If you’re on the outside looking in, my days probably look a lot like yours. You may see me and my 2 –year-old son shopping at Target, picking up groceries or playing at the park. I’ll smile and wave. We may exchange a few niceties, a little small talk. Weather, football…you know the drill. You’ve probably seen my little man’s smiling face on my Facebook page. He’s cute, right? Happy and always on the go – like any other toddler his age.

Look closer. Why are his beautiful little legs bowed? Isn’t he a little small for his age? What’s that little bump, just barely visible beneath his shirt?

That? Oh, that’s just his dialysis tube.

“Dialysis?”

Yes, dialysis.

Our day begins and ends with a flurry of machines, dialysis fluid, sterile hand washes and masks. Medicines, injections, tears and hugs.

Our closets are filled with boxes upon boxes of dialysis fluid, wound care supplies and emergency antibiotics. Our son’s room is decorated with a rolling cart, dialysis and blood pressure machines.

Maybe you are bummed when flu season rolls around and your little one catches it. We are devastated when a simple cold lands us in the hospital for the month of November.

Our prayers may sound a little different, too. Maybe you pray for continued health for yourself and your children. We pray for a cure.

We are not bitter. We are not better or worse than you. We are not trying to fool you by looking normal at Target and the grocery store.

We are trying to live a normal life around abnormal circumstances.

We are trying to raise our son to be happy, healthy and well-adjusted. We don’t want you to feel sorry for us. We pray you never experience this reality firsthand.

We may not be quite like you, when you take a closer look. But we are blessed, happy, adjusted and living our normal to the fullest every day.

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