Dear Friends,
I have just completed "I Will Keep You Alive: A Cardiovascular Romance" by Bob and Adele Levin. It was a riveting, emotional and inspiring experience. It was not an easy read, at times, because the harrowing experiences that Bob and Adele endured brought up memories of my own experiences as a heart attack and bypass patient with complications, and because Adele's fears and struggles as Bob's wife of 40 years and caregiver mirrored my wife's experience with me when it was not clear to her whether I was going to survive. I expect that you will have the same experience when you read the book.
Notwithstanding the difficult emotions that the book evoked for me, I could not put it down. It is 164 pages long, but I read it in two days, really two sittings, even though I was busy at my full-time job on the days that I read the book. It is so well written that Bob, Adele and their doctors, including Dr. Fleur, Bob's cardiologist, come alive on the pages and become your friends, people that you care about. Although I know Bob somewhat through the Mended Hearts discussion board and some private email exchanges, I found myself wanting to know how everything turned in the end. It was as if I was reading a good novel, except that I really knew these people and that their experiences were all to real.
I cannot recommend this book too much. Do yourself a favor and purchase it. I understand that some of you may feel too close to your own heart struggles to read the story of Bob and Adele at this time, but the time will come when you may wish to read it. For others, this story will be inspirational right now and will reaffirm the conviction that we can overcome seemingly insurmountable odds in regaining and maybe developing, for the first time, the ability to lead full, fulfilling and happy lives regardless of our health issues..
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Ira Reid
Hoboken NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-29-2019 19:07
From: Robert Levin
Subject: New Book
I WILL KEEP YOU ALIVE: A CARDIOVASCULAR ROMANCE, by Bob and Adele Levin, is a jointly written account by my wife and I, about the eight months in which I had two heart attacks, received seven stents, was coded twice, spent two-and-a-half days in a medically induced coma, and had open heart surgery. (There was also some afib and, later, an ICD.) I write from the POV of the patient and my wife from that of the primary caregiver, and there is significant input from my cardiologist. The official publication date is April 1, when it will be available in local bookstores, on-line, and, signed, from us for those who send $20 (and a return address) to Spruce Hill Press, POB 9492, Berkeley, CA 94709.
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Bob] Levin
Berkeley CA
adelbob@comcast.netRobertRobert
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