The Single Parent Chapter

Its just not nice, not at all, when the husband is miles away and the child falls ill. As parents, the DH and I completely freak out each time the BB is seriously ill. Anytime he has fever, we are up all the time, and pretending to be all nonchalant about it to each other. But we basically are pair of nutcases till he gets well.

So here I was, all ready to fly out on Thursday night, and the BB promptly falls ill on Wednesday evening. I rush to the pediatrician (thank God, because he is my most favourite and reliable pediatrician), a list of medicines are given, to get the fever down, stop the vomiting and more. I was totally freaking out, and going nuts in my head. What followed was nightmarish night, with continual vomiting, high temperatures and no food. Had to get a special medicine from the hospital in the middle of the night, that finally got the temperature under control. The next morning, the vomiting was still on, and we had to go to the hospital and get the BB a shot to stop the vomiting, so that he could ingest some food, and then some medicines. i never anticipated needing to inject medicines into him at such an early age, but that just goes on to show, that we are never really prepared for everything that may come our way. A night without sleep, loads of stress, and the BB just not settling in, it was not easy. And I have never quite missed the DH as much as I did that night.

While battling this, I was also trying to reschedule my flight, and having booked it through an online portal, it was not an easy task, it took me marathon phone sessions to finally have new tickets issued to me, about five hours before my original flight was scheduled to take off. It was a to-hell-and-back kind of experience, and I don't know how I survived through it. But fortunately I did! The tickets were re-scheduled, the BB has been without fever for over 24 hours now, and I am breathing easy. It has been worse for the GP, since all he has is news that I am passing on to him, and he cannot see the BB for himself. Yes, we are quite overly sensitive parents that way. A sick child leaves us more anxious and stressed than anything else, and I have read enough mommy-blogs to know, that is exactly how most other parents go.

But this entire experience makes me realise just how tough it is to be a single parent, to not have that another equally responsible adult by your side to care for your child, especially when the child is unwell. I really admire the parents who do all of this alone, and balance a job too. Its just too much to handle for mere mortals like me. And I know that I definitely never ever want to go through this again, not alone.

The stay in India is now extended by a few more days. The mother-in-law, I think has added quite a few new grey hair to her collection, by this, now seemingly infinitely long stay, with the added excitement of the BB falling ill. I am quite sure, the way we are driving her crazy, she will surely let the champagne flow, when we finally fly out. Then there is me too, eagerly waiting to be in my own home now, after being like a nomad for over a month now. But then I also believe that destiny always has its own plans, and there must be some real good reason why I could not fly out on the 10th like it had been planned. I am getting into this very spiritual bent of mind these days, and am getting more and more convinced about what a sham this world really is, and how I am wasting my time, living the way I do. Had it not been for the BB, I might gone the ascetic way by now. The divine scheme of things is what I believe made me re-schedule my trip and I am sure its all for the best.