Miss Mom: When Your Priorities Shrink

There is nothing that shrinks your world and your priorities as sitting in a doctor’s office with a child and hearing the unexpected words, “We need to admit her.” In an instant you are scrambling to arrange to be off of work, cancel any pending plans, figure out what you will need to grab as quickly as possible from home when you get a chance, as you are still trying to come to terms with the fact that your child is sick enough to need hospitalization and surgery. You then spend a moment second guessing yourself. “Should I have insisted she go to the doctor sooner?”, you wonder, all the while realizing that you or her didn’t think things were really all that serious. It then become crystal clear that nothing else matters but that your child gets well as soon as possible.

Any parent who has spent time in an emergency room, or spent hours and days on uncomfortable recliners while your child is sick and in pain understands the difficulty of it. You wish you could trade places with them, praying that they feel better now. You feel completely helpless having to trust others help that child you love get better, knowing you can’t do a thing other then be there, and help in small ways. You push aside the worst case scenarios in your mind, knowing they would just frighten you and that person in the bed, hooked up to a saline drip.

I have had to do that scary trip to the hospital several times with my kids and three times now, one has had to be hospitalized briefly, for an illness requiring surgery. It doesn’t matter if it is a concussion, a broken bone or a bad appendix, it has been “take care of the emergency situation first, deal with the emotional aspect later”, when I found myself making that trip one of my kids.

This last time took me by surprise, but I was glad that Megan asked me to accompany her to the doctor for the follow up visit that landed her in the hospital. Her primary care physician, the surgeon, and every single nurse and technician did all they could to get Megan’s condition dealt with and home as soon as possible. Her nurses were kind and compassionate and willing to help when needed, although on a few things she preferred my assistance. Her stay, although not how we would have preferred to spend three days was a comfortable as they could make it, and I am personally very grateful for all they did. She is as well.

Medicine is not an easy occupation, nor is it an exact science. People in the field often work long hours assisting people in less then good moods or long patience. They often see us at our physical worst, and sometimes at far less then our emotional best, yet they usually have the ability to look past our moods and look at what ails us, then either instruct us on what to do next, or take more hands on approaches to help us get better. Often those approaches, hurt, a lot, but the short term pain is worth the long term results.

I know I can’t do what these men and women do every single day. I don’t have the patience or skills to diagnose and treat diseases and illnesses. I don’t have the internal fortitude to look at body parts gone awry, or the things that we are capable of emitting from those unhealthy parts. They also have to wade through oceans of paperwork to keep records of patient cases, and to ensure that they are paid for their services via the various insurances available to us.

It is a comfort to know that we have these dedicated people willing to help us when a member of our family becomes injured and ill. We depend on the aid of our medical professionals from paramedics to surgeons, nurses to laboratory technicians, physical therapists to orthodontists, and all others in this valued field. This parent thanks you for what you do for all of us.