Our Transplant Journey: A Caregiver's Story

Our Transplant Journey: A Caregiver's Story is a deeply personal account of the highs, lows, challenges and triumphs resulting from organ transplantation, written from Ron Moore's perspective as a caregiver for his wife, Kathy. It traces their journey from diagnosis through transplant and recovery, describing the struggles, battles, and victories along the way, with a detailed daily narrative following their progress through the most difficult periods. Despite a generally positive experience with doctors and hospitals throughout, Ron and Kathy discovered valuable lessons over the course of their journey that they wish they had known at the outset. These 50 Lessons Learend are described int he book, some very simple, some very painful, and others potentially deadly. Some of the more general, yet crucial, lessons include understanding that: 1. Most doctors are very specialized and their diagnoses and orders can, at times, lack a "systems level", whole body perspective. 2. Contraindicated orders relative to other specialists' recommendations are not uncommon. 3. Doctors can be wrong a significant percentage fo the time. 4. Diagnostic tests can be wrong as well, and have statistical accuracy rates which must be considered. 5. Drug side-effects and interactions are a far bigger problem than most people, including doctors, realize. In sharing their experience, Ron and Kathy hope to provide support and practical advice for other transplant patients and their caregivers, as well as doctors and medical professionals, in an effort to help others achieve a more successful outcome in their transplant journey.