Book Giveaway: Chocolate & Vicodin by Jennette Fulda

I just finished reading Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache That Wouldn’t Go Away by Jennette Fulda and really enjoyed it, as I’m a fellow chronic invisible pain sufferer. (I have a genetic disease that causes me to have about 40 other conditions, ugh!) I’ve moaned about my own pain for 3+ years on my own blog, so I had to laugh when Jennette wrote about posting a crazy blog entry in a moment of pain for the first time. Thankfully, I blog under an alias, so I feel no shame acting crazy and doing the same on my own blog from time to time. It’s very liberating, and it helps me deal with my pain.

Jennette wasn’t someone who lived with chronic pain until she literally woke up with a nasty headache on February 18, 2008. Sadly, she still has that headache, and has spent a ton of money, time and patience trying to deal with the pain that no one can help her get rid of, let alone even find the reason for why it even exists. I felt bad for her right away, because after I had a hysterectomy in June 29, I woke up with a mofo of a headache that lasted 5 months straight. It was unbelievably painful, and I spent the entire time wanting to someone, or even kill myself. Since I was also a migraine sufferer in addition to this new sinus-type headache, I was near wits end & downing chocolate as much as I could, since my Relpax wasn’t helping this new type of headache. Between that headache and my genetic disease, I’ve chased the dream of finding out what was wrong with me for years–so I can totally relate to what she was going through while when she wrote this book. 

What makes this book especially moving is that Jennette had previously lost half of her body weight in the years prior to this pesky headache, and had found success after getting her memoir, Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir published. While she should have been celebrating the move from blogger to published author, and from fat girl to skinny girl, she was bound to the pain and couldn’t escape it. She did everything she could to find out why this was happening to her, and it made me so sad for her. No one deserves to be in physical pain, especially after losing so much weight due to diet and exercise. Here is an exerpt from the book:

“Joan was in my apartment because, for the past five months, I’d been suffering from a crushing tension-type headache that, no matter what I tried, wouldn’t go away. Just like many victims of car accidents, I can’t remember the moment of impact. I’ll never know if the pain arrived before lunch, after dinner or while I was in the shower. All I know is that sometime on Feb. 17, 2008, the headache greeted me by hugging my skull tightly, like a grandparent I hadn’t seen for years, and wouldn’t let go. The appearance of this problem was particularly stunning because I was literally in the best health of my life. I’d lost almost two hundred pounds over the past few years by dieting and exercising — and written a book about it. Since the onset of the headache I’d gotten an MRI taken of my skull, tried drugs, and fallen back into bad eating habits that spurred me to gain some of my weight back. I thought it was time to give something more extreme a try.

I felt as though I had gained enough medical skills to convincingly play a nurse on television. I was also in possession of an anaphylaxis kit, enough latex gloves to dye fifty T-shirts, and tons of medical tape, all paid for by my health insurance.

I also still had a headache.

The intravenous drugs didn’t do shit, but the pint of ice cream in the fridge made me feel better. I wished I could have gotten my health insurance company to pay for mint-chocolate-chip ice cream, which worked far better than a Keppra cocktail.”

Sadly, 70 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, and of those people, 28 million battle chronic headaches or migraines. I’m one of them, and it was hard for myself to come to the conclusion that Jennette did by the end of her book. I’ve tried pain medications, and countless other techniques to either relieve pain, or find out what was causing it. Just like Jennette, I’ve talked about my pain at work too much, and I’ve even shamefully used my pain as an excuse to get out of something I don’t want to attend. I came to the similar conclusion that Jennette did, and while I don’t want to spoil the end of the book for you, let me just say this instead–if you are one of those people searching for a cause or solution to your pain and enjoy humor while trying to focus through your pain, then you are going to love this book. You need to read this book, because Jennette is a master at making me laugh. Perhaps you can even treat yourself to some chocolate while reading it! 

Jennette Fulda is the author of “Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir,” as well as the author of PastaQueen.com. She is also a freelance web designer.

Visit the author’s website at JennetteFulda.com.

Read Jennette’s blog, PastaQueen.com.

Hire Jennette to spruce up your own blog by visiting MakeMyBlogPretty.com.

Find Jennette on Twitter.

Like Jennette on Facebook.

Visit Indiebound to purchase a copy of Chocolate & Vicodin.

Visit the Chocolate & Vicodin: Spread the Word Contest page and you can enter numerous different ways to win either an iPod Shuffle, a $25 Amazon gift card, or a $10 iTunes gift card. You can tweet, like the book on Facebook, leave reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, email your friends, or post the video trailer or a site link on your blog. Once you do, submit proof via that form and you’ll be entered to win!

Winners will be drawn randomly. Anyone is eligible, including international readers. The contest is open until 11:59pm EST on May 30, 2011.

CHOCOLATE & VICODIN GIVEAWAY – 3 LUCKY WINNERS WILL WIN A COPY

RULES:

**Open to U.S. & Canadian residents only.

**No P.O. boxes, please.

**Must include your email in your comment, unless you signed in to leave a comment with your “real” email.

**All comments must be separate to count as separate entries. For example, if you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, leave 2 comments, one with your Facebook name, and one with your Twitter name. Or, if you posted about the giveaway on your blog, leave 5 comments, all with the link to your giveaway.

**Please read the additional rules here.

HOW TO ENTER: 

**Mandatory Entry: Go to Jennette’s website,  JennetteFulda.com, or visit her blog,  PastaQueen.com, and tell me what fun or interesting thing you learned or noticed there. 

+1  ENTRY: Follow Jennette Fulda on Facebook. 

+1  ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook. Make sure to leave your Facebook name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Facebook and share a link on your wall with the following comment “I entered The Girl from the Ghetto’s Chocolate & Vicodin by Jennette Fulda Book Giveaway here http://bit.ly/fBagts.” Make sure to leave a comment below with a link to your Facebook profile or with your Facebook name.

+1  ENTRY: Follow Jennette Fulda on Twitter. 

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter. Make sure to leave your @Twitter name in your comment.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following “RT @NerdGirlBlogger I entered the @simonschuster Chocolate & Vicodin by @jennettefulda book giveaway here http://bit.ly/fBagts.” You can tweet 4x a day (Once every 6 hours) for even more chances to win. Make sure to leave a link to your tweet in a comment below.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Subscribe to my blog via email or Feedburner. 

+1  ENTRY: Follow me on Goodreads.

+1  ENTRY: Follow Jennette Fulda on Goodreads.

+1  ENTRY: Add Chocolate & Vicodin to your to-read shelf on Goodreads.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Comment here and tell me why you need to win this giveaway! Do you enjoy reading memoirs? Are you a survivor of a chronic pain or suffer from terrible headaches? Do you enjoy reading in general, or, do you just love winning free stuff?

+5 MORE ENTRIES: Write about this giveaway on your own blog. Make sure to post a link to this giveaway and leave me 5 copies of your link via comment here.    

Contest ends Saturday, March 12, 2011 at midnight. Good luck to you all!