Isaiah's Kawasaki Disease Journey

To Whom It May Concern, Hello old high school acquaintance on Facebook, who usually scrolls past me on their newsfeed.     Greetings to the mom from school who knows my son has a medical condition, but is too afraid to ask me about it.   Dear second cousin Judith, whose mom told her that my son was really sick, “but thank God he’s okay now.”   To my neighbour up the street, to the kindergarten teacher at the school, to the mom sitting beside me at the doctor’s office and to the dad sitting beside me at swimming lessons. This letter is written to anyone that has a child in their life that they care about.    You may have heard of something called Kawasaki disease…but probably not.   Contrary to the name, it has nothing to do with motorcycles.   In short, Kawasaki disease (KD) is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed countries.   You may be thinking, “Acquired heart disease in children?   What d...

When I first began writing this post, Isaiah had not been diagnosed with his second case of Kawasaki disease.  However, given what we have gone through yet again, the original sentiments inspiring this post are even stronger.  It had been over six months since I had published anything prior to the post about Isaiah's unexpected second bout of KD.  Many milestones had passed, including Isaiah's first day of kindergarten, fourth birthday and the anniversaries of his KD hospitalization and discovery of his aneurysms.  It would be easy for me look back and reflect on how many of these moments were very bittersweet for me.  I could write about the struggles we have been through this past year and how this unexpected journey has challenged us in ways we never imagined.  However, in keeping with the New Year's tradition of resolutions and starting fresh (even though it is already the end of February), I prefer to focus on my "theme" for the year: gratitude. Gr...