Silver is medical director of the Spaulding-Framingham Outpatient Center and heads the Spaulding Polio Center. As the granddaughter of a polio survivor, she skillfully correlates her grandfather's medical difficulties with problems she commonly encounters in treating polio survivors, adding an empathetic and compassionate tone to her solid medical text. She first defines and describes post-polio syndrome (PPS) and follows this with chapters on finding expert medical care, controversies over diagnosis and treatment, conserving energy, preventing falls and further disability, sex and intimacy, and the emotional and psychological aspects of coping with PPS. Her chapters are brief (averaging six pages), but they provide practical explanations and suggestions. They also continually emphasize the need for personalized evaluation by health professionals with experience in treating polio survivors. Aside from differences in citing medical studies and references, Silver's book is quite similar in scope and content to Managing Post-Polio: A Guide to Living Well with Post-Polio Syndrome (LJ 10/1/98), edited by Lauro Halstead. Silver, in fact, covers many of the same topics and cites several of the authors who contributed to Halstead's book (she herself was one of the contributors). It is unlikely that most collections need both books, recommending this primarily where Halstead's book is not available. Ximena Chrisagis, Fordham Health Sciences Lib., Wright State Univ., Dayton, OH
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
What an excellent tool Dr. Silver has given polio survivors and their families. She has written a comprehensive book on post polio beginning with the history of polio and post polio and continuing on to cover the topics important to our individual needs. She has organized the book in a manner that facilitates finding information quickly. Her writing style is very easy to read and the material is so complete that many times I felt she was talking directly to me. Upon completing the book, I felt encouraged by her optimism and had a better understanding of what was happening to my body and what I needed to do. Her credentials, click on "look inside", are impressive. The fact that she is a medical doctor at Harvard and is actively working with post polio patients is reassuring. She also has done extensive research and quotes many experts in the field. I feel she has given me the best information available. I have also read some of her articles at polio sites on the internet and found them to be very helpful. One that I found particularly interesting was "Polio Myths and Half-Truths". I hope she writes more!
