When Steve Williams' kidneys quit working in September 2007, he and his wife Dr. Linda Gromko were presented with two choices: a kidney transplant or kidney dialysis (the kidney machine). There was, of course, the option of no treatment - but that would mean certain death for this husband and father of a teenaged daughter. Steve and Linda eagerly embraced the technology of Home Dialysis - treatments that could be done on their own time and on their own terms. But nothing could have prepared them for the onslaught of medical supplies that descended upon their home, making it seem more like a medical clinic or an ICU Home Dialysis - while life saving - was taking over, consuming their lives and redefining their family as one tethered to illness. That's where Interior Designer Jane McClure saved the day. Arraning Your Life When Dialysis Comes Home: "The Underwear Factor" shows you how to: * Create your Home Center for Dialysis * Design a space that is comfortable, easy to use * Manage the storage of necessary medical supplies * Use the Interior Designers' tricks of the trade * Save money through sure-fire choices * Learn where professional decorators shop for less * Support the caregiver & prevent burnout * Reclaim as much of your "normal" life as you can (Note: this book applies to both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.)

An implausible inheritance from a former patient prompts a Seattle doctor to reshuffle her life priorities and seek a life partner once and for all. Browsing on the Internet, she finds her match in Steve. Steve brings joy, but also complications into the doctor's life. For one, there is nine-year-old Brita who declares "I hate every centimeter of you!" More seriously, there is the complication of Steve's failing health. Steve falls precipitously into the abyss of kidney failure, requiring urgent dialysis. "Complications" takes the reader on a tumultuous course of medical and personal trials as Dr. Gromko exerts the most powerful advocacy of her life.

Let Me Go When the Banter Stops tells the true love story of Seattle physician, Dr. Linda Gromko, who finds herself in a midlife romance, only to discover that her future holds joyful new beginnings, but also the pain and heartache of letting go. Dovetailing with her earlier memoir, Complications: A Doctor's Love Story, Dr. Gromko's new book revisits the early days and challenges of her burgeoning relationship with her future husband, Steve Williams, a self-made business executive and consummate networker living comfortably with his feisty nine-year-old daughter, Brita. As Complications chronicled, their obstacles included a whirlwind of family dynamics, the relative remoteness of Bainbridge Island to Seattle, and, most significantly, Steve's failing health due to adult onset diabetes, high blood pressure, and the attendant reality of end stage kidney failure. The ensuing story-painful at times, but always heartfelt and grounded in humor-takes unimaginable turns of good fortune, beleaguered frustration, and resilient perseverance, revealing the contemporary medical profession at its best and worst. Written from both a doctor's professional perspective and a caregiver's personal point of view, Let Me Go When the Banter Stops presents a firsthand testament to overcoming adversity and meeting new challenges. In the tumultuous course of Steve's medical issues and the family's personal trials, they face kidney dialysis and organ transplant, cardiac complications and setbacks, and surgery after surgery. As the story unfolds, Steve's treatment ultimately takes Linda back to the same university medical center where she trained as a nurse and as a physician, teaching her more than she ever thought she would need to know about kidney disease and its management. She also gains insight into the different "types" of health care providers - providing her a greater understanding of her own struggles with the health care system. Throughout its pages, Let Me Go When the Banter Stops remains at its heart the story of a scrappy little family making its way through medical uncertainties and life's unforeseen turns. This poignant memoir plumbs the depths of sadness and grief, yet ultimately resonates triumphant, as Dr. Gromko and her new daughter Brita discover a shared courage to prevail after a devastating loss. Let Me Go When the Banter Stops is a powerful story of the unthinkable realities of disease and the unfathomable capacity of human endurance, bearing witness to the sustaining lessons that love reveals in the most unexpected of ways.