Shouting into the void.

My son has DMD. 16 is the low end for when boys start dying from this disease. Every year after this will be a gift. At the rate the disease is progressing in him, beating the odds and reaching 25 would be like winning the lottery.

He wants friends so badly. The disease and the disability make that so damned hard. Mrs Barbarian, our other sons and I are his only friends and only social outlet outside of school.

I take him to the park and kids look at him uncomfortably before running off to play. I try to set things up with parents of other kids we know, but nothing comes of it. I've tried to reach out to other parents of disabled children we meet at the pediatric clinic, nothing comes of it.

This is his last year of High School, we wrote out almost a dozen invites for his favourite classmates.

No one called, no one showed.

In a mix of desperation and optimism, we've written new invites for next weekend for him to give to the same list of kids. But I know it won't change anything.

I am so heart broken for him. I want him to have at least some kind of social life before we lose him.

[edit] Holy carb intake Fatman...I mean...

You guys are incredible you know that? Over 50 people have contacted me for my sons address so they can send him a card or something. A ton of you have made really good suggestions for things we can do to expand his social life.

The leading idea right now is getting him into an MMO, specifically Final Fantasy 14 because it has good moderation. I'm going to see how about getting him set up with that by the end of the week. I'm also sharing my email address with all those I am chatting with so we can exchange gamer handles once my son is set up and ready to go.

I made a post with tears of frustration and grief. And now I am all verklempt and fighting back tears of gratitude.

THANK YOU.

{edit again}
The very first item arrived today. Big shout out and sincere thanks go to Cipher3113!
https://imgur.com/gallery/MY88CUt

I'm going to try to continue to post each card or gift as they come in, and properly credit the sender(s). Hopefully I don't get anyone mixed up for forget anyone.



A whole whack of stuff came in over the last 48 hrs. See them all here https://imgur.com/gallery/LPjZKDl