Whenever you see a kid on TV with a chronic illness-whether it is a real kid in a fundraising ad or a fictional character in a show-that kid is portrayed as being a sweet, brave soul, enduring medical torture with no complaints at all. A few of them really are that way. But, dear readers (if any of you exist), please let go of that mental picture. Nothing about chronic illness automatically makes a child into a saint.
How a kid responds to chronic illness depends on the kid's underlying personality as well as what kind of parenting he gets. Some parents spoil their sick kids rotten to "make up for" the illness; those kids are just pure evil for health care professionals to deal with. Some are just scared of painful procedures, and who can blame them? But the uncomplaining ones are rare.
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