Friday, January 11, 2008

Terrible and random

My friend said she woke up one morning and half her body was numb. A month and a half of medical examinations followed. Then the doctors told her she has MS, although it's unclear yet how severe the disease will be. It might end up having relatively little impact, if she's lucky. Meanwhile they wait--she and her husband and her 4- and one-year-old boys--to find out the prognosis.

So terrible and so random. Multiple sclerosis is apparently extremely rare. She was just unlucky. What she needs now is a cosmic reversal, for the luck to flow back her way again so that she will have many many more years of chasing down those two little boys.

Such a thing is clarifying in so many ways. I've been considering my great good fortune anyway, lately, but hearing this kind of news from a good friend makes you so sad and, at the same time, so grateful for your own blessings.

Dear God, I think, I have had this and this and this. I got to study here and live here. I watched "His Girl Friday" in a freshman journalism class in college and said, holy Jesus, I want to do that! And I did it, at least for a while. It wasn't the New York Times, but still. I wanted to do it and I did it. I went on my honeymoon here (and here). My luck is overflowing--I'm hoping I can send some my friend's way.

2 comments:

Misty said...

wow... It's more common than we think. I have a friend who was diagnosed with it this year, along with my sister she makes my 6th friend.

Fraulein said...

That's awful -- I hope your friends and sister are doing OK. It's amazing how much some people have to deal with.