My name is Susan Kramer and I'm a basketball mom - with a difference.

I have a son who is now 12 years old, and an avid fan of all sports. His favorite, though, is basketball. He plays the game every spare moment he finds. When he wakes up and before going to school, he's in the yard shooting baskets. When he gets back home, he's at it until it grows too dark to see the hoop. On weekends, he cajoles his dad into playing with him, practicing his dribbles and feints.

I watch it all - with a deep sense of gratitude. Because, you see, it almost never happened!

Genetic Problems And Sports

There are many genetic conditions that affect a child's ability to play sports. Some cause disturbances in metabolic activities that leave a child weak and with little energy. Others cause accumulation of toxic wastes in the body if a child exerts himself too hard. And still others weaken muscles or bones to the point contact sports would be too dangerous.

My little boy had none of these things. Instead, he had a rare disorder of hormone production. His body churned out too much of human growth hormone (HGH) causing his bones to grow rapidly and far beyond their normal limit. He was a tall infant, and grew taller by the month. Soon, by his first birthday, he was as tall as his kindergarden sibling.

That's when we were concerned enough to visit our pediatrician who ran a series of tests, including HGH levels. They were 3x higher than normal. Then we went through a set of scans and evaluations that couldn't identify the reason for this elevated level. Finally, we were told it was a rare genetic problem that may not be treatable, except with a form of experimental treatment involving stem cells.

They asked me if I had donated cord blood when he was born. As I had luckily researched cord blood banking cost while I was pregnant, and had worked out a plan to save my baby's stem cells "just in case", I was able to answer yes. This turned out to be fortunate, because after a ton of paperwork and months of waiting, we were enrolled in a clinical trial to control HGH levels.

This Dark Cloud Had a Silver Lining

Thankfully the HGH levels stopped increasing. They were still higher than normal population standards, but not growing higher. And his growth slowed a bit, then plateaued. He was now only around twice as tall as his peers!

My hubby and I spent hours talking to him about how he shouldn't feel odd at his height, and telling him how being tall confers an advantage in many areas, like sports. That's when he was introduced to basketball. And he was fascinated by it.

Around age five, he started bouncing around a ball. A few months later, he was trying to learn how to jump higher and was practicing vertical jump techniques from a manual. We got him a DVD tutorial, and soon he was able to touch the hoop without much effort. That's when we started wondering if he might have a real future in sports.

We encouraged him in his passion. He put in the effort. To no one's real surprise, he made his school team even while he was in fifth grade. He scored baskets at will, quickly becoming the star player and a really popular center forward able to beat the defence without even trying.

My Life Is Blessed - And So Is My Son's

I put up this website in the hope of sharing some inspiration with people like me. Helpless parents facing an uncertain future with children handicapped by diseases or defects.

Let me tell you that your life, like mine, is blessed - even if it doesn't seem that way just now. Every disaster and setback has an unseen positive flip side, which you'll tap into when you start looking. For me, it was a hormonal defect resulting in a basketball star. For you, it will be something else.

Just keep hoping and believing that things will turn out well in the end. Optimism is a gift that we are all blessed with. We only don't make the best use of it.

In other articles on the site, I'll share some more parts of my journey. And it would be great if you wrote to share your thoughts about anything you read on this site.

Best wishes

Susan