Many of us fall in this boat- we're untouchable until presented with something we have no control over, and unfortunately fail to realize it until we're thrown

Many of us fall in this boat- we're untouchable until presented with something we have no control over, and unfortunately fail to realize it until we're thrown into the thick of it. When my wife went into labor at 26w with #2, it hit like a ton of bricks. I remember vividly sitting in the atrium at LPCH after being told she was going to deliver within the day, and we didn't know what her issues were ("any handful of genetic disorders are likely") I lost it. That moment, seared in my memory. I had an hour alone to digest before I had to go back and be strong for her, and to this day, she hasn't asked me what I did, what I thought. She can look at me and tell by the tears in my eyes what I went through. And then the NICU director came to visit us, and reminded us, "take the long perspective, there will be ups, there will be downs. But for every down, she's still here fighting to be just like any other normal baby. Thrive on the fact that she wants that more than you'll ever know or the other kids will ever know, and we're going to do our damnedest to deliver that." Now 18m later, she's doing better than any of them would have predicted. And not a day goes by that I can't see a LPCH commercial without losing it... To the author and all other doctors...my full admiration for what they go through, the miracles they work, and the strength they confer to families in their most vulnerable times...