Life is Fragile

I've often had that conversation about men being the weaker sex...(seriously! http://www.fact.on.ca/news/news0303/nt030316.htm)...and this hit home in a very real way lately.
JJ has been sick far more often than his sister since he was born, and over the summer I started noticing that it was every 3 weeks or so that he'd be sick, often with a high fever that lasted a few days. I mentioned this at his 15 month check up in late September, and our very thorough doctor ordered a round of bloodwork. Last Monday, we received a call from her at about 10pm. She had been going over J's chart and one of his tests had come back showing that 20 percent of his white blood cells weren't functioning, which showed a likelihood of CGD, a rare genetic disease where your body can't fight bacterial or fungal infections. She said she wanted to see him and run some more tests, especially because he currently was sick with another high fever.
Of course, the first thing I do is get on the internet and read all the worst-case scenarios--like 20% of victims die within 5 years, and "some made it to their fourth decade of life." I'm picturing my son in a casket, or living life in a bubble. It was horrible and scary to think about. (But also important. Perhaps we don't often enough confront the fact that life is fragile...)
We had many more tests and still no real answers. It's possible that J got a recessive form of this disease, and so far only has a mild case. He's been put on an antibiotic indefinitely to ward off future infections. If that doesn't work, we'll be doing further testing, and we may still at some point see a specialist or something. It's become pretty apparent that there are a lot of things the doctors don't know about how this all works, and that cases can vary widely.
Through it all, we've learned a whole new vocabulary, gained a renewed appreciation for our children and for life itself, and are so thankful for the many who've lifted us up in their prayers. Those prayers and God's grace have given us a sense of peace in the midst of uncertainty. We know it could be far worse and we know that we should all live realizing that each day is a gift, immune system deficiencies or not!