I got chronically ill at 16 years of age, it was far easier to take the "why me?" position, because I felt I didn't deserve it, as after all, I had done everything right and I had done most of it by myself in relatively adverse conditions.
Some would call it destinty or lesson that you should get from life. However, I don't think so. This can be called just a luck. You didin't have good luck. Nevertheless, I think that having difficulity from the early ages, makes us much more mature. After all, there is a high possibilty for succes in life to come. This is what I experinced at least.
I agree, though it was interesting that in my early twenties, I found out a lot of people were scared to hang around me, because they thought I was too serious. The other side is that sometimes it leads to "childish" behavior later in life - kind of like trying to make up for the missed childhood.