...Subtitled “Reclaim Your Health with Humor, Creativity and Grit,” this is an inspiring and hilarious testimony to Carla’s spunk, grit and wacky sense of humor in the face of debilitating illness. Anyone who has fought a chronic illness would find it helpful.
...It’s this quirky way of looking at her situation that has helped Carla Ulbrich lead a somewhat normal life...
(read the full article at the newspaper website)
How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? Facing Illness with Humor, Creativity and Grit
Carla Ulbrich
Tell Me Press, LLC, 160 pp., $14.95
Billing herself as “the singing patient,” Ulbrich tackles a dire diagnosis of autoimmune disease in her 20s with humor and common sense, proud that she still has her “original kidneys” after years of medication and two strokes.
In between jokes about what NOT to say to a sick person and how to deal with annoying doctors, Ulbrich offers excellent advice about how experimenting with diet helped heal her. Rather than lecture, she makes her point in the chapter “How To Stay Sick,” with such helpful advice as “eat crap,” “don’t brush or floss” and “drink lots of alcohol.” She also gives insight on how to manage thinning hair, noting wryly that losing 50 pounds isn’t all its cracked up to be.
The book ends with a little ditty she wrote called “I Got Tremors,” set to “I Got Rhythm.” Who could ask for anything more?
While writing a great book on how to recover from illness, Carla wrote an even better book on how to live a healthy and fulfilling life. No doubt, you have a good doctor if you see “How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?” in their waiting room.
Michael Stock - WLRN
How Can you NOT Laugh at a Time Like This" is outstanding! Carla Ulbrich, a talented performing songwriter we play regularly on The Village on Siruis XM, has crafted a book for folks facing illness and for those who love them. How often do you find yourself not knowing what to say when someone you know tells you they have cancer and it is stage 3? Your kidneys have failed -- what do you do? Carla is your guide to navigate the often emotionally and technically confusing world of illness with heart, humor and bite-size chapters. Everyone needs a patient advocate - and now you have one, with this book! We highly recommend this book!
Mary Sue Twohy and Robert Aubrey Davis - Sirius XM Radio (Nov 17, 2010)
As a doctor, Patch Adams brought to mainstream America the concept of a caring, compassionate, and fun medical staff making a profound difference in the healing of their patients. Now we've been given the gift to hear about it from the patient's perspective. Carla Ulbrich is living proof that bringing fun, play, creativity and laughter to the healing process does wonders for the mind, body and spirit.
Carla's generosity of sharing her long journey of recovering from chronic illness will make a big difference for all who open this book. The wisdom she shares from her often unpleasant experiences and her countless hours of research are priceless.
This book should be required reading for anyone who has dealt with a serious illness... patients, doctors, nurses, families and those well-meaning friends who always happen to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. This is a guide book, a companion, a friend you can lean on, a butt-kicker, a coach, and a fountain of knowledge. It can pretty much do anything but jump start your car.
Carla's stories are inspirational, her humor hilarious and her wisdom is nothing shy of a gift directly from heaven.
- Danny Donuts, CPA (Comic Performance Artist), member, Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor
I will admit, when Carla first contacted me regarding her book, I wasn’t interested in reading about someone going through illness or major health challenges. For whatever reason, I didn’t delete her email. I reread her email, checked out her website, read more about her book, I was completely taken with her amazing outlook on life, her tenacity and her passion. I emailed her back and asked if I could review her book. I wasn’t disappointed.
Carla talks to you honestly, on every level, in her book. She also does it with a fantastic sense of humor. Carla recants her journey through illness, from discovery, traversing the health care maze and dealing with friends and family. Throughout the book she also injects all of her crazy thoughts, ideas and opinions with great wit.
My favourite chapter, one that everyone can relate to, sick or not is Chapter 3, That’s Inflammatory! What Not to Eat if You Have an Autoimmune Disease, as well all have to eat. Part 8: But I Like Eating Crap! is my favourite section. I too want to become a reformed crapitarian! No spoiler alert here. You have to read the book.
- Lucky Yogini Blog (Nov 24, 2010)
I read your book. I swear, I've lived so many of the scenes you wrote about. You're an inspiration!
Karen N. - reader
“Carla's clarity is infectious. She gives us hope, shows us how to take control of our illness, and to always see the humor, because life is better while we're laughing.”
Ulbrich shows how humor can help conquer illness, covering such topics as "Disease Envy," "A Good Vein Is Hard to Find" and "My Other Body Is a Porsche."
I am reading Carla's book How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? and loving it.
I LOVE Carla's songwriting, so I'm not surprised that her prose writing is as smart, funny, and insightful as her music. I remember the first time I heard a song of hers on the radio -- I was in a car crossing the George Washington Bridge, I asked everybody to shut up because I just HAD to know whothat was.
Every now and then I thank my lucky stars that I am beyond the age of jealousy. This is one of those times.
AATH members might remember Carla Ulbrich's inspirational keynote address at the 2007 Conference in Panama City Beach, Florida. Carla, known as "The Singing Patient," shared her journey about recovering from multiple autoimmune diseases. Now Carla's inspirational journey is in print, with her first book, "How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? Reclaim Your Health with Humor, Creativity and Grit."
