About the book After being diagnosed with end stage liver cirrhosis, and faced with the bitter truth of such terminal illness--about a year to live only-- Eladio Elizondo embarked on a furious mission to save his life. In this book, he particularly emphasizes on the monumental efforts required from anyone who has been thrown into the abyss of a fatal disease, and he celebrates how each one of these efforts can help a person overcome a terminal diagnosis. This book is more than a diary. In addition to being a testimony of what happened, it is mainly a retrospective on how the disease affected several of the author's intrinsic facets. -Physiological facet: From being a healthy, strong man, to becoming the morbid, skeletal shadow of a dying man, with massive abdominal ascites, severe portal hypertension, and traumatic encephalopathy. -Psychological facet: From the understandable, yet exhausting distress and denial of being revealed a terminal disease, to the disturbing, terrifying phobias of an uncontrolled mind. From unbearably painful, anxious and restless nights in Florida, to comatose, delirious, and excruciating days in a hospital in Costa Rica. -Philosophical facet: From asking what pain is, to understanding it and learning from it. From asking what victory is and requires, to becoming victorious. From asking what action is, to surviving a secure death. This book is also a manual which lessons are carefully engraved, so that readers can use them, so that they can adapt them to their particular situation, and adapt their particular situation to them.
About the Author: About the authors Eladio Elizondo Eladio Elizondo is a liver recipient survivor. After being diagnosed with liver cirrhosis at 34, doctors gave him about a year to live. Challenging the outcome of the diagnosis and the disease itself, Eladio lived each day focused on finding a cure, which finally materialized as a full liver transplantation. After working as a music writer, composer, and singer for many years; and after he recovered, Eladio graduated from the University of Miami with a major in philosophy and a minor in chemistry. He is now working on writing and producing his own self-help work, directed to anyone who is facing illness, and especially to anyone who is dealing with a deadly disease. Benedicte Muratet After growing up in Africa with her French parents, Benedicte returned to France and studied Tourism, Arts, and Languages. She met her husband Eladio in Spain; they have four children. When Eladio fell ill with end stage liver cirrhosis, she became his primary care giver and stood by him all along the path of his disease, liver transplantation, and recovery. She remains, to this day, fully involved in her husband's post transplantation care.