Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. ~Oscar Wilde I have to confess that I’m not a huge fan of teenagers as a rule. It’s partly based on flashes of memories reminding me how utterly vile I could be at that
Yes it is devastating to hear the doctors tell you that your child has a syndrome, a disease, an illness, but, believe it or not, for some it comes as a relief after a long journey where not knowing has been far harder. A diagnosis, especially for parents who were unaware that there was a problem, can change a family’s hopes, expectations and goals in an instant. With a simple word, parents become part of a community of people who have had the same conversation with their child’s doctor. A diagnosis makes you have a connection, it gives you a reference point, a place to start. You get handed a name of a ‘thing’ to fight, hell if nothing else at least it gives you a neat summary to stick on the endless forms you have to fill in.
I must have walked past that answer phone machine countless times in the 4 or so hours it took me to pluck up the courage to return the school’s phone call. I never had to listen to the actual message as I was stood by the machine as it clicked into action and heard the patient voice at the end of the phone explain that they had received my email, thank you, and that they thought we should probably discuss it. Gulp. […]
We had another trip up to Great Ormond Street Hospital yesterday afternoon. It was a situation that proved the necessity of keeping a good working relationship with the doctors there, no matter what the history. Dominic’s knee had starting dislocating randomly just before we left the hospital. Obviously with everything else going on (see here
Home is where the heart is, or so the general consensus seems to be. In many ways I feel like I have come home now, everything has regained some kind of order, the cobwebs no longer have the larger share of the house and there has been a lot of culling of clothes and toys.