After the initial shock of being told that he needed open heart surgery, Ben's thoughts quickly turned to practical matters.
He was self-employed and lived by the "No show, no dough" principle. Not working could quickly have repercussions that he needed to plan for.
He wanted to be able to give people who would be affected some sort of an idea of what to expect while he recovered. And recover he would. He had no doubt about that. When you have an idea of what to expect, you can handle adversity a whole lot more effectively.
All he needed was to have general guidelines to three simple questions:
- What should he expect?
- What could he do to speed up a recovery?
- And how long was he really likely to be out of action for?
He expected standard answers to be readily available. The success rate was encouragingly high - way over ninety per cent - and it was performed hundreds of thousands of times a year around the globe. It would be bizarre if there wasn't a well-established set of standards by now. But there wasn't.
Or at least there wasn't one he could find, no matter how hard he looked. And the more he looked and asked for it, the more vague was the answer. "It's complicated. It depends."
"How To Recover From Open Heart Surgery" was written for the hundreds of thousands of people who will find themselves in a similar position this year. They need to know that they are not alone.
A novel based on true events, the story traces an absorbing journey of misguided expectations, frustration, joy, camaraderie and the emotional roller coaster as Ben sought to achieve a 'recovery' by HIS definition.
The material at the back of the book includes a page of suggested discussion points for Reading Groups
Feedback from readers and reviewers include heart-warming comments about how the story has helped to explain events affecting loved ones that they were 'protected' from when they were small children. "This will be immensely reassuring to anyone going through this experience."
"Enthralling.' I didn't want to put it down. Everyone knows somebody who has had similar fears."
"Hugely encouraging and enlightening."
"Great to highlight this, so other families will know what to expect."
"As 'a story' I was eager to find out what lay ahead in the journey; as 'an education' I was keen to get a better understanding to the whole experience, and having read it I feel like I would have so much more empathy / be more effective
My father died from a heart attack when I was just 11 and he was just 40. He had gone through open heart surgery twice and one of my lasting memories of him is somewhat bizarrely the huge zip scar on his chest that went from neck to waist line . Both my brother and I were kept at arms length from everything. It helps to fill a little gap and strangely brings me closer to the memory of my father. I am not sure if this make any sense to me never mind anyone else, other than it helped at a different level"
"My dad had a valve replace some 25 years ago. He wouldn't tell us why he needed it...so from early on the book was relevant to me too"
"I do believe it would be beneficial for someone facing the same ordeal but it also works as a great story."