AAARGH!! All of these questions and concerns are enough to drive any parent straight to the looney-bin! When a diagnosis of congenital heart disease is confirmed, any semblance of normalcy is overshadowed by the specter of uncertainty. We coddle our children, worry incessantly, and spend many sleepless nights plagued with anxiety: overcome with what I have dubbed the "what-if syndrome".
The "what-if syndrome" is a problem whose facets are many. The aforementioned anxiety may be only one of many stressful and debilitating symptoms. Other sure signs that your sanity is being usurped by this mental minion include a lack of confidence, an overwhelming sense of helplessness, and an excessive preoccupation with your child's disorder. Unfortunately, we are dealing with a vicarious condition; so long as your wonderful child is affected by a serious disease, it is very likely that you will experience the mental baggage that comes along with it. The good news is that a healthy dose of faith, a strong sense of positivism and a pinch of common sense go a long way toward making this condition much more manageable.
This being said, it may be difficult to imagine life apart from the "what ifs" that characterize so many of your parental concerns. Being a parent always entails a certain amount of worrying, but being the parent of a child affected by congenital heart disease often means that we are force-fed more anxiety than we are mentally equipped to deal with. How to dispel those paralyzing fears, be they legitimate or unsubstantiated?
It may sound like a cliche, but an important step in the right direction is to realize that life will always be filled with uncertainty. A wise man once said that the only two sure things in life are death and taxes. For all any of us know, the world could come to a flamboyant end tomorrow afternoon at precisely 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. My point here is that there will always be something to worry about, even when life appears to be going very smoothly. Though Armageddon is more of a remote possibility than the likelihood that a diseased heart will stop beating, both lines of thought are equally futile and counter-productive. Get the specter of looming disaster out of your head and out of your life! Focus on the little things that are real: the healthy, happy days or the small signs of improvement, as opposed to the bigger fictions produced by an over-active imagination.
