TOUCHED BY THE EXTRAORDINARY, BOOK TWO: HEALING STORIES OF LOVE, LOSS & HOPE

Apollon SB, ISBN: 978-0-9754036-9-3, Cost: $24.95; Yardley, Pennsylvania: Matters of the Soul, LLC; 2010.

This last year has been a year of losses for my family and myself. We had 2 aunts, a very dear friend, a local Marine who died December 20 in Afghanistan, and the dearest to my heart, Lucille Roman Sahd, my mother-in-law, who passed away on December 2. When Vickie sent out the request for a book reviewer for Touched by the Extraordinary: Healing Stories of Love, Loss & Hope by intuitive psychologist, psychotherapist, and healer, Susan Barbara Apollon (2010 published by Matters of the Soul), I knew I was the person to do this and felt like I would truly be able to tell if this was a therapeutic and helpful book. After reading this book, I know now that Vickie's request was certainly no coincidence.

This book is laid out in chapters sharing stories for those who have lost a child, a parent, a spouse, a friend, and/or a pet. Each chapter provides stories that can assist in the healing process and finds tender ways to lift one's spirits and soul. This book shares incredible stories of human experiences that teach sacred, life-changing lessons about love, loss, and hope. This book presents a very holistic perspective on loss and highlights not only the separation from our loved ones but also the loss of expectations, dreams, and futures. Apollon shares stories that present compelling cases for the belief that we are only physically separated from our loved ones, but remain spiritually connected. I was very intrigued and drawn into the book as I read stories of those connections. Each story has a similar theme, yet they are all compellingly unique. Often a person may experience his/her loved one who has passed, through sensing a soft touch, a cool breeze, seeing a ladybug, a dragonfly, or a special bird. (I would like to add one from my own life story, a brilliant red cardinal. When I see a cardinal, it is always a reminder of my brother-in-law Wayne who passed away very suddenly at the age of 46 years. I sense that he is saying to me, "it is all right, Lisa; keep believing I am with you.")

As I started reading the book, it took me only until page 33 to start crying and found that I was profoundly touched by the letter from a daughter to a mother in the chapter that deals with losing a child. As it turned out, that was only the beginning of the tears, but as I continued to read, the tears were gradually replaced with feelings of love, hope, and joy. Each story begins with a quote from an experienced practitioner such as Bernie Siegel, MD; Ghandi; Maya Angelou; Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, MD; and many others. An example is by Albert Einstein who said, "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." This quote opens the Appendix, which presents Healing From Grief and Trauma. Twelve very helpful tips on healing from loss and trauma are presented. The book ends with a chapter on Answered Prayers and concludes by presenting The Loving Gift of the Spirit Rose, a moving poem by Beverly Foss Stoughton.

I have found this book to be very helpful and have now passed it on to Helen Yeager, my sister-in-law who will be blessed, and I know comforted, as she works through the grieving process due to the loss of her mother.

COMPACT CLINICAL GUIDE TO ACUTE PAIN MANAGEMENT: AN EVIDENCED-BASED APPROACH FOR NURSES

D'Arcy Y, ISBN: 978-0-8261-0549-3, Cost: $45.00; New York, New York: Springer Publishing Company; 2011.

This book uses several sections to discuss acute pain management. The sections are as follows: Section l-Overview of Acute Pain; Section II-Assessing Acute Pain; Section III-Medications and Treatments for Acute Pain; Section IV-Advanced Pain Management Techniques; and Section V-Difficult-to-Treat Patient Populations. Within the sections, D'Arcy uses many clinical pearls to highlight key points for practitioners. Each section also has a summary, case study, and questions to consider. It would have been ideal to have answers included with the case studies and questions.

D'Arcy covers the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations requirements for pain management and highlights an evidence-based approach. D'Arcy's approach to pain management is very holistic and addresses barriers as well as challenges in treating patients. The section on assessment tools, comprehensively cited various 1-dimensional pain assessment tools, brief pain impact questionnaires, and inventories. One of the areas I appreciated the most was the section that covered behavioral pain scales for adults who cannot self-report pain: the PAINAD (Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia tool) and the Payen's behavioral pain scale used for critically ill intubated patients. This section also covered assessing pain in difficult-to-assess populations such as older adults, children, and patients with a substance abuse history and also covered barriers to acute pain assessment.

In the section that covers pain management, D'Arcy presents the World Health Organization analgesic ladder and general guidelines for cancer pain. She also presents treatment for mild to severe pain and the use of nonopiod versus opioid analgesics as well as the benefits, complications, and risks for each. Lastly, in this section, D'Arcy presents new information on coanalgesics for additive pain relief and the effect of opioid polymorphisms and patient response to medications and complementary and integrative therapies for pain management. Perioperative pain management, patient-controlled analgesia, epidural analgesia, and regional techniques for postoperative pain relief are covered comprehensively.

There is a section that covers difficult-to-treat patients, such as patients with acute pain in the setting of chronic pain, patients with sickle cell disease, patients with acute substance abuse or a history of substance abuse, patients with abdominal pain and trauma, and critical care patients.

This book is a comprehensive, very specific, clinical guide for health care providers in general and presents information helpful to all practitioners in a general sense without focusing on a particular specialty area of practice. I would have liked to have seen more emphasis on nursing and nursing interventions, but nonetheless, I believe nurses will find this to be a useful book.