Doug was seriously ill.  After battling a terrible flu virus that took almost a month to get over, he then came down with pneumonia.  With a course of antibiotics, he thought that he was recovered.  But he just didn't feel 100%.  He was tired all the time, and going to work was almost impossible.  He notices that he was still short ob breath and thought that it was due to the pneumonia.  But after 4 weeks it wasn't getting better.  Finally, on a Sunday morning, he couldn't breathe and felt like he was going to pass out.

At the hospital they fave him the news.  His heart was enlarged and in failure. This was a devastating diagnosis, but there was some hope.  The hope was that the flu virus or arrhythmias were what caused the damage to his heart.  The arrhythmias that he had been experiencing were likely preventing the heart from recovering from the damage.  The cardiologist told him that if the damage was caused by the virus or arrhythmias, the heart could repair itself. But only if they could get it back to a normal rhythm.  After two shock treatments, the heart would stay in rhythm for a few days, and then returned to Artial Fibrillation (A-Fib).

So he was referred to Dr. Wu, an Electro Physiologist or EP.  Normally, Dr. Wu would not have attempted an ablation on a patient in heart failure.  But fortunately, Dr. Wu saw that Doug was a good candidate for ablation.  After some small problems were corrected, Dougl was ablated and on the road to recovery.

While on some very strong and toxic anti-arrhythmic medications, one small 'benefit' seemed to be that suddenly, Doug began to see faces staring at him in his shower.  

He thought: "Am I going crazy> Am I Mad? Is this dementia or was I hallucinating?  Is this soem king of flashback to the 60's?"

After a while, he started looking forward to the hot, soothing showers and the opportunity to search for the faces, with a chance to relax and escape.  Finally, he decided to attempt to write a book that appealed to the reader's imagination and possibly offered a time to forget all your troubles while enjoying using your mind in a different way.

Working on this book became Doug's therapy for relaxing, and keeping his mind active.  After all, you can only watch so many "Perry Masons" in a day.  He would mark the faces on the tiles when he took his showers then after about 40-50 tiles were marked, he would take his camera into the shower and take photos.  These were then downloaded onto his computer and he would highlight the lines that make up the faces.

Five months after his ablation, the doctor informed him that the heart had recovered normal function, no longer being enlarged or in failure.  Doug was much relieved as well as excited. Through this entire health crisis, he had produced an interesting book that appeals to the reader's imagination.  The relaxation that it brings may help others throught similiar times of crisis.