Some days our medical difficulties and the host of other troubles that came on their heels seem to fill our whole world. The struggle to defeat this untiring, invisible beast at times even makes us feel that we have become targets for every type of predator and scavenger: biological, financial and legal. Many weeks, in addition to clinic runs, we must spend as much as two days on the phone, in correspondence or in meetings contending with bill collectors, lawyers and insurance companies.

Corinne's close friend and counselor is concerned that we have fallen into a soap opera life in which each day brings a new, and increasingly incredible drama. We feel that happening to us, but cannot see how we are bringing this on (or what to do about the new battles that seem to be waiting for us around every corner).

When we are able to take a breath, to relax and look out beyond our garden at the trees and the sky and the clouds and the long view, at a particularly spectacular sunrise or sunset, it becomes clear that the world around us did not change. But our lives did change with that diagnosis. In a way, it's hard to see how things will ever again be normal.