Thinking About My Mother

Several weeks ago, I found myself thinking about my mother. I thought about how, if she were ill and still alive today, with all of the treatments, medications, and advances in medicine we have now, she might have lived longer.

My younger sister has scleroderma, my youngest sister has lupus, and I have rheumatoid arthritis. We often wonder if we inherited some of these illnesses from our mother.

My mother had several health problems. She had heart problems, and she also had sarcoidosis, which is an autoimmune disease. Looking back, it makes us wonder about the things we know today that doctors and researchers may not have known as much about back then.

We often talk about what it might have been like if our mother were alive today. Would the treatments available now have given her more time with us? Would she have had more options? Would we have gotten to share more memories, more conversations, more family moments?

We will never really know.

But sometimes I think about the advances in medicine today and wonder what might have been different for her. And I am grateful that we live in a time when there is so much more knowledge, research, and treatment available for autoimmune diseases and other illnesses.

I just wish my mother could have had the chance to benefit from it.