Sunday, August 3, 2008

Home from the Hospital (not us) or After the Wedding

I want to mention a point that I noted (in passing) on someone else’s blog today, as I think that it is an important point for families to know, especially those whose children are sick often.
Often when people have a child in the hospital, they think that at least while sitting there, they can get some knitting done, etc. However, this is often not the case. The illness, and hospitalization cause enough nervous energy to make doing a steady task difficult. Usually parents can accept that without too much problem. However, when the child is finally discharged, they are likely to think that now that they are going home (after “lounging” around in the hospital for X amount of time), they can tackle the world. Finally you can clean up the mess (OK., the looks-like-a hurricane-hit-the-house-disaster-area). Now you can cook decent meals. You can do the laundry.
That's why I tell parents coming home from the hospital not to think "Well, now that I am finally home, I can get something done..." It just doesn't work. You need a few days or weeks just to regroup and unwind. (Besides, you’ll have to field calls of well-wishers as well.) Sometimes your body and spirit need to regroup from the stress and excitement.

P.S. This is also true of post-simcha days (after a wedding, or other celebration). So lets hope we will be “wiped out” from good news, not bad!

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