I hadn’t planned on a hospital stay to kick off the New Year. But yet again, life had its own agenda.

We are home now and well. But it’s sobering to know that before IV antibiotics were widely available, my daughter’s particular diagnosis had a blindness rate of 20% and with certain complications, a mortality rate >40%.

I am grateful for science. I am grateful for decades upon decades of research. For clinical trials, cohort studies, and meta-analyses. For algorithms and protocols and best practices and a gold standard of care. I am grateful that if I walked into any ER in our country, she would receive the same standard of care and likely have the same outcome.

Right now she is sitting on our living room couch next to me, snuggling and laughing. She’ll finish a two-week course of oral antibiotics with her vision intact. And I am so very grateful.

I would tell a patient that for every one day in the hospital, it takes three days of recovery. And the same is true for caregivers.

This means I’ll be adjusting my January plans and goals and anything I hoped to ‘accomplish’ these next two weeks. And instead, I’ll be eating nutrient-dense foods, taking long walks, listening to my body, reaching out to friends, and allowing time for rest.

And all the while I’ll be remembering that modern medicine is a gift. It is a gift to have her beside me on the couch.

I’d love to share my new book with you! Everything I Wish I Could Tell You About Midlife: A Woman’s Guide to Health in the Body You Actually Have