Parents of Reddit, what was your unexpected "we're in for a ride" moment with your child's health?

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Parents of Reddit, what was your unexpected we're in for a ride moment with your child's health? My wife and I were effing terrified when the doctor revealed our son had a large birthmark on his back during her 20-week ultrasound. We were told to monitor it, but poop changed quickly when we took him for an MRI at 3 weeks old. My wife was acting strange, like she knew something was up with the birthmark. So, I asked her what she thought about the MRI. She just said, "I hope nothing bad." And that's when I knew we were in for some serious The MRI confirmed abnormalities in our son's spine where the birthmark was located, and a specialist told us it had grown into part of his spinal cord and was causing motor skill issues. He recommended immediate surgery or else he could face major spinal reconstruction down the line. So, we scheduled it 2 days later.

[00:00:37]The surgery went well, but we still worried about how much pain he might be in afterwards, especially since they said nausea would set in around 5:00 p.m. when they'd administer stronger meds if needed. By 3:00 p.m. he was still awake and restless, so my wife started giving him small sips of water to help with any discomfort until then.

[00:00:52]We never expected this kind of medical drama from a simple birthmark, but thankfully our son pulled through with flying colors.