Difficult Blessings

"Take Maddie home and make her comfortable for whatever time she has left." Maddie's parents were hearing these words from the doctor after their four-year-old daughter was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension, an incurable life-threatening disease. It was 1997, when there were very few options other than a lung transplant to treat Maddie's disease. Because her parents were unwilling to accept this fate for their daughter, they ended up at the Children's Hospital in Denver, Colorado. Maddie became one of the early pioneers of pulmonary arterial hypertension in the late 1990s when research was just beginning to develop therapies that were an alternative to lung transplantation; treatments that provided hope! This true and inspiring story chronicles Maddie's twenty-year journey of courage and strength. Maddie was an example of determination to all who knew her. Even people who had never met Maddie were inspired by her story. Maddie not only battled pulmonary arterial hypertension, but at the age of six she was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Maddie conquered cancer and lived on to receive two separate lung transplants. Although this is a book about an amazing girl who rose above her adversity to live a full and happy life, it is also a book about discovery. This is a mother's story of how her daughters pain and suffering became vehicles for uncovering her own inner strength and for learning valuable life lessons. The wisdom learned in these hard-gained lessons is what she calls "difficult blessings."