MABEL: Book Review and Giveaway:Chocolate and Vicodin by Jennette Fulda

** this giveaway is closed ** 

 
I have to admit the publicist had me at the title with this book! Any mother alive will recognize that title and pause, nodding their head, saying "uh-huh, there HAVE been days when I needed BOTH of those"! Course that's when the kiddos are extremely hypo/bad/beyond words! Fulda needed them for her severe chronic pain, not kids. But I thought it would be a perfect book for MABEL, as it's funny and truthful, and alot of us have family members with chronic pain!

Synopsis: When the headache, or “invisible tiara of nails,” appeared three years ago, Fulda was riding high on the success of her first book, Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir. As the title implies, Fulda had lost half of her body weight in the few years prior and was, in 2008, in the best health of her life. With the onset of pain came an unavoidable adjustment in priorities. While Fulda’s plan was to continue training for a half marathon that would correspond with the release of Half-Assed, she also found herself struggling to get out of bed and painfully shuttling between doctors and labs.

A popular blogger with a loyal readership at PastaQueen.com, Fulda documented the bevy of doctor’s visits and expensive treatments online. Eliciting sincere and often hysterical advice from her readers, Fulda posted about everything she was going through: CT scans, intravenous drugs, Vicodin, chiropractic adjustments, depression, acupuncture, Botox, medical marijuana, allergy testing, and even her stab at alcoholism. Desperate for a cure in any form she writes, “Sadly, alcoholism wasn’t for me.”

Review: I actually learned ALOT from reading Fulda's at time hysterically funny, othertimes woefully sad book. I liked how she shared emails from her readers (yes, we read all your emails and comments!), who made suggestions, however wacky, but wonderfully intent on helping her solve her headache issue. Two of the biggest things about chronic pain I learned, that make perfect sense when thinking about my own repeated shoulder injury were:

1. thanks to your brain's ability to adapt, the longer you are in chronic pain the more likely you are to REMAIN in pain. The constant pain CHANGES your brain PHYSICALLY and alters your brain to STAY in pain mode. UGH.
2. chronic pain can actually SHRINK portions of your brain over a long period. EEK.
3. women have fewer receptor in their brain that can mind to morphine, to make you feel LESS pain.SEE we ARE hardwired to accept more pain!
4. the response of these receptor also changes during your menstrual cycle- which is why pain meds for say headache may not work as well udirn gyour cycle. oh joy...
5. if you concentrate on your pain, it will likely be more painful, as your brain centers on it, not other things. Oh duh...
6. your level of suffering from your pain depends on your ability to cope with the pain. Your brain will adjust over time and you will be able to cope with MORE pain, and your tolerance to pain meds may increase accordingly. So what worked for you 6 months ago, may not work now. Double joy....

Fulda’s has not fully gotten rid of her headache/pain from three years ago, but she took the pain doctor's advice and changed her attitude, learned some coping mechanisms and has been able to gain back some aspects of her former life. She has new rules she has to live with, with keeping a set bedtime, and is truly coping with her pain in the best way possible. Did you know that over 69 million Americans suffer from chronic pain? And over 27 million of those, battle chronic headaches/migraines? I can raise my hand to both, as can many of my family members. Fulda’s story of perseverance will be an asperation and model for those coping with pain. I highly recommend it!

About the Author: Jennette was born weighing 8 pounds 5 ounces, but eventually tipped the scales at 372 pounds. before losing almost 200 pounds through diet and exercise. In 2008, she got a headache that still hasn't gone away and tried everything from pills, pot, and acupuncture to relieve it. her weight loss experience is chronicled in her books Half-@ssed: A Weight-Loss Memoir"

Her work has been featured on NBC's Today Show, CBS's The Early Show, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets. She chronicles her life after the "after" photo in her blog, PastaQueen.com, and does freelance web design at MakeMyBlogPretty.com. She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.


***** Update:
 We had a bit of an 'accident after the post went live, and the top of the book has some conditioner on it. So the top is a little wavy, and smells REALLY good, but the book is still VERY readable, I just wanted winner to be aware of book not being pristine! ****

Giveaway:

Winner will receive this review copy of Chocolate and Vicodin!

Entries:

Make sure I have an email address, with your comment, 

so I can contact you,if you win! 
If I don't have a way to contact you, you will forfeit your win!

USA /Canada only

           3 day winner's rule : Winner has 3 days to acknowledge they won prize,

and confirm address, if no contact, then new winner will be picked in their place. 

  Please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 comments for Subscribing: 

     Some entries have been combined on one line, check carefully! 

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• Fun entry! Go to our Blog Rolls and select a blog that starts with the same letter as your email. let me know the title of one of their posts on their main page! (2 entries)
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Contest will end on May 22nd, at midnight. Winner will be picked by Random Number (random.org) on May 23rd, and emailed. As soon as winners' info is received, I will mail their book to them on the next mail run.

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book for review purposes on this blog, free of charge, from Simon and Schuster .No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about the book.