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An interesting thing happened at my son’s last hospital appointment. It’s important to know that my eight-year-old isn’t like all eight-year olds; he’s been in and out of hospital since he was born and by speaking with him, you would know quickly that its an environment that he feels comfortable in. But this last appointment […]
This week, with it being back to school, I have found myself talking to several patients and parent caregivers of individuals with chronic disease about this transition. With each new school year, you can hear the excitement buzzing around on the school yard or on social media of all the kids heading back, excited to […]
The term undifferentiated means : not divided or able to be divided into different elements, types, etc. My 7-year-old little boy has an undifferentiated autoinflammatory disease, he has Crohn’s, interstitial lung disease, has had macrophage activation syndrome, and what looks like systemic JIA. He is currently on treatment and is functioning very well but his […]
The other day at the dinner table Daniel thought it would be fun to count the number of doctors that follow him. As we went through the list of clinics and the doctors between two hospitals and other clinics, we calculated somewhere between 12-17 doctors that are apart of the ‘conversation’ of his disease. This […]
I think the memory of the moment you become a parent is one that sticks with us forever. No matter who you are, the birth of your child is one that changes you. I remember Daniel’s birth so vividly: it wasn’t peaceful or serene—it was hard and terrifying. Oddly, before we entered into this crazy […]
I’ve often heard it said, “chronic disease affects the whole family,” and I agree that this is true. Each family member plays a role in how we support our child with a rare autoinflammatory disease. But what about young siblings? I remember vividly the moment we found out we were pregnant again with our second […]
X- MEN When Daniel was a little boy, he used to describe his illness as his fireball. If anyone asked why, he would tell them that it felt like burning inside his body. This description birthed a story that helped him to embrace his body’s uniqueness, and has since developed in him an amazing fascination […]
I remember one of our first appointments back to hospital after a number months: sitting in a room, waiting to speak to my son’s doctor and glancing over notes on my phone as I frantically texted my husband to confirm what a number of words meant. Words like eosinophil, ferritin, macrophages and IL inhibitors. I […]
Why do I advocate? This is a question that I have to keep coming back to. The definition of the word advocate is “a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy.” I have had people tell me that the word advocate is not a commonly used word and isn’t something that […]
For anyone who has experienced the trauma of a natural disaster, I can imagine that the moment when it’s over and you look up at your world in shambles is a lot like how we felt after our child’s first hospital admission. I remember our trip to Sick Kids hospital with our son like it […]