The Best We Could Do

by

Thi Bui

A medical condition in which the skin turns yellow because a certain substance builds up in the bloodstream. It is very common in newborns, but occasionally can signal a more serious illness. Thi Bui’s son develops this potentially-serious form of jaundice right after his birth, and so has to stay in the hospital for a few days for treatment. During this time, Thi and her husband Travis have to visit the hospital every 90 minutes, in the freezing cold, to care for him. He quickly recovers and moves into their home.

Jaundice Quotes in The Best We Could Do

The The Best We Could Do quotes below are all either spoken by Jaundice or refer to Jaundice. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Family, Inheritance, and Parenthood Theme Icon
).
Chapter 10 Quotes

That first week of parenting was the hardest week of my life, and the only time I ever felt called upon to be HEROIC.

Related Characters: Thi Bui (speaker), , Bố, Travis, Thi and Travis’s Son
Related Symbols: The Ocean
Page Number: 312
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Best We Could Do LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Best We Could Do PDF

Jaundice Term Timeline in The Best We Could Do

The timeline below shows where the term Jaundice appears in The Best We Could Do. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 10: Ebb and Flow
Family, Inheritance, and Parenthood Theme Icon
Memory and Perspective Theme Icon
...“was[n’t] prepared for” parenthood. Her son is hungrier—and breastfeeding is harder—than she expects. He gets jaundice, and has to stay in the hospital. Worried, she asks Má about Giang Quyên’s death,... (full context)