Guardians Of The Precious

I have found being a parent the most amazing experience of my life thus far, although my children are still very young I am enjoying the journey. I am so amazed when I meet parents whose children are much older than mine, and I begin to imagine the future, how will my children look? What kind of people will they be? What profession will they choose? Will we have a good relationship? I wonder away but pull myself back to reality to enjoy the here and now. When I was dealing with my son’s vein of Galen, this was not my thought process at all. When I was told all the things that might occur with him being born with this condition and the dangerous situations that might follow, I had decided in my mind that I would not have any more children. Already as a parent when you have children, it opens up an entire world of worry, whether you’re with them or whether they’re in school etc. You worry so much, about what they think and feel, about their safety, so imagine having to...

One of the hardest situations I had to deal with during my son’s vein of Galen journey, was being separated from my first-born son who was three at the time. He had to stay with family members most of the time, which he did enjoy, but after a while he just wanted to be back home with his mum, dad and baby brother. He often came to visit us at the hospital and it was awesome that GOSH had so many activities to keep him entertained. He loved coming there as he took this as play time and he obviously got to see his family, but it did start to affect him negatively.   He was sad, although he understood that his brother had to be looked after, he didn’t understand why we couldn’t all be together. We had accommodation whilst our son was admitted but some of these accommodations did not facilitate children. It was always hard to say goodbye to him and one night, he sent me a voice note from his Dad’s phone telling me ‘My heart is broken because I miss my mummy so much’.  ...

‘We can confirm that you are finally able to take your baby home’. Woooohooooo! Amazing news, right? Well in reality my answer was somewhat mixed between Yes and No. Of course, I was overjoyed at the thought of taking our baby home and this was good news because it displayed that his condition was progressing. Yet I had anxiety about taking my baby home with this condition that I knew so little about. If you think back to my last post I spoke about finding the monitors at the hospitals scary at first but then they became a source of information. I now relied on them to tell me if there was anything wrong, so what would I do without them, how would I know if he wasn’t doing well and if something was going terribly wrong? Of course, the Doctors told me about any warning signs and what to look out for if he required to be submitted to hospital, but I was not satisfied. I took our baby home and it was soooooo nice being back in the comfort of my own home. Although...

To all the Men reading this post, please do not stop reading when you see that the post is about a caesarean section (C-section). To those who have never had a C-section do not switch off. Whatever I mention will always be of some benefit to someone, better yet someone you might know. Even if you have not undergone a C-section yourself, it can still affect you in one way or another. Everyone's road to recovery after a C-section will vary in some way, shape or form, I decided to share my experience as it might help someone who is going through the same thing. Although each experience is individual, there are things that we will all experience. I personally found recovering from a C-section to be quite a horrific experience, I’m not too sure as to whether that is because of what I was going through with the baby or because it was physically so painful. It not only took a toll on the affected area but also my whole body and state of mind. The first time I attempte...

Shocked, confused, overwhelmed and sick. These are a few of the range of emotions that can help to express how I felt when I received the news that there appeared to be a complication with my unborn child at 35 weeks of pregnancy. Due to a pre-existing medical condition I was recalled to have a extra scan. When compared to the other two scans, this one appeared to take forever. My husband and I were rather anxious as we saw scans as something of a formality and the thought of something being wrong did not even begin to enter our thoughts. The sonographer explained that she could see an abnormality in the baby's brain but was unsure as to what it was. She informed us that she would have to seek the thoughts and opinions of a consultant but that unfortunately they had all gone home for the night. At first it didn't really sink in and I didn't really take it seriously. The following day I was called to come back for another scan where I was told that the baby appeared to...

I never imagined that I would spend so much time at a children's hospital, I never prepared for a sick child, I didn't see this coming, I wasn't prepared for this. In April 2016 my life was turned upside down. This caused me to re-evaluate everything, and my perspective on most things changed.  I was stuck at the hospital with my child, normal life as we knew it was no longer normal, but life continued. I was not working at the time, so I was at the hospital for as long as I could stay awake. My husband on the other hand was working and had already taken so much time off, so he had to go back. I haven't told you what happened yet I know but that will come later.  At times I was left alone, and when the doctors would come around on ward round, they didn't always come with good news, these are the times I wanted to scream and cry, but no one was there, sure the staff at GOSH (Great Ormond Street Hospital) were amazing but they were busy and had a job to do. ...