This short book has “mysteries of the universe” written all over it.

Earlier this month I escaped for a few days to write a book called Let Patients Help. For whatever reason, this one came out instead: an updated edition of the “Facing Death” chapter from my previous book, with a new prolog to make it a standalone booklet. It wasn’t what I’d planned to write, yet when I finished, I had a sense of peace and completion – like I had completed what I actually needed to do, whether I knew it or not.

Through Amazon’s automated self-publishing tools, it’s already complete, proofed, and ready to ship. The book’s web page, with links to order it in paper or on Kindle, is ePatientDave.com/FacingDeath.

The message is what I saw in my own crisis. The title says hope, but it doesn’t say hope will cure anything; it won’t. Yet there is hope – Jerome Groopman MD’s book Anatomy of Hope says “There is an authentic biology of hope.”

Whatever your path – wherever you are on this journey – I hope my experience will help. And whatever your outcome, this booklet’s about being awake to life while we have it.