Product Description

A step-by-step guidebook for managing just about everything with the use of one hand whether your one-handedness is temporary, long-term, or permanent.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #782511 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 250 pages

Review
"An inspirational read for anyone who has a permanent or temporary handicap to overcome-it doesn't have to be the loss of function of a hand. The book also provides insights for those who provide care and assistance to individuals trying to make it in spite of a handicap. -- Dr. C. Everett Koop, former United States Surgeon General

"From cribbage to cutting boards and those damnable individual butter, jelly or creamer tubs...you've covered it all!" -- Betty Shea

"I am overwhelmingly enthusiastic about adding One-Handed in a Two-Handed World to the department's resources. -- Bettyanne MacCormac, OTR and Director of Rehabilitation Staff Development for Occupational Therapy

"I could have used a book like this a long time ago! I think it's excellent." -- Senator Bob Dole

"I found your wonderful book, One-Handed in a Two-Handed World, marvelously entertaining, Keep up the great work. You are a special American." -- Senator Max Cleland, D-GA and Chairman of the Veterans Administration under President Carter

"It seems a very good book if you have lost the use of parts of your body. It is a great thing to have." -- Patricia Neal, actress, massive stroke survivor, and founder of Rehabilitation hospitals in the US and Britain

"The best thing you have done is to give courage to those who are experiencing the despair that you have so gallantly overcome." -- Becca Haskell

"The cookbook for getting along after a patient has lost the use of his or her hand. Tommye-K. Mayer's guide to managing single-handedly is a must for anyone recovering from breaks or fractures, strains or sprains-not to mention stroke, paralysis or amputation. One-Handed is also a must for anyone hoping to help these patients manage on their own and between out-patient rehabilitation visits." -- Carol DiPietro, RN

"The nonthreatening, empowering tone used makes it particularly important during that period of time shortly after a patient loses the use of one hand and before recovery can begin or for those for whom recovery is not possible." -- Paul Bach-y-Rita,physician and Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine and Physical Therapy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

A how-to book, par excellence, with step-by-step instructions on managing every imaginable task single-handedly." -- OT Week

From the Publisher
We are proud to publish Tommye-K. Mayer's clear, friendly, empowering instructions to handling the details of getting along, from getting back to work and to getting into the swing of leisure activities and even sexuality.

A book like this not only helps the reader manage tasks, but manage the emotional impact of such a traumatic experience.

About the Author
In 1981, author Tommye-K. Mayer survived a nearly fatal cerebral hemorrhage. While she did indeed survive, Mayer was left with a paralyzed hand, arm--a whole left side paralyzed-just like the deficits experienced by so many stroke survivors.

Tommye-K. Mayer is a Boston-based writer. She has been published in a number of both mainstream and disability publications including: The Boston Globe, Home Office Computing, Careers and Disability, The Boston Tab, Marblehead Magazine, North Shore Sunday, Howlings, Regional Review, Abled, and Connections. Tommye-K. Mayer has a number of other fiction and non-fiction projects soon to be published and already in progress, including her memoirs, Struck Before My Time, and novels Not for Long, Thin Forever, Silence, Faces and The 30 Year Memory Going Straight. She is an intense, talented, and prolific writer, and one we will be reading much of soon.

Customer Reviews

It's a very good book but would like more teen info.
I am a thirteen year old middle school student. I got this book because my teacher heard the author interviewed on public radio and thought I would like it. It is a good book because it gave me lots of tips about operating in the world with one hand which I have been doing since I had a stoke in second grade. The tips on painting my nails and doing my hair were great. Tommye Mayer gave some good ideas on playing tennis, too. But I like to play basketball, and I wish she had given me some tips on guiding the ball when you shoot.This book was written by someone who really knows what my life is like. If I could add a chapter to this book it would be called " Life in a Teenager's World" and include ideas about making friends and dating. You should get this book if you are one-handed because it helped me and I bet it would help you, too.

Recommended by Strokesurvivors International
Several of our strokesurvivor members/and caregivers have read this book and reviewed it. Our Strokesurvivors International website books page is http://strokesurvivors.homepage.com/BooksP/index.htm Our RN/Social worker (and a Stroker) wrote about this book: "I have read Living OneHanded in a Two handed World by Tommye Mayer several times and consider it to be my bible.The range of topics covered in this book is phenomenal! Until I found this book, the simple act of dressing myself in the morning became a battle with overwhelming frustration because I couldn't get my clothes on correctly. Simple tips in this book allowed me to master dressing myself with ease. And probably kept me from surrendering to depression by just staying in bed all day. I consider it a Must read for anyone with the challenge of having only one functional hand."

practical ideas
This book is a practical guide for managing one-handed. It's very concreteness is a refreshing antidote to the usual experiential approach and, besides, its helpful. While one could figure many things out on one's own, it is a good starting point that by its nature encourages the attitude that there are ways to do things. Also it is a guide to the kinds of gadgets that can be useful, especially for those whose one-handedness is more than a temporary inconvenience--knives, cutting boards, etc. My main quibble is with those parts that instruct in how-to,e.g., tie shoelaces. Like the usual how-to instructions for putting barbecues together, wiring stereo, systems, etc., they are hard to follow. The verbal instructions are accompanied by blurry photographs. A series of line drawings would have been better..I gave up in frustration and figured out my own method.