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The seriousness that changed my life was a doctor appointment for my sixteen month old daughter. She was vomiting and had diahrrea. When the doc felt her abdomen and ordered a blood sample and cat scan I started freaking. Two days later she was diagnosed with a childhood cancer - stage 4 neuroblastoma and given a 20% chance to live. (primary tumor started in left kidney, cancer spread to lymph nodes, spine and skull bones.) After two surgeries, chemo and an autologous (no donor involvement)bone marrow transplant, she became an angel at the age of 2 1/2.
When someone asks how my day is (on a bad one), I always reply "I've had worse." Thinking of her with her diaper area too blistered from radiation to wear a diaper and her spitting out blood and tissue for a week from radiation burns inside makes any problems seem petty. But.....also I have to admit that at my lowest times during that 13 months, I did meet people who actually were worse off than I. There are worse things in life than dying.
And - it always makes me feel good - feel better about the people in this world - when I read about the parents in this forum who have disabled kids and the tremendous jobs they are doing helping the kids lead happy productive lives. They are my heros! They don't complain, they're always positive instead of negative. I know they have to get tired, but they don't let that hold them up from the demanding job they have been chosen to do. I always think of the poem about planning a trip to Paris and ending up in Holland instead........
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