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<center>*Honey, you need to come to the clinic now.*</center>

That was the day my heart stopped, or rather, took a pause. Over the years, I have built this defensive mechanism against stress. I have learnt that no matter how difficult things get, it will get better. I have also been rather blessed over the years, having a good job and not having to worry much. Even my child's birth and growth was great, she has grown into an adorable, healthy young girl. 

This all changed with the birth of my second child. She was born relatively healthy and so we assumed that she was as healthy as the first. However, things changed after a picnic. Our second child started to develop an extremely high fever. We assumed that it would pass and gave the necessary medications for her. We started to panic when we saw her little body tense up and her eyes crossed. 

We of course did the most natural thing any parent would do aside from panicking, we googled her symptoms. None of the searches came up with much results and all the doctors were closed. So we had to wait till morning, all the night taking her temperature, hoping that she would somehow improve. 

### **The bad news**

The next morning, we took her to the local child specialist, hoping to get a better idea of what was wrong with her. Things took a turn for the worse when I was called into the doctor's room as well. My heart paused when the doctor told us what we were dealing with. 

Our little two month old baby was likely to have Meningitis. Which type of Meningtitis, more tests needed to be done to confirm if it was viral or bacterial. We rushed her to the hospital and had to perform various tests on her. It started off with a lumbar puncture. Seeing a long needle being shoved into the spine of my baby girl was one of the most painful experience. I would much rather take the needle without any anesthetic than to see my little girl take the pain. 

Nonetheless, it had to be done and the defense mechanism I had where I thought everything would be fine started to crumble. I started to worry, what if it was bacterial whereby her development would be affected? Would she grow up normal? How would we cope? On top of all this, there was another challenge. 

### **The other problem** 
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As much as I would want to spend the night in the hospital with my wife and daughter, I could not. My other daughter needed me and it was difficult explaining why mummy and her little sister would not be home for a while. This normally would result in her being rather sad and moody throughout the day, wondering where her mother is. 

I had to put my work on hold and became a house husband, cooking, cleaning and looking after my eldest. On a brighter note, it brought me and my eldest closer. It also helped that we had a friend in the hospital who personally took over my youngest daughter's case in which we were truly grateful. 

### **In the end**
Things turned out well in the end, it turned out that it was merely viral and she recovered quickly after they pumped her full of antibiotics. I would personally prefer that she did not have to go through it. However, one important lesson came out of all this. Personally, I think I was a bit more relaxed with the second daughter as compared to first. To a certain extent, I think we thought that we had it all figured out. We did not. 

Our eldest daughter may be the one who made us parents, but our youngest was the one who made us better parents. 

![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNZy4Trz6dM4xUz7bWke63qP4uJ8V29yxzibEZGq92AhN/image.png)

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