My CAH son leads a completely normal life. Probably more active than 99.9 % of non CAH kids. In fact, he just walked out the door to go snowboarding for three days. He’s been skiing black diamonds since he was 6 years old, and now wants to learn something new. His new hero is Sean White, the Olympic snowboarder.

Yesterday, he spent the entire afternoon hanging out with his buddies, playing basketball and video games. In the evening, he went to another friend’s house to play Manhunt, a game where they all run around with flashlights in the dark, hiding and chasing each other. He also plays basketball and baseball. He and his friend just won the intramural badminton championship for their grade.

He takes the bus to school each day, and back. If I am not home from work, he lets himself in with an extra key. Next week, he will go to a sleep-away camp with his junior high class. He will be gone for five days, living and bunking with his friends.

He got straight A’s on his last report card. He also just won a small scholarship for playing a musical instrument. He has tons of friends, both boys and girls.

So, if anyone has been able to live a normal life in spite of having CAH, it would certainly be him. Yet, I would never DREAM of saying to him, "See, honey...having CAH isn’t so bad! You could have leukemia or two heads or be deaf, dumb, and blind! Aren’t you LUCKY????"

Just like I would never dream of saying to someone who lost a loved one in the World Trade Center, or even survived the World Trade Center, "Just think...you would never have met your new husband, the firefighter, if 9/11 had never happened!!" Or, "Well, the GOOD thing is that there is going to be a nice park and pretty building where those two ugly towers stood!!!" Or, "Look on the bright side...you got a ton of exercise climbing down those steps and didn’t even have to buy a Stairmaster!!!"

Well, all those "good" things may be true, but does everything need to be a competition??? (E.g. Having CAH is sooooo much better than having cancer, so let’s all be grateful!!!) Sure, I can come up with my own list of "good" things about having CAH. (My personal number 1: My son can never be drafted.) But, I also think that going on about why CAH is a good thing is disrespectful to those who have truly suffered, and continue to suffer.