The Singing Patient (Carla): Press

"I dropped Carla on her head when she was a baby."

"It’s an experience that almost everyone has had. But Carla Ulbrich might the first person to write a song about it.

Her song “Sittin’ in the Waiting Room” is about the frustration of doing just that...

Embracing the humor of her illnesses didn’t just help her cope, Ulbrich writes in the book. It helped her survive..."

read more: http://tinyurl.com/4av7nch

Demand, and receive, the very best care

By Mildred L. Culp
Passage Media
« Live Well - Magazine

You’re just back from a doctor’s appointment for yourself, your child or an older relative. The doctor was late, and no one apologized.

If this scenario recurs, become a professional patient.

(click link to read the article)

"Becoming a professional patient is essential if you have a health condition that impacts your ability to work.

Carla Ulbrich, the singing patient at Romantic Devil Records Inc., in Somerset, N.J., incorporates this concept by applying project management and relationship skills to her recovery from lupus, an autoimmune disease. These principles ring out in her songs and lively book, “How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?” (TellMe, $14.95)."

Read more:
http://tinyurl.com/3eudpm3

"Singer-songwriter and author Carla Ulbrich got sick at age 24. First she lost her job. Then she lost her hair. She then lost kidney function and had a stroke. She nearly lost her life. At some point during her recovery, she also lost her sense of humor.

“It was devastating. It took over two years to be diagnosed,” she explained during a recent performance at a Middletown support group for family and friends of people with multiple sclerosis. “My friends broke my spell of sadness,” she said, “and I began writing ridiculous, silly songs about being sick.”"

read more: http://middletown-ct.patch.com/articles/support-group-appreciates-sick-humor

"Inside the covers, I found a brilliant writer who maintained an earthy sense of humor about even the grimmest aspects of her health struggles. "

3-page feature story on Carla: her songs, her book, her career.

In this segment from Oct. 7, 2011, Carla discusses her book, humor, health, illness, wellness, and does 3 song snippets. http://tinyurl.com/44tevbq

"I find myself wishing I’d read Carla Ulbrich’s medical memoir several years ago when I began dealing with a complex of health issues. In How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? Carla, also known as The Singing Patient, outlines realistic coping strategies and supportive advice along with anecdotes of how she deals with several autoimmune diseases. Her unique approach is sincere and instructive...

Carla Ulbrich earned the right to tell her story, and this authority wrapped in friendly humor makes her medical memoir that most accessible one that I have ever read." read the entire review here:

"I find myself wishing I’d read Carla Ulbrich’s medical memoir several years ago when I began dealing with a complex of health issues. In How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? Carla, also known as The Singing Patient, outlines realistic coping strategies and supportive advice along with anecdotes of how she deals with several autoimmune diseases. Her unique approach is sincere and instructive...

Carla Ulbrich earned the right to tell her story, and this authority wrapped in friendly humor makes her medical memoir that most accessible one that I have ever read." read the entire review here:

http://www.hippocampusmagazine.com/2012/02/review-how-can-you-not-laugh-at-a-time-like-this-by-carla-ulbrich/

"Before I even begin to tell you why I loved this book, I want to take a minute to thank Carla Ulbrich for writing it!!!!  My mom is staying with me while she recovers, and we spent a lot of time this last week sitting together reading Carla’s book.  This book is about the only thing that made her really smile or laugh all week.  For that I am more grateful than you can imagine!!!!

So, first I must say that no matter what kind of illness or injury you or a loved one has, Carla’s book is bound to have something you can relate to.  Aside from entertaining, this book also provides TONS of useful information on navigating the medical system, diet, nutrition, and alternative therapies.

I can not recommend this book enough!!!  This book should be REQUIRED to be in the waiting room of every hospital and doctors office waiting room in America!!  If anyone you love or care about is fighting medical issues, this book would make the perfect gift!!!!"

read more: http://tinyurl.com/7a2xrfj

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?

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.

"These books earned the Lupus Foundation of America's Education Committee Seal of Approval."

...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)

“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.”

"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..."
read more: http://tinyurl.com/26pdbeo

"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

"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

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

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 who that was.

Every now and then I thank my lucky stars that I am beyond the age of jealousy. This is one of those times.

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!

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 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