Re: Cheating Destiny (book excerpt)
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Posted by Sarah on 03:26:38 2006/07/12
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Re: Cheating Destiny (book excerpt) posted by Sarah
Thank you, Sarah. I do appreciate that.
One reason I tend to go on about the topic has to do with my own reaction to my son's diagnosis. I was horrified. I was in shock. It threw me into a serious depression.
I'd always rolled with the punches life threw at me, but this time was different. This was something I couldn't fix. This was forever. This meant an early death. This meant a life sentence of shots, finger pricks, doctors, and concern about paying for all of it. He was terribly brittle for a very long time and it scared me to death.
And this had happened to my little boy.
It took awhile, but eventually the optimism of others won out. People kept saying, "It's OK! It's not the end of the world!"
And I screamed back, "No, it's NOT OK!!"
Then it hit me: Of all the T1 diabetics I personally knew who were deceased; none of them had died from diabetes. Not one.
I came to the realization that I could not know when or how my son was going to die. I came to the belief that he did have this disease for a reason and that it was his disease and his lesson, not mine. He had something to figure out in this life that could only come to him through the patient, frustrating, scary, painful, mundane process of living with diabetes. (Just as I had much to learn from the patient, frustrating, scary, painful, mundane process of raising children!)
And so I found peace with most of it. (Not that I don't keep looking for anything that will help, treat, or cure him!) And when I finally got my own diagnosis it was much easier to accept.
Such is life. One way or another, we all have to find a way to cope. For me, I choose to believe that life is precious and should be fought for. I worked with the severely handicapped several years ago and I found that even the most feeble of us have much to offer. I found that suffering is the mother of compassion and that it brings out the true potential of humanity more than anything else.
I'd give my own life to get rid of his diabetes, but I wouldn't give up *him* for anything in the world.
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