Complications, with Linda Gromko

Dr. Gromko's true story begins with the unexpected and implausible inheritance she receives from a former patient. The windfall jolts her life, which is already out-of-balance with the demands of her profession. She reshuffles her life's priorities, deciding to finally address her long time desire to seek a life partner. 

Happily, she finds Steve, a businessman who is "gifted at banter, irreverently funny, and loyal as a beagle."  While Steve brings joy, he also brings unforeseen complications into the doctor's life. For one thing, Steve has full custody of nine-year-old daughter Brita, who greets the doctor with "I hate every centimeter of you—get used to it!"  Then, there is the more serious issue of Steve's health. Known to have diabetes and high blood pressure, Steve falls precipitously into the abyss of kidney failure. Without a kidney transplant or dialysis, Steve will die within one to two weeks.

Written from a doctor's perspective, the book takes the reader on a tumultuous course of medical and personal trials, as Dr. Gromko exerts the most powerful advocacy of her life.

Bainbridge Island Author Linda Gromko, MD is a practicing physician and the founder of Queen Anne Medical Associates.  While working in a number of women's clinics and serving as an Emergency Room physician, Dr. Gromko established this practice in 1989.  Now twenty years in existence, it is ne of a handful of independent family medical practices in Seattle