Now Comes the Hard Part

Jim contracted Hepatitis C through a blood transfusion after being wounded in Vietnam; forty years later, the virus began taking him down. Now Comes the Hard Part reveals the stress, grief, and guilt his wife experienced as she watched cirrhosis and liver cancer rob her husband of his vitality. This memoir enlightens readers whose loved ones currently carry a Hepatitis C diagnosis, who ask questions never fully answered by medical professionals: “What happens next?” “What does this mean?” and “How long does he have?"

Jim contracted Hepatitis C through a blood transfusion after being wounded in Vietnam; forty years later, the virus began taking him down. Now Comes the Hard Part reveals the stress, grief, and guilt his wife experienced as she watched cirrhosis and liver cancer rob her husband of his vitality. This memoir enlightens readers whose loved ones currently carry a Hepatitis C diagnosis, who ask questions never fully answered by medical professionals: “What happens next?” “What does this mean?” and “How long does he have?" Now Comes the Hard part is written from the perspective of Jim's wife, Sherry, and examines not only the progression of Jim's liver disease but also the stress and strain she endured as the “well” spouse. Her admissions of frailty and fault are frank and sometimes repugnant but always honest. The story traces the devastation that liver disease delivers on Jim's health and the challenges it poses to the couple's finances and marriage. At the same time, Sherry's reflections offer inspiration and clarity to readers who face their own journey through Hepatitis C and the resulting complications that comprise liver disease. The book is intended to help patients and families understand the consequences of delaying treatment. Now Comes the Hard Part also supports families whose previous Interferon treatment failed to clear the virus, and who are finding it difficult to make the sacrifices needed to see the patient through the illness.

Sheryl Isaacson McGough lives in West Des Moines, Iowa, and teaches at Iowa State University in Ames. A Senior Lecturer in the Department of English since 1998, she teaches composition and rhetoric, technical communication, and professional communication courses. Previously, she sold a short story to Ladies’ Home Journal (unpublished), and she has published three articles in Meredith Corporation’s Living the Country Life (2006 -2012). Sheryl was married to the central character of her memoir, Now Comes the Hard Part, her husband, Jim, for over 41 years.