Adjustment is easier if you, the patient, other family members, and the hospital personnel can talk openly about these changes as well as about the patient's treatment. We encourage you to share this booklet with your family. The burden of caring for the patient and keeping the family together is not yours alone - it is a joint effort requiring recognition of each other's feelings. Regardless of the outcome of this hospital stay, your life will be enriched. You will discover much about yourself - the strengths you never thought you had and the weaknesses too.
Life takes on a whole different meaning.
Your priorities change. This is a time when you will intimately know your loved one and share many things you may not have otherwise. In spite of the difficult times you may experience in the days to come, there will be much which is good that you will always remember. Acknowledgement The Aplastic Anemia Foundation of America is a nonprofit organization created to support research and clinical treatment of a serious and rare, but little understood, disease. We also assist families going through the experience of hospitalization through family outreach.