Rare Genes Day

Hey there, my rainbow colored zebra...

Today is Rare Genes Day, and I wore my jeans in honor of you. (I also spilled lunch on them, but that's a different story.)

In medical school, future doctors are taught that "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras." It's very unlikely that a headache is a stroke in a child, or a pain in the leg is bone cancer. It's usually just a headache, or a pulled muscle. 

But sometimes...

Sometimes it's a zebra. 

And every once in a great while, it's a rainbow colored zebra.

For those of us who encounter such a creature, it's life-defining, soul refining, beautiful and terrible all at the same time. 

I remember telling a friend that prior to you coming along, I didn't really believe that there were things doctor's couldn't fix. She laughed at me (she's a doctor). And I mean, I knew "bad things" happened to people, but it was to other people; your aunt's sister's cousin's classmate, or something like that. Not to my close friends and family, and certainly not to me.

But still, what joy and light you brought to my life, and to the lives of all who knew you. 

Love you, kiddo.

Miss you too.

"Death can only rob us of the future — memory embalms an unperishable past."

 ~William Ellis