Tuesday, April 08, 2008

I Didn't Know It Was Normal

There's a certain bonding between parents whose kids have been hospitalized. I'm much better now, but for many years I needed to talk and talk about my sons' hospitalizations. Whenever I'd meet someone, who was undergoing or had just undergone such a horrible, traumatic time, I'd find myself talking and talking and talking about my experiences with them.

Sometimes I felt embarrassed, but now since over twenty years since my baby was sick with a serious bacterial infection and hospitalized for six weeks, and almost twenty years since my elder son was hit by a small truck, hospitalized for four weeks and with crutches for longer, I've just recently "mellowed" about it.

This New York Times article just made me feel better about myself. The writer made me feel more "normal." Mothers of hospitalized children should probably get some sort of therapy; group therapy would be good. And that's why I've felt it so important to talk to other parents about it.

To this day, I'm so thankful to the people who helped me then.

2 comments:

Leora said...

It's very healthy that you can write about the experience now.

I'm sorry you had to go through those experiences. We love our children so much; I get upset and worried when they just get sick for a day!

Batya said...

It's beyond worry. It's disorienting and also a feeling of failure. And I know that so many parents go through things much, much worse. Baruch Hashem, my sons are now healthy and healed.