My nephew does not like needles. Actually, “hate” is probably a better word. He hates needles. This is not ideal, given that he has hemophilia. Recently, I was helping him practice IV infusions on a makeshift “arm” I created. As we talked, I told him, “You need to own hemophilia.
My older son came to visit us for the first time since March 2020. Although we talk almost every day, there is nothing like seeing him in person. I didn’t realize how much my soul craved communion with him. We laughed and talked about how good it is to have…
Several things often happen when a woman becomes a mother. The switch of motherly intuition flips on, and many moms can make predictions without reason. (That “gut” instinct usually serves us well.) The overwhelming love for our newborn baby is a connection that ignites and lasts a lifetime. This…
A few years ago, I took one notebook from my stationery collection and wrote on its first page: “My Official Book of Mistakes.” In this notebook, I was supposed to write the mistakes I made in business so that I would work hard on not repeating them while moving forward.
Last Sunday, I preached a sermon about the Old Testament story of David slaying the giant Goliath. David was young and much shorter than the very tall Goliath. The odds were against David, yet through divine intervention, he did the unthinkable and took Goliath’s life with one stone. His…
I received an email from an old friend. She remembers when my youngest son, Caeleb, was in and out of the hospital. We both have experience raising a son with hemophilia and an inhibitor. Our paths are terribly similar, and seeing her name pop up in my email was…
I gaze at the glorious sunrise as I take off in my red RAV4. On this particular trip I plan to make my way down from my home in Northern California to Los Angeles. My daughter and I will most likely push through the 12+ hour drive in…
My dear husband, I won’t do everything for you. I may take on some of your physical responsibilities when your body says “no for now,” but I’ll leave you to do all the thinking and strategizing you can do for our family. You may have hemophilia and a seizure disorder,…
In past columns, I wrote about the benefits of creating a medical road map to keep everyone involved in my son’s hemophilia care on the same page. This collegial approach included data from medical, educational, and personal perspectives, allowing us to form a rich assessment of my stinky boy’s…
Are caregiving and parenting the same? Caregiving is the activity or profession of taking care of one who is sick or disabled. A parent is one who brings up and cares for another. As the mother of two sons with hemophilia, I believe that caregiving and parenting are not…
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