This is not the worst thing...

It has been a rough week. 

One of our teenage nieces has been battling migraines and terrible fatigue for months, possibly due to her body attacking her thyroid.  It is not enough that she has had type 1 diabetes since she was 5 years old.  Another niece, the mother of a son about to celebrate his 1st birthday, fell and knocked out several teeth and broke the bones covering both sinus cavities.  She is facing months of painful surgeries, but lucky to be alive as the doctor said she could have suffered a brain stem injury.

I lost 5 patients to death this week.  A grandmother raising her grandchildren succumbed to malnutrition and small bowel failure as a result of gastric bypass surgery.  An elderly man whose daughter cared for him, shuttling his frail shell to and from radiation and chemotherapies, changing his diapers, and watching helplessly as the cancer ate away at his body despite our best efforts to feed him.  The husband of a woman who once told me she didn't mind caring for him as Parkinson's Disease robbed him of his dignity because he had provided so well for her for so many years.  A man who diligently spent 3 days of every week having his blood dialyzed after both of his kidneys failed him.  And , finally, a 32-year old woman, childlike in stature thanks to years of suffering the cruelties of muscular dystrophy.  Her death, especially, I didn't see coming, even though the past few weeks she had all the ominous signs.  Hindsight is 20/20.

I ended the day counseling a mother who spoke with an up-lifting, lilting voice, her husband, and their 16-year old son - one of their 3 children bravely manuevering through barely-normal lives as they cope with cystic fibrosis.  All 3 children!   A potentially-fatal disease...

Meniere's, while life-altering in so many ways, is not this.  There is hope.  Things change.  If there is one truth in life, it is that nothing stays the same.  With this disease, some times are better, some are worse.  But it is always changing.  And as long as we otherwise have our health, there is still hope.