Dennis Boen / Elsa Boen / Jean Boen
Librería Samer Atenea
Kálamo Books
Librería Elías (Asturias)
Librería Kolima (Madrid)
Librería Proteo (Málaga)
Shortly after Dennis Boen married his wife Elsa, a routine life insurancephysical revealed devastating news: he had one kidney and it was not fullyfunctional. Suddenly Dennis and Elsa faced the unthinkable: a chronicillness, crushing medical costs, and the potential of Dennis’ early demise.What followed was a forty-four-year medical journey neither could haveimagined, involving three kidney transplants, multiple complex surgeries,countless hospitalizations, and ultimately cancer.The story is told through three distinct voices: Dennis as patient whorefused to be victimized, Elsa as a dedicated caregiver and organ donor,and their daughter Jean who grew up with her young life shaped by herfather’s illness.This memoir is a brutally honest account of fear, exhaustion, resentment,determination, and fierce love that endured through their decades ofcrisis. During every season, weathering the roller coaster of treatments,procedures, and waiting (almost always waiting), Dennis and Elsa choseto advocate for health while finding ways to fill their days with joy andlove. They also came to appreciate the professional medical care providedby their dedicated and skilled practitioners, nurses and other professionalcaregivers.This is a book for patients seeking hope, for their caregivers, for familiesnavigating years or decades of chronic illness, for caring friends whowillingly share the burdens of tragedy, and for all the dedicated professionalswho practice skilled medicine.
