27 March 2006

Denial

can be a good thing.

On Saturday, I went out to the mailbox and found an application for here sent to us by L's hematologist. At first, I thought how nice--camp for the whole family. Maine in July might be nice. Travel would be a pain (it's over a thousand miles away) and July is already going to be busy. It's also free for our whole family.

Then you remember why--it's the only camp for children and their families that is for children with life threatening diseases. I like to pretend that what L has isn't going to have an impact on his life. L is doing so much better than he was when he was three. It's perfectly normal to have a child who goes to a GI, a hem, and takes at least 10 pills every day. It's normal to have his older brother ask if we're going to have to take L in to the ER if L throws up even once. It's normal to have to knit a pair of socks for a small child every few weeks because he had YET another CBC and that's his bribe of choice.

Well, it is normal, for us. But I don't like to remember that this disease could have very serious consequences for him (and for the rest of the family). Mail like that just sort of reminds me that our normal is just different from most other families' normal.

We probably won't be able to go this year. M has Boys' Camp I the next week at the Domain, and the following week we'll be heading out for vacation. Maybe next year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, kid -- too much to bear when things seem to be handleable as they are. Let's just go to Pawley's and splash in the waves.

Kate said...

Pawleys is L's favorite place in the world. I'm ready!