14/07/2024
What is that one picture that describes the lowest point in your life?
Whenever I see this picture, I get goosebumps, and my heart palpitates. No one would like to see their kid in the hospital.
This happened when we went to India last year in September. It was my daughter’s first visit there, and she was seven months old. We were very excited as she was about to meet her grandparents for the first time, but as soon as we reached, I noticed some changes in her feeding pattern. She was refusing to eat anything. I couldn’t understand but thought it might be due to climate change. She was very dull the next day, and all of a sudden, her body temperature rose to around 102°F. She never had such a high fever before. Moreover, rage led to seizures, and she was not even responding for a couple of seconds. If I recall that moment, I was crying madly, shouting all around, had no sense of what I should do instead of crying. Somehow, I gave her 2.5 ml Tylenol, and we left for the hospital. The doctor considered her an emergency case and started treatment. Fortunately, the doctor was able to find out that it was a severe mouth infection that she possibly caught either in the flight or after reaching India. As soon as she got a few doses of medicine, she looked normal but was under the doctor’s observation at the hospital.
The picture below is when she was at the hospital. I clicked it to share with our family because they couldn’t come inside to see her. (Doctors allowed only me to be with her.)
This made me cry. I consider it the lowest point of my life. I truly wish that no one experiences this in their life. There is nothing more painful than seeing your child in pain. If you are traveling outside the country along with your kid, you should be very cautious. I was taking care of her, like she shouldn’t touch anything, changed her clothes 3–4 times. I didn’t give her the food served on the flight. I didn’t let anyone touch her; whenever she was throwing her pacifier, I washed it every time yet, I couldn’t save her from severe infection. I’m sure I missed something somewhere.
This didn’t end here. We stayed for two months in India, and while coming back to the U.S., I was exposed to the flu. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop it from spreading to my daughter. Both of us were down with flu for more than a week.
I wish no child ever falls ill; that is the most painful thing for a parent.
Thanks,
Swati