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    A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To My Stress Test
    A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To My Stress Test
    A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To My Stress Test
    Ebook56 pages47 minutes

    A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To My Stress Test

    By Brian Gari

    ()

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    About this ebook

    In 1952 20th century entertainment icon Eddie Cantor survived his first heart attack.
    He coins the name cardiactor. Sixty years later, grandson Brian Gari undergoes a sudden open heart surgery and has a quadruple bypass. Little did Brian know at two and a half that his posing with his grandpa for the Heart Fund would end up being so prophetic.

    This is Brian's personal story of what you can expect (and not expect) when undergoing
    one of the most serious operations one can ever endure. It is filled with both humor
    and sadness when facing one of life's most challenging moments.

    About the Author

    This is Brian's second book. His first, WE BOMBED IN NEW LONDON: The Inside Story of the Broadway Musical Late Nite Comic, was published by BearManor Media in 2006
    and is available in paperback, eBook and an audio version.

    Brian Gari is a composer, lyricist, author, record producer and performer. He had a musical on Broadway called Late Nite Comic as well as songs recorded by everyone from Margaret Whiting to pop music legends, the Tokens & Lesley Gore. He has written the liner notes for a huge array of artists such as Neil Sedaka & the Beach Boys. He has recorded 12 solo albums and produced all the releases on Eddie Cantor.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBearManor Media
    Release dateAug 26, 2015
    ISBN9781310544774
    A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To My Stress Test

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      Book preview

      A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To My Stress Test - Brian Gari

      A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My Stress Test

      © 2012 Brian Gari. All Rights Reserved.

      For more info: briangari.com. Email: garisongs@aol.com

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopying or recording, except for the inclusion in a review, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      BearManorBear-EBook

      Published in the USA by:

      BearManor Media

      PO Box 1129

      Duncan, Oklahoma 73534-1129

      www.bearmanormedia.com

      ISBN 978-1-59393-257-2

      Photos by Jeanne Gari.

      Cover Design by Allan T. Duffin.

      eBook construction by Brian Pearce | Red Jacket Press.

      Table of Contents

      Acknowledgments

      1. History

      2. The Clues Are Mounting

      3. Angiogram

      4. Here it Comes

      5. The Deed

      6. In the Interim (Jeanne’s Chapter)

      7. Two Thumbs Up?

      8. Fall Risk In Springtime

      9. Ding Dong, Is Anyone Home?

      10. The Last Day

      11. Bye Bye, So Long, Farewell

      12. Home Is Where Your New Heart Is

      Acknowledgments

      Dedicated to Jeanne…who probably saved my life.

      Special thanks to my special editor…my mom.

      I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the real life cardiologist (Olivier Frankenberger), surgeons (especially Daniel Swistel), doctors (especially Stewart Greisman) and nurses who got me through this ordeal…you are the real heroes.

      To all my friends & Facebook followers who showed so much concern during this crazy time.

      And to my publisher, Ben Ohmart, whose belief in my writing continues to warm my heart (even the ‘fixed up’ one).

      1.

      History

      I turned 60 years old in February; I hardly expected any serious heart problems. I was about 167 pounds at a little over five foot 10. My diet wasn’t bad (very little red meat). I did, however, get diagnosed as diabetic a little more than a year before (but on the low end, requiring two pills a day). Yes, there was certainly heart disease in my family. Both my parents had bypass operations in their seventies. My mother had an actual heart attack and a triple bypass; on that day, I was called by the hospital and told to get right over. I will never forget my mother’s words to me as she was wheeled to the operating room on a gurney. In true show biz lingo she said If I don’t make it through this, it’s been nice being on the bill with you. How’s that to bring tears to your eyes? She made it through. In the recovery room, she displayed strange symptoms. She swore I had flown people in from California to her New York City hospital and was keeping them in another room down the hall. (The drugs had made her hallucinate. She came out of it a short time later.) Her recuperation was fairly easy, given that she had had a mastectomy decades earlier that numbed her chest in the area of the open heart surgery.

      My father, on the other hand, was a different story. He had had quadruple bypass and aorta valve replacement…one of the more complicated open heart surgeries. I can recall visiting him when he was right out of surgery and it was almost more frightening for me than for him. You see, when they bring you out of this operation, they have a tube shoved down your throat until they feel you can breathe successfully on your own. For him, it was a tube surrounded by cold air (oxygen?) and no way to communicate except with your eyes. I will never forget the absolute look of terror in his eyes wanting me or someone to remove this horrible thing in his throat that makes you feel as if you’re going to choke every second that it’s in. Eventually, it was removed. I knew it was horrible, but I hadn’t a real clue how truly frightening it was at the time.

      Both my grandfathers also had heart disease. My mother’s father had two heart attacks and my father’s father had had at least two.

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