The "A Book You Won't Want To Put Down" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just finished reading a book that I wasn't sure I cared to read when I first picked it up and read the first few pages of the book.  The title of the book was "That Time I Got Cancer" and was written by Jim Zervanos.  I read a few pages and....well, I had a hard time putting the book down.  Jim was a friend of my oldest son, Derek.  They both graduated from Manheim Townsihp High School in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Jim was a year or two ahead of my son, but they both played on the high school baseball team together.  I knew Jim as a student at the high school, since I taught Industial Arts at the same school where both he and my son were students.  Someone suggested I read Jim's book so I borrowed it from the library where I live at Woodcrest Villa in Lancaster, PA.  After reading a few pages I was tempted to put the book back on the table where my wife had placed it for me...but, the more I read, the more I had to

read.  The book was interesting, informative, fun to read but scary!  Jim had a line on the cover that read "A Love Story."  I'm not sure I would agree with that part, but it did require quite a bit of love had I been one of the people within the story in the book.  On the rear cover of the book were two paragraphs that I am adding to this story, since it tells just about the entire gist of the book.  So, follow along....

One minute Jim Zervanos was carrying his one-year-old boy to a baseball game; the next, he was in the ER, where for days he lay in limbo, being strangled from the inside.  Teams of the best doctors were stumped by his worsening condition, before telling him there was nothing they could do.  

That Time I Got Cancer: A Love Story is about experiencing joy even in desperate times.  It's about the relationships that anchor us, even as they must be entirely redefined.  At forty-one, married, with a young son, Jim said goodbye to his family.  When a brilliant new surgeon performed a radical operation, Jim was diagnosed with lymphoma, which led to chemotherapy and an uncertain road to recovery.  Five years would pass before Jim began to understand what he had endured.  Through mortality and back to life, this is the inspiring journey of a man awakened to the full experience of being alive, and being present for it all.  

After Jim gradated from Manheim Township High School, I didn't continue to keep up with him.  When I first saw this book in the library at Woodcrest, I just had to read a few pages and check out the couple of photographs before I realized it was the same Jim Zervanos that I knew.  I know....how many other people with a name like that could there be?  Anyway...I had to read the entire book before beginning any other chore.  This was one scary book and made me think that something like this could happen to me or one of my relatives at any time...and at any age!  Jim is such a good author that it makes reading a book written by him more exciting, yet scary.  The following paragraph was placed inside the cover.  It was written by one of Jim's doctors.  I will finish my story today with the paragraph that was in Jim's book.  If you get a chance to read the book, don't miss it.  It's only about 200 pages long, but easy reading....and you won't want to put it down.   I guess I should tell you that he survived his ordeal, thus the story that he wrote to tell about how he survived cancer.

Jim Zervanos

Zervanos has managed to capture the very difficult decisions doctors face every day, as well as the importance of patient involvement in decision-making.  I have used his case in teaching generations of residents the value of restraint in treatment, of recognizing the crucial difference between what we can do and what we should do.  Moreover, Zervanos conveys how illness affects both the patient and the entire family.  As physicians, we often fail to appreciate this impact, as does anyone who has not been through the illness of a family member.  As I read his story, I felt his pain as well as his family's pain, and I felt the relief and rejuvenation of his recovery and growth.   Scott Trerotola, MD, Associate Chair and Chief, Interventional Radiology, Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Information taken from "That Time I Got Cancer" - A LOVE STORY by Jim Zervanos.

It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.