EUREKA!
MASTER
What Others Are Saying about EUREKA!. . .
“Eureka! has opened the portal to the next level of rehabilitation—a level only the caregiver with intimate knowledge of the patient can provide. When the professionals had reached the limits of their skills, this used to be seen as the most that could be accomplished. No longer!”
Lawrence J. Beuret, M.D.
“Suddenly you are the caregiver for a brain-injured patient. Not a job you ever wanted or ever imagined. This book offers a proven formula for sidestepping boredom, stress and exhaustion by taking care of not only your patient but also yourself. Eureka! provides an imaginative and out-of-the-ordinary route to novelty, fun and successful treatment.”
Thomas W. Phelan, Ph.D. Author of 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12.
“Reading Eureka! is like sitting down with a good friend who's "been there"—who has already navigated the land mines of caregiving a brain-injured loved one—and can help you in ways that the medical community cannot. This book uses proven and creative techniques to motivate the brain-injured patient—by tapping into their strongest memories and emotions—and you'll learn the importance of structuring the day, creating meaningful routines, and planning simple outings. Eureka! will surprise you—and you won't want to put it down.”
Devera Kastner, M.S.L.S. Medical Librarian—The Cleveland Clinic
"Eureka! is a great companion to, and follow-up of Brain, Heal Thyself. I love Madonna Siles’s writing style: simple, practical, honest, with a sense of humor, which is so necessary when confronted with a daunting, long-term challenge like caregiving the brain-injured loved one."
Margaret Watkins, M.D. Author of The Fine Line
“As a Certified Therapeutic Recreational Specialist on an acute physical rehabilitation unit for 24 years, I would want every person who suddenly becomes a caregiver to a person with a traumatic brain injury to read this book. The use of the subconscious was a key to Eve’s rehabilitation. By aligning her subconscious suggestions with the patient’s lifelong beliefs, needs and values, the author has really gone from a caregiver to a rehabilitator. We need more such creative rehabilitation ideas with realistic expectations.”
Ben Johnson, M.S., C.T.R.S.
"As a Public Health Professional, I highly recommend this book to all caretakers—especially those caring for brain-injured patients. Eureka! not only gives caretakers specific techniques to deal with very difficult and intensive situations, it provides invaluable information on how to take care of the caretaker in the process. It gives readers inspiration and concrete tools to help in their daily lives."
Rhonda Kolberg, R.N., B.S.N., M.S.
“...this book will inspire friends and family members who are caring for stroke or brain-injury patients and give them practical tips on improving the lives and abilities of the patients as well as coping with being a caregiver.”
Marcia Welsh, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
LJ Xpress Review 1/15/2010 (LibraryJournal.com)
“In my work with stroke and brain injury survivors and their families over the years, I have come to believe that recovery is truly a “we are doing this together” proposition for both patient and caregiver. When stroke or tbi strike, it is not just the patient who has to deal with the consequences. The caregiver is equally involved—and maybe more so, since many patients are unaware of all the effects of the “disability.” Caregiving is a 24 hour job. Sooner or later, the caregiver learns that taking care of his or her own needs is of utmost importance. If the caregiver is ill and can’t do the job, who is going to do it? Eureka! certainly brings a refreshing approach, in which the patient and caregiver learn together how to have a good time, while dealing with what is quite often, a devastating loss. “
Sharon Prosser, B.S.W., C.S.W. Case-Worker, Green Bay WI
“Eureka! highlights how vital the caregiver’s personal health of mind, body and emotion is to the monumental task of leading the stroke/brain trauma patient up the mountain of discouragement to seemingly impossible heights. With her characteristic conversational style and self-deprecating humor, Madonna Siles makes this book another of her page-turners. As a lay person, she tells what she has found out through self-knowledge, experience, pluck and creative efforts. Any who have brain-damaged patients in their care will find this book fascinating, as well as challenging and cause for hope. How little we really know about the human brain, and how much this book teaches us to believe in what persevering care can bring about.”
Suzanne Zuercher, O.S.B.; Licensed Clinical Psychologist;
Author of Enneagram Spirituality and Enneagram Companions
“....as a survivor of a cerebral aneurysm rupture I would hope that every caregiver be given the opportunity to read this book and implement the theories. So often I see that patients who seem to be slow to respond are given up on. Insurance companies are reluctant to pay for continuous therapy. Some patients are lucky they have someone in their life like Madonna Siles, who refused to give up. Maybe the reason that there is little known about the recovery of a patient that survives an aneurysm rupture or an AVM rupture is that this is a new breed. In the past it was basically unheard of for someone to survive such an injury. We are an enigma to the medical professionals and we can be instrumental in teaching them how to treat us and also in the instructions they share with the caregivers.The dedication, the trials and yes the tribulations that Eve and Madonna encountered will be the inspiration for another caregiver and patient!”
Susan Weinholtz, Author-Time for Uncle Guido, Administrator —Aneurysm/AVM Support web site
“Caregiving is fundamental in determining the progress and quality of life of the patient. If the caregiver does not have goals, or avenues to relieve stress and find enjoyment, this will impact on the patient. Eureka! guides the caregiver on how to find their own focus in life. By creating and taking advantage of ‘Eureka! Moments’, Siles shows that the caregiver and patient can work together and participate in activities and adventures that are enjoyable and motivating, but also help to trigger memories, language and social interaction.”
Johan Langfield, Speech and Language Therapist, Founder—icommunicatetherapy.com
“Compassionate, empathetic, candid, conversational in style, and enlightening for caregiver and survivor alike. Time and again, the author highlights the criticality of “authentic action” as moving the Eureka process from fiction to fact, from theory into reality. The caregiver and survivor will survive and thrive!”
Walter H. Steinlauf, Executive Director, The Stroke Survivors Advocacy Network
".... in reading Eureka! I found many suggestions that were very possible and applicable to being a parent/caregiver of a teenager with a traumatic brain injury. I, too, identified with many things in my own life that I had to give up. Eureka! has changed how I look at my identity and how it relates to this new normal; thus, making my daughter’s recovery and rehabilitation a partnership.”
Karen “Kasey” Johanson, Parent and TBI Advocate www.caringbridge.org/visit/kaitlynjohanson
Your book was thoroughly enjoyable and you re-enlightened me on many levels. At first, I was amazed at all the similarities that our loved ones and we have experienced, but then realized many things were opposite, but still, I can apply your exercises to work in our situation. My husband was injured in a car accident in December of 1998, with severe frontal lobe head trauma. He had to be put in a drug induced coma until injuries could heal. He was the complete opposite of Eve. He was a wild man in the NICU. Not being conscious, he could free his arms from the tie-down straps, he got his knee out of traction (several times) and was the most active person the nurses had ever seen. (In the NICU that is). He never needed or needs motivation in the verbal department, but he does need it in the physical areas.
I love the term ' as if ', and have realized that ' as if ' is the key for us. ' What if ' is a daily phrase that comes up, but I have to live ' as if ' I am really excited to come home and deal with whatever mood is thrown at me. I love the coloring exercises. Luckily, we have our daughter to say 'Let's color' as this little girl is his major (almost only) motivation. So, all three of us are getting better together.
The suggestions after the chapters and their examples prompted me to evaluate our situations immediately while it was fresh in my head. Instead of continuing to read without stopping to really think about the exercise. I like that. I have very recently found out that decisions are a very hard thing for my husband to accomplish. As far as good memories to link to a current situation.... I am thinking my husband does not have any - so I will have to work harder at that. Thanks for this opportunity and all the help you have given me to proceed to 'get better together'.
Mary Vlasin
PEEK INSIDE EUREKA!
Read the Author's Intro
