Todd Krause suffers from the chronic illness of immunodeficiency.

“I don’t produce antibodies,” he said. “I basically get them from plasma donations.”

In addition, the Carmel resident uses two biologic medications infused every week.

Krause said people that are chronically ill are highly susceptible to becoming depressed.

“Because it’s 24/7, 365 days, it’s relentless,” Krause said. “It’s easy to get down, stop trying and give up. As a group, depression runs high among people like myself. What I didn’t see enough in other stories is offering a message of hope and possibility. Yes, you can still have a life. You can still accomplish dreams and goals. However, you may have to take a different path to get there.”

Thus, the Carmel resident wrote a book, “Life Ironies: My Life on the Road Less Traveled,” which was released earlier this year. It is about challenges and successes in his life.

“I have good days, but I never wake up and say, ‘I feel great,’” he said. “I’m always on the tired and fatigued side, some days are worse than others. Mine revolves around a lot of upper respiratory and breathing issues.”

Krause, 60, has dealt with the chronic illness and infections for years but wasn’t diagnosed with having primary immune deficiency until November 2016 and having autoimmune urticaria vasculitis in the fall of 2021.

Krause, who owns The Cleaning Authority franchise in Fishers, decided to write a book after winning The Cleaning Authority Franchise of the Year from the International Franchise Association.

“I didn’t even know I was nominated,” he said. “I thought ‘how did that happen?’ and I remembered a couple of instances that got their attention. In mid-2021, I made a comment that the entrances of our office looked like the United Nations with the flag for every country represented by the (our employees). We had 14 flags. They immediately said, ‘Send pictures.’”

So, Krause complied, and it ended up in a newsletter. Krause said officials later visited his office.

“I won it for the culture and diversity of the office,” Krause said.

After he flew out to San Diego in 2022 to receive the award, he decided that he had a story to tell.

Krause began writing about misadventures and things that happened in his youth. Some incidents involved accidents, he said, while others were a “result of risky behavior.”

“For example, I fell off the face of the south bluff at Devils Lake State Park in Wisconsin and landed in a tree rather in the boulder field at the base of the bluff,” he said.

Krause also survived a motorcycle accident, where he fell off in front of an approaching semi, and an auto accident where his car slid off the road on black ice. The crash ripped out 300 feet of a farmer’s fence.

The farmer said Krause could pay him for the fence or come back in the spring and rip out the rest of it.

“I went back the first warm Saturday in April and settled my debts with him,” said Krause, who grew up in southeast Wisconsin.

The book examines his life through purchasing the business and winning the award.

Krause, who has a CPA and MBA, said he got help with his book from a ghost writer through a process of interviews.

“I read a lot of books about people’s life and challenges,” he said. “I have a series of pictures on what it looks like to be chronically ill. People said they read the words but it wasn’t until ‘I looked at the pictures that now I get it.’”

Krause’s wife, Molly, died at age 57 in July 2021.

When attempting to donate her organs, doctors found what they believed was a large cancerous mass in her lungs that caused her heart to stop. Krause said his wife was a heavy smoker, who had a bad cough for years but refused to get medical treatment. The couple, who were married 35 years, adopted two Korean children.