reality of TBI.
Review: As a survivor of TBI, this book hits the "nail on the head"!!!
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Summary: Go girlfriend; this book rules!
Review: Author Cathy Crimmins wisely uses her incredible sense of humor to spin her true tale of what happens when a loved one becomes brain injured. Along with the laughs, she'll probably make you cry, too. But that's what makes it a great book! Oh, and all doctors should have this on their list of required reading. Oh, and all HMO administrators, nurses, teachers, teens, employers, bankers, etc. should be required to read this book. Oh, what the heck, everybody should read this book. Perhaps the world would be a more compassionate place if everyone read this book.
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Summary: What an Amazing Book !!
Review: Cathy Crimmins has taught us all a lesson in this book.....that life isn't always as we had thought it would be and that we must be proactive in order to change it. When her husband, Alan, a successful bank attorney in Philadelphia, suffers a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in an accident, his life and his family's lives change forever. Crimmins takes us through the extensive rehab process which she handles with both tears and laughter. As a reader, I found myself experiencing feelings of anger, hope, sadness, and joy at the smallest improvement in her husband's condition and at the smallest victory over the system. I could not believe how much I learned from this book. It should be "must reading" for everyone who works with brain-injured patients and also for all of those insurance company "voices on the phone" who make life and death decisions based on very little information, and with very little empathy. I learned about something called "perseveration" which is when a brain-injured person repeats an action or phrase over and over and over again. I also learned that with brain injuries such as this, inhibitions disappear, which means that socially inappropriate behaviors are often displayed. Crimmins also made the reader understand why these patients and their families become so frustrated. I could fill pages with what I learned....... I read this book in one day and a friend who was visiting me read it the next. I then passed it on to my daughter who also read it in one day and then recommended it to her neurobiology professor who thought it was outstanding. If I had the power to make this book a bestseller, I would!
Rating:
Summary: heart-wrenching and fascinating
Review: Cathy Crimmins is an amazing woman for writing this book. Her husband has survived a near-fatal accident -- and she too is a survivor. She manages to cope with it all (without succumbing to a total nervous breakdown), and maintains some level of normalcy while bringing up her only child in an atmosphere that is vastly different from what it was only weeks ago - with a husband she no longer recognizes, a "new Alan." Alan's new personality struck so many chords with me -- my brother was diagnosed in his early teens as having paranoid schizophrenia, and he and Alan display similar characteristics, even though their maladies are profoundly different. My brother isn't brain damaged, he was "born that way." I don't remember him being vastly different from what he was before, so my family doesn't have memories of "normal" to fall back on. I honestly can't say whether that would be easier or worse for us, so I can understand why this issue is so bittersweet for Crimmins. My brother exhibits a tremendous capacity for warmth, pride and giving (like Alan, he picks up on what interests you and carries it through to the extreme. A good example is, he knows I like music so he spent his entire disability check on a 300-disc cd player that I don't really need but wouldn't ever say as much. When I was promoted to a new position at my old music label job, he told everyone I was president of the company.) He also has stormy outbursts of temper where everything is someone else's fault (which, all these years later, is a family joke of sorts -- "YOU did it!" or "the DOG did it!") Tiny things send him into a rage, and moments later he is like a young child, apologetic and thoughtful. The only difference is Alan really can't help it, and sometimes with my brother I JUST DON'T KNOW. He's admitted to being manipulative, deliberately saying hurtful things and being lazy. Sometimes that translates into anger for everyone --asking themselves why can't he just behave like a NORMAL PERSON??!! At other times he is perfectly well-behaved and a gentleman. This is similar to what Crimmins says about Alan: it's hard for people to see what's wrong with the brain when the body appears normal. For example, my brother and I and another person can sit down and discuss something of interest to him. In the space of two minutes he will begin to wander off -- he has no focus. Like Alan, he doesn't have that voice inside his head that tells him things are inappropriate -- and because he can't hold down a normal job (or keep his temper in check) unfortunately, he falls into that percentage of broken families. I identify with the author -- when you love someone whose brain isn't right it is truly a life-long devastation. Why did this happen? Why did this happen to THIS PERSON -- and you? And after you accept it -- what are you going to do about it? Crimmins manages to show us these horrible, devastating events that happen to her family without disassociating us. Instead she engages us in the evolving dramas and progression. Alan will only be able to do what he can do, and that's the most you can ask for of anyone -- to function at their optimum and put their energies to good use for their benefit and for others. Good luck Cathy, there are a lot of readers out here batting for you.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: Cathy Crimmins is an eloquent and amazing person. Her description of life after a loved one's Traumatic Brain Injury is riveting. My father sustained a serious TBI a year after Cathy's husband did - I found that she was able to put into words all the feelings that I've had. This is a must read for anyone who's life has been touched by TBI, as well as a must read for anyone who knows nothing about it. TBI is not the Hollywood scene where the person wakes up and life goes on like normal....Cathy puts a real face on the nightmare of life after TBI.
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Summary: Where is the mango princess?
Review: Cathy Crimmins partner researched medical libraries to provide factual details within the context of this entertaining and cohesive account of a chaotic and painful experience. She shares the story of her husband Alan's injury from a motorboat running over his head and the aftermath of that event. There are elements here contained in many brain injury stories to a greater or lesser degree; insurance companies, jobs, the impact on friends and family and the slow, frustrating process of recovery. How she contends with these larger difficulties as well as the daily problems presented by her husband's disability is a story skillfully presented. She maintains hope and provides support during a time that seems incredible in the telling.
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