Mayo Clinic Guide to Living with a Spinal Cord Injury: Moving Ahead with Your Life Paperback – April 7, 2009

As an RN with SCI experience, finding this to be a helpful book with practical information I can use.

Covers everything from what deficits to expect at different levels of injury, to how to build a good working relationship with a caretaker to what kinds of agencies might provide assistance. Good book for those wanting to prepare themselves for a transformed life, whether the injured person or a family member.

This is a very readable, informative book filled with lots of practical, usable advice. I recommend it to anyone desiring a clear picture of the challenges and struggles associated with SCI. Its contents very corrective, empowering and comforting.

This book is very helpful and resourceful.

I found this book to be very helpful in a time when I needed to learn any and everything about how to care for a quadriplegic and what complications could occur.

LOTS OF INFORMATION THAT I DID NOT KNOW

Little to no thoracic information in this book...

First of all, this is the real deal. These are the folks who do spinal cord work at the Mayo Clinic. The book is aimed at a general audience but as an RN with a number of years of neuro experience I learned a thing or two. If you are running a spinal rehab center and are not using this book you are not doing the job right.The book is divided into five main sections beginning with an introduction which describes the team that will be dealing with the injury, the normal anatomy of the spinal cord and its function. It then takes a close look at the types of spinal cord injuries. This section and indeed the entire book are copiously illustrated with drawings that I wish I would have had in training.Section two covers the changes in the body following an injury divided into first the internal organs then the skin, muscle, and bone and finally the circulation and body regulation. This is a hands on review dealing with problems and how they should be prevented and dealt with.Section three is on sexuality and fertility. This is an area that many textbooks sort of skip over with a few lines. There is a full and straightforward discussion of the sexual aspects of spinal injury. The effects, the problems and the solutions.Section Four deals with the strategies for overcoming the new boundaries of life with a cord injury. It is a wonderfully comprehensive guide that covers everything from the law to conflict management with your caregiver. There are check list and work sheets and real world tools to solve problems with. I was hugely impressed by this section and the amount of information it conveyed.Section Five is titled Living Fully with a Spinal Cord Injury and it is a guide to an active life one that is different from the life before injury but not one whit less fulfilling in its potential.A number of sections round out the book including a section on clinical trials a list of resources and a very good Glossary.Over all this is best one volume book on spinal cord injury I have seen in over 25 years of nursing. I cannot recommend it enough.