WHAT ARE YOU GETTING YOURSELF INTO?

Incompatible With Life: A Memoir of Grave Illness, Great Love, and Survival is the true story of my rapid descent from good health to near death and the damn-near impossible struggle to stay alive that followed. It is, in that perspective, a straightforward medical memoir, fitting comfortably on the bookshelf between Susannah Cahalan’s Brain on Fire and the stunning self-elegy When Breath Becomes Air by Dr. Paul Kalanithi.

So, if that’s your bag, you’ll love this real-life medical mystery and adventure story.

The book begins with the unexpected, simultaneous failure of my heart, liver, and pancreas at 48 years old. That crisis arose from an undiagnosed genetic condition called Hereditary Hemochromatosis, an iron-processing disorder caused by a few molecules of protein-coding buried deeply in my DNA. Due to Hemochromatosis, my body lacks the ability to eliminate dietary iron, which, over a lifetime, had been slowly toxifying my organs and glandular system. What I interpreted as the standard softening of middle age was actually a Class V hurricane brewing inside my cells. When it finally hit, I was thrown, overnight, into a struggle for survival so desperate there will be chapters in which you’ll be certain the end had arrived.

But Incompatible With Life is more than that, too.

Along with the medical journey rides a story of profound spiritual growth, transformation, and burgeoning awareness of life’s deeper purpose. Regular readers of near-death narratives, however, should be forewarned: There are no Pearly Gates in these pages. There is no Jesus to welcome me home, no Buddha, nor Mohammed appearing as guides to some promised land beyond our veil of tears. I’ve never believed in God, and there is neither heaven nor hell in my philosophy. Coming so close to death that I could feel its soft, seductive, restful pull only strengthened those convictions. This is the only life we have, and yet, inside its finite hours and days lies both mystery and miracle enough for any wandering soul. While I saw no sign of an afterlife, I did experience a revelation of sorts as it pertains to the meaning, purpose, and even the origin of life itself.

While there is no religion in these pages, the book is packed to the brim with all the constituent aspects of human aspiration toward the light. There is music, art, literature, philosophy, love, trauma, fear, and relentless joy in the face of overwhelming odds. There are truths that appear in flashes and visions of quiet rumination. There is the darkness of a suicide attempt and the fortune of sudden salvation. There are daring and risky medical procedures and the acceptance of having reached the inevitable, inescapable end.

Incompatible With Life: A Memoir of Grave Illness, Great Love, and Survival is, in many ways, a very old story. The reader descends with the narrator into a darkness so black that self-confrontation is all that remains. The great questions loom while the clock ticks off its final hours, begging the question:

Does any of this make sense?

My experience tells me that it does, and I’d love to share that journey with you all. You can help make that happen by reading the introduction and letting me know what you think in the comments section before you go.