Carla intertwines her story throughout the book, however she focuses her energy on helping the reader understand what it's really like to be the patient. And this book isn't just for patients. Doctors, nurses, families and those well-meaning friends who always happen to say the wrong thing at the wrong time will definitely benefit from reading this. It's a guidebook, a companion, a friend you can lean on, a butt-kicker, a coach, and a fountain of knowledge.
AATH members will cheer when reading chapters entitled "Send In The Clowns!" "Rubber Chicken Soup: Keeping a Sense of Humor" and "Take Two Movies and Call Me in the Morning." Several of Carla's lyrics from her funny songs are also printed throughout and are always good for a chuckle.
Carla educates, empowers, and encourages her readers to take control and find the hope that will be the foundation for living a healthy life. The wisdom she shares from her often unpleasant experiences and her countless hours of research are priceless. The humor she injects will not only bring about much laughter, but it does wonders for making uncomfortable situations very manageable. No doctor is too mighty, no symptom is too gruesome, no subject is off-limits to Carla's wonderful wit, wisdom and sense of humor.
With aplomb and spirit, Ulbrich delivers candid insight alongside restorative doses of humor for living well and living with chronic disorders.
Carla Ulbrich, besides being a very funny performer, has written an excellent book called "How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?"
"I've long believed that humor is essential to healing well. Certainly nothing can help us feel better than a good laugh! But it's not always easy to be open to it. Blogger Carla Ulbrich helps us realize that it really isn't that hard."
read more: http://tinyurl.com/3f7lrt8
"In April, the MLWT book discussion group on Shelfari.com hosted Carla Ulbrich’s book How Can You NOT Laugh At A Time Like This? (Tell Me Press, 2011), where Carla herself joined in. I was drawn to this book simply because I strongly believe in the value of humor as a healing force. Anyone out there offering me an off-beat way of looking at life with a chronic health condition is numero uno on my list..."
Read more:
http://mylifeworkstoday.com/2011/05/30/2174/
"These books earned the Lupus Foundation of America's Education Committee Seal of Approval."
"it's an incredibly witty, chin-up book, bound to get laughs where no laughs have gone before."
"What is most impressive about "How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?, is how the author uses humor to help her fight her condition... How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? " is for anyone who needs to know an alternative way to treat a disease. It is also for anyone who wants to be a more positive person."
"How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This is an easily read collection of Ulbrich’s personal experiences liberally peppered with a charmingly twisted wit, wisdom, refreshing candor, insight and clever musical ditties set to common melodies anyone can sing. They serve to illustrate her journey through severe health crises which would send most of us sprinting to the nearest shrink, clamoring for the latest, greatest, and fastest-acting mood altering substances known to man. How does she do it? With humour."
read the whole review:
http://www.thereviewspage.com/showreview.php?r_id=1215
"In order to have a successful music career, you sometimes have to be patient.
In the case of Carla Ulbrich, she had to become a patient -- a medical patient..."
read more: http://tinyurl.com/6d792et
http://www.itsyourhealthnetwork.com/audio_archives.php?cid=7
Interview about the book.
"Carla Ulbrich, otherwise known as “The Singing Patient”, brings a sense of humor to the often uncomfortable topic of chronic illness. It's uncomfortable for those who come in contact with the patient, because they don't often understand how debilitating a chronic illness can be. (After all, the person suffering from one often looks just fine on the outside.) It's uncomfortable for those who have a chronic illness to deal with, because their body is rebelling against them and well, what do you do when you don't even feel right in your own skin? Carla Ulbrich, rather than wallowing in self-pity, or enduring the pitying looks from others, picks up her guitar, and writes funny songs about it all!"
read the rest:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474980073371
"From never let them stick a needle twice, to writing on yourself with permanent marker prior to surgery so the surgeon is sure to get it right!, to refusing suggested testing and treatments when the possible complications can be just as bad or worse than the actual disease/problem being treated, How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? offers some very wise advice, often with some tongue-in-cheek. Carla recommends you research, ask questions, be in charge of your treatment and above all else keep a sense of humour!"
read the rest here:
http://shirley-mybookshelf.blogspot.com/2011/08/review-and-giveaway-how-can-you-not.html
"I laughed out loud while reading this book. They say laughter is the best medicine, and it just might be so. It is all in the way you perceive your illness. Positive and willing to laugh at yourself, means good health vibes. Negative and down and depressed will probably get you nowhere. I can relate to a lot of things in this book, having "been there" in many cases. I wish I had this book back then to cheer me up and get me through. This is a great book for anyone to read, ill or not. I guarantee you will laugh, you will relate, you will understand."
"I wasn't sure how this book would be when I started to read it, but I finished it in 2 sittings, mainly because it was SO comical! If you've been through any type of doctor's visits requiring followups and tests, you will relate to much of the book!"
read more:
http://blesstheirheartsmom.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-review-and-giveaway-how-can-you.html