# Suffering

*How to cope with disinterested parents?*

By [DailyK](https://paragraph.com/@dailyk) · 2025-10-06

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I was rushed to hospital in an ambulance with a ruptured appendix and had peronitis from the rupture as well. I underwent emergency surgery that didn't fully resolve the problem, and after ten dark days in hospital, underwent a second, more successful surgery and was discharged a few days later. I spent 10 days a friend's house recovering, before returning to my flat in the city centre. Only then, almost four weeks after initially being rushed to hospital, did one of my parents visit me.

Granted, I live in a foreign country a 3-hour flight from where they live. But there were direct flights. It happened in late-January, so would have been the least expensive time of the year to travel. Both my parents were retired and in their 60s, perfectly healthy enough to travel abroad a few times a year.

Is it strange that I could have died in a foreign hospital and they didn't deem fit to visit for several weeks?

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*Originally published on [DailyK](https://paragraph.com/@dailyk/suffering)*