This is the story of how a horrific life threatening illness was beaten by a chain of events and decisions made years prior to the terrible event.

Here are two excerpts from the book:

( 1 )

"I’ll never forget the dreams. Scratch that: I’ll never forget the nightmares. I was caught in a bewildering state of never-ending terror that I thought would never end – I was doomed to this repetitive existence in limbo.

Every time I entered a new nightmare it was the same premise and result – abject failure. What I mean is, I kept finding myself in strange situations in my dreams where I could not succeed or conquer what was in front of me - I was set-up to fail inside my head every time. For whatever reason I could not break the spell and trick my brain into having a dream rather than a nightmare. I was convinced that this would be my fate – for the rest of my life. How can someone exist in this crazy state of limbo and manage to live their life?

Then everything changed.

My eyes began to slowly open and I was introduced back into the real world. The nightmares were gone! When I awoke, I found myself in a hospital bed surrounded by my family, they were all staring at me with a look that I can only describe as relief. I started to survey the scene in front of me from left to right. My ex-wife was at my left followed by my daughter Evelyn, then my dad, my brother in law, my sister and my step-mother."

( 2 )

The closer I got to full recovery the more I had to reconcile that I was still me – I had to deal with many of the same fears and insecurities that I had before all this stuff happened. I also thought that I could use this near-death experience as some sort of equalizer with everyone. I wouldn’t have to work as hard for things in life anymore because people would feel sorry for me or I could just use this as a crutch for the rest of my life and damnit life would go exactly the way I wanted from here on out. I say this like it’s a bad thing – it’s the human condition. Life is never done – I was thinking (and hoping) that the fears of my life would be gone and the reason that happened was because I almost died. That was right and just, wasn’t it? It was owed to me by someone, something.

Well, life’s a bitch and you have to work on it 24-7-365. I have definitely become more humble and gracious because that is what I want to do – I owe that to myself. At this point I feel best when I am around other people who talk about or do good things. Make no mistake about it, I am blessed to be alive and given a second chance.