My baby is broken, She'll never be fixed...
I feel it's time I lifted that weight off my shoulders and updated you on how far we've come in the last 2.5 years with our princess.
Its been a journey and its taken some time to adapt... My baby is broken, that's the words I had running around my head, I couldn't get my head around what Spina Bifida meant for her.
*Spina Bifida
*Myelomeningocele
*Spinal cord
*Nerves
Can you even imagine your precious newborn being born and hearing these words? She had a blister on her back, filled with her nerves and spinal cord in spinal fluid.. To this day I still can't believe it happened and wasn't picked up on her ultra sounds!
Her lesion was closed, nerves and cord safely dropped back into her spine, she was fixed? No not fixed the damage is done.
So here we are today nearly 2 and a half years later. This is what we know;
At 6 weeks she had an MRI scan, its showed she has a tethered spine, this will mean forever follow ups with her neurosurgeon and risk of needing a detethering, usually around the age when a child has a growth spurt; 4-5 years and 9-10 years old. Signs will be change in bladder or bowel, loss of movement and paralysis.
Just one of our worries.
At 3 months she had her urodynamics, this told us she has a neurogenic bladder; this condition requires Intermittent Catheterisation, every 3 hours, to drain her bladder and keep her kidneys safe. Years ago children wouldn't survive past teenage years due to kidney damage, over the years we have learnt how to protect their kidneys by doing the I.C procedure.
We then began to learn she had a neurogenic bowel too. For us its been the most difficult thing to manage and live with, we do an irrigation x2 a day to help empty her bowel. Without this procedure Remi was becoming very sick, her weight was dropping.
We have her at a healthy weight and very good appetite now, but things in this area aren't perfect yet. Her consultant has mentioned an ACE procedure where her appendix will be used to make a hole in her tummy so we can flush her bowels from the top of her colon giving her a better empty. This will be a decision we hope she can make for herself one day.
Medication
*oxybutynin x2 a day
*trimethoprim x1 a day
*Senna x2 a day
*movicol x1 sachet daily
That's 6 lots of meds I have to give her everyday, since birth and forever.
She walks though, in fact she walks bloody well! She has muscle weakness; her ankles are weak and loose flexible, a good pair of supportive boots or her braces work well for her.
We've come to terms with the management of taking care of our princesses needs, its all we now know and all she will know.
Things are about to become unbelievable now and very very unlucky....
On July the 3rd she become very poorly. We had open access to the ward due to her SB so I took her to get checked over.
She was having very high temps and was in too much pain to be able to move. She had an horrendous rash. A UTI we initially thought. Nope! So just a virus then?
This continued, and everyday I took her back. On the 4th day I was concerned because she had red eyes, her hands and feet were red and she wouldn't let them be touched. A doctor mentioned Kawasaki Disease but said how rare it is so don't worry, after a consultant swabbed her throat and said it'sprobably strep throat...
I went home with some antibiotics thinking thank god she'll feel better again soon.
The next day she was 100 times more poorly, her lips were peeling and she was inconsolable. I took her back!
After a blood test she was quickly admitted and I was diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease....
I couldn't bloody believe this was happening, you're being over-cautious I told him. He said he was the oldest doctor on the ward and he was the least likely doctor to be over-cautious! He was Remi's paediatrician, he was there the day she was born. Just bad luck he told me for the second time in my life. He acted quickly and I thank him very much, despite our bad luck Remi wasn't to be failed this time.
She had the treatment; an Intravenous Immunoglobulin transfusion.
It was awful, second worst time of my life. 5 days in hospital. She got better, but of course this rare childhood illness has risks. It cause the blood vessels to become inflamed which can develop aneurysms to the heart, Remi was treated in the 5 days which means aneurysms are less likely. We did 8 weeks on a high dose of aspirin to thin her blood.
We had heart echo and ECG, we have been extremely lucky she didn't develop any. We continue with this and she has regular check ups with cardio. just another specialist to add on the list.
Another 2 years of checks and if no aneurysms we can wave goodbye to Kawasaki's disease.
As you can image I felt blame, why her? Her SB is my fault, I broke my beautiful princess, I failed to grow her properly and now this..
I felt god wanted to take her from me, she's not supposed to be here. I quickly fell into a state of depression, I had my first panic attack.
What the hell was happening to me, my hands like pins and needles, I turned into Edward bloody scissor hands, I thought I was having a stroke.
Richard was more pissed off that not only did his daughter have Spina Bifida, his wife turns into Edward bloody scissor hands haha... sorry but you have to lol
I started cognitive behavioural therapy. Despite the crazy therapist, it helped me lots. It's something I control especially when things begin to pile on top of me.. Breathe, I understand it and that was the first biggest help.
Its been over a year since that second shock in her life (bless her teeny tiny precious heart)
In my crazy life and schedule we muddle through, business is blooming.
Well I am who I am and they say it happens to the chosen ones, the ones who can cope, the ones who "can" , and I'm not going to lie, I'm not the sort of person to do nothing.. I hit life 100 miles an hour and it hits me straight back, I'm a busy body always with a plan, always got a project and something to do.
When life is terrible, take a breathe let the house get messy feed the kids maccy Ds.. Give it time because time is the greatest healer, time to adjust to what ever life throws at us because the impossible is possible and if I can continue to run my own business, take care of my boys, dog and husband (even tho he's the feeder). I couldn't do it without him, we'd all starve to death lol then my sweet princess will be ok.
I want you to know I'm happy, I feel extremely blessed and despite the downs I wouldn't change a thing... having the downs make the ups a whole lot more amazing if we never had downs.
Anyway my husband is picking his nails (annoyingly) refusing to stop because me typing this is more annoying apparently... Arsehole ;)
My journey continues and I thrive to photograph my beautiful children <3