The Conditiontells the story of the McKotches, a proper New England family that comes apart during one fateful summer. The year is 1976, and the family, Frank McKotch, an eminent scientist; his pedigreed wife, Paulette; and their three beautiful children has embarked on its annual vacation at the Captain's House, the grand old family retreat on Cape Cod. One day on the beach, Frank is struck by an image he cannot forget: his thirteen-year-old daughter, Gwen, strangely infantile in her child-sized bikini, standing a full head shorter than her younger cousin Charlotte. At that moment he knows a truth that he can never again unknown something is terribly wrong with his only daughter. The McKotch family will never be the same.

Twenty years after Gwen's diagnosis with Turner's syndrome, a genetic condition that has prevented her from maturing, trapping her forever in the body of a child, all five family members are still dealing with the fallout. Each believes himself crippled by some secret pathology; each feels responsible for the family's demise. Frank and Paulette are acrimoniously divorced. Billy, the eldest son, is dutiful but distant, a handsome Manhattan cardiologist with a life built on compromise. His brother, Scott, awakens from a pot-addled adolescence to a soul-killing job, a regrettable marriage, and a vinyl-sided tract house in the suburbs. And Gwen is silent and emotionally aloof, a bright, accomplished woman who spurns any interaction with those around her. She makes peace with the hermetic life she's constructed until, well into her thirties, she falls in love for the first time. And suddenly, once again, the family's world is tilted on its axis.

Compassionate yet unflinchingly honest, witty and almost painfully astute,The Conditionexplores the power of family mythologies, the self-delusions, denials, and inescapable truths that forever bind fathers and mothers and siblings.

• Enrichment boxes show how information relating to a disease or system applies to everyday life.
• ICD-9-CM codes are included for each disease entry, offering practice in looking up codes in an ICD-9-CM reference.
• Current medical information on the most commonly encountered clinical disorders is condensed and simplified for easier application.
• Full-color illustrations reinforce the text and clarify key information.
• A consistent format for disease entries follows the real-life progression of a patient's care and treatment, with this format:.
• Description
• Symptoms and Signs
• Patient Screening (Unique!)
• Etiology
  
• Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Prognosis
• Prevention
• Patient Teaching.
• Appendix on pharmacology includes a chart format in which commonly prescribed drugs are listed by group and includes the drug name, intended therapeutic objective, side effects, and general comments.
• Alerts provide safety precautions and advice for dealing with the common diseases presented in a physician's office.
• Review challenges reinforce content and help students see where they may need additional study.
• Real-life challenges provide actual cases with questions, relating chapter content to a real-world case.

• Orderly Function A&P reviews of specific body systems now include clearer descriptions and more illustrations, helping students compare systems in normal and disease states.
• Coverage of Avian Flu describes how diseases emerge from the animal to the human world, and prepares medical assistants for the potential dangers of this disease.
• Key Terms include pronunciations and are broken down into prefixes, roots and suffixes.