Shelly Peterman Schwarz, Multiple Sclerosis: 300 Tips...

 
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 7:51 pm    Post subject: Shelly Peterman Schwarz, Multiple Sclerosis: 300 Tips... Reply with quote

This second edition of Multiple Sclerosis: 300 Tips for Making Life Easier (Demos, 2006) came to me as a freebie from Shared Solutions as a bonus for taking part in a survey. It was first published in 1999.

The current paperback edition has 114 pages, including an adequate index, and seems well organized and thought out.

It has a Preface by the Vice President of the Professional Resource Center of the National MS Society.

The 300 tips are organized under seven general categories, and whenever a product that may not be generally available is mentioned, the author provides a symbol directing the reader to the end of the section, where companies selling the product are listed.

This is helpful, I think, though I do tend to object to books and periodicals that focus on trying to sell products. Many magazines consist primarily of advertisements, for instance.

But in this book I think the author is doing her readers a favor by providing names, addresses, phone numbers and Websites for specialized products.

My one objection is the same as my objection to much of what the MS Society puts out--you get the impression that most people with MS are fairly well heeled. In fact, you might even go on to think that maybe you can't afford to have MS--when you read about how people with MS have rebuilt their houses, installed raised garden beds in their yard, and got themselves new lift-equiped vehicles.

Shelly Peterman Schwarz seems to assume that "everyone" has a car and a garage, owns a dishwasher, has a house and yard, and can afford to travel. Once or twice she mentions taking a bus but it's rare.

And in the hospital can "everyone" afford a private room? She advises us to hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign on our hospital room door so we can get more rest.
You can't do that if you're in a room with roommates.

Maybe I'm being too harsh here. She's clearly writing from her own experience, and this is what she knows. She's done a good job on this book, as far as it goes, in my opinion.
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