You never realize how painful and complicated it is when your child becomes ill. My daughter had emergency surgery when we found ourselves at the mercy of a hospital and its staff while my daughter tried to recover from a ruptured appendix.

As we sat in the hospital day after day, night after night, crammed in the tiny pediatric ward, we began to realize how extremely frustrating it is to have no control over the care and recovery of your child.

Between the constant noise, the nurses and doctors coming in and out, crappy hospital food, visitors, etc…there are times you find yourself barely holding onto sanity by a thread. In fact, there were times I just wanted to scream.

But reality is that you can’t do that. You put on your game face and pretend you are fine through the whole experience.

Through all of our experiences, we have realized that you can survive this nightmare. The following five tips may help you get through this horrible experience:

1. Get others involved – don’t try to do everything alone. You will need help at home and at the hospital.
2. Get your rest – don’t try to live at the hospital with you child. No matter what you do, you need to be healthy when your child comes home.
3. Take small sanity breaks – make sure you leave the hospital. Make sure you have others come sit with your child while you get away.
4. Make demands on behalf of your child – this is not the time to try to please others. This is the time when you expect people to please you and your child. If you don’t agree with something, make sure you get it corrected.
5. Make sure you do little things for you – take a shower, get a nap, do something to make you feel better. Your child will need you to be healthy and sane when they are ready to go home.

Finally, as my mother always said, this too shall pass!

Author: Amy Rodgers

Amy Rodgers is an independent writer and the founder of Amys Articles. She writes to help people and for the pure joy of writing. Read more of her work at Amys Articles.