Shrinkage by Bryan Bishop - Book review

Shrinkage: Manhood, Marriage and the Tumor That Tried to Kill Me

I became a fan of Adam Carolla and his podcasts through his very funny books (In Fifty Years We will all be Chicks) a few years ago.  If you are new to podcasts they are like little radio shows that have been recorded and uploaded to iTunes or you can usually get them from their websites.  I download and put them on my iPhone to listen while I exercise or drive time.  They make my day go faster with a little humor or my sports or flying podcasts.

What does this have to do with this book?  The author, Bryan Bishop, is a sidekick on the Carolla podcast.  He is in charge of funny and timely sound effects.  He pipes in with comments from time to time and also gives movie reviews that I usually agree with.  On the show he is known as Bald Bryan as he lost his hair as a teenager.  He is a funny and likable guy.  He also has a brain tumor.

As he turned 30 his life was taking off.  Work was going well and mostly he has found the love of his life in Christy.  He knew right away she was the one.  Not long after they are engaged he starts noticing little things going wrong.  Body parts going numb, vision getting worse, ect.   Thinking it was no big deal they go to the doctor who tells him he has a brain tumor and six months to live.  What a shock of course.  Luckily they get another opinion with a specialist who gives them far more hope and the fight begins.

The crazy part of this book is it's full of laughs as well as tears.  Bryan is a great writer and tells the story in a I am so glad to be alive way rather than why did I have to go through all this.  He digs deep and tells things that I'm sure were hard to part with.  I laughed alot.  He talks of wishing he had danced with a secret admirer when he was 13.  It was a period of his life when he was not used to getting attention from females.  That period he describes as "from now until birth".  When he tells of a super hot nurse that has to give him a shower with his wife in the room and Christy gives him a look like this is the closest you will ever come to a three way.

He talks of his wedding and honeymoon as his symptoms are getting worse.  His dread of attending his brothers wedding and fear of ruining the special occasion for him.  The embarrassment of having his dad dress him for his brothers wedding. (Well I made it 28 years without you having to dress me!).

His wife Christy is a saint.  She had become unemployed and took great care of her fiancé and then husband all the time while knowing his time could clearly be very limited.  There is a crazy story where she loses the diamond out of her engagement ring at the hospital for one of Bryans treatments and their frantic search for it.  This was not just a shiny stone to them.  It was a piece of Bryan that could be the last thing she would have from him.  Made my eyes water as high paid doctors stopped what they were doing and went on a mission to find the stone.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.  Especially if you have gone through any type of cancer scare or lost someone to the dreaded disease.  This book has a happy ending as he has made it five years and is now doing great.  I enjoyed it alot.