I recently interviewed two women living with Multiple Sclerosis for a Grand Edits guest feature. When I asked them to speak about the life they envisioned as young women compared to the reality of their lives today, they both agreed that though they never dreamed they’d have MS and surely don’t want MS, the diagnosis has allowed them to connect with and help others who are facing the same illness, or working through other life struggles.
I think about this often – the way our circumstances create opportunities to help others who are suffering.
In my days of volunteering as a client advocate at a pregnancy resource center, a young woman came to an appointment in distress because her baby (still in utero) had been diagnosed with renal hydronephrosis. This malformation causes dilation in the kidney pelvis and can mean surgical correction shortly after birth.
My client and I had a long conversation that day about the what-ifs. It’s hard for a momma to be faced with the possibility of her newborn baby being whisked off to surgery in his or her first days in the world. We talked a lot about fear that day. About vulnerability.
I told her I understood how she was feeling, and I really meant it. My own son had been diagnosed with renal hydronephrosis less than two years prior to the conversation. I remembered the diagnosis, the scans, the machines. I remembered the fear.
REVISIONS OF GRANDEUR 
Your perspective on things, I find, is often astoundingly beautiful and astonishingly inspiring. Thank you for your writing.
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You are so kind, DLJ. Thank you for that encouragement — sometimes the words spill out freely, and other times I grapple in darkness! I’m guessing you, too, understand both the magic and the frustration…?
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Absolutely. Inspiration can be an elusive flower to coax into blooming.
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I’m proud of my daughter and the empathy she has for others.
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Thanks, Momma ❤
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Awesome post!
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Thank you, Eric!
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Should not be treated any bad what people say, should have known filter, the responses do only what you believe
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Once again, I enjoyed very much reading your post. As previous occasions, I agree with every word in your words, I wish only women’s Healthcare above. And hoping to find a cure for their disease.
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Thank you!
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