Skip to main content

Day Two- Hospital

Day 3/4 at GOSH after open heart surgery

Hospital
When talking about Elijah and hospital our lives are very much defined into two time periods.
Pre op, which includes our NICU stay, hospital appointments and emergency admissions to the Children's Asessement Unit.
And Surgery.
When we went down to Great Ormond Street Hospital in April 2015 for Elijah's heart surgery.
I can remember every single thing about those 5 days.
What we ate.
What we wore.
Where we went.
The fear.
It only takes something small, a smell, an alarm and I'm back there again.
Elijah is now on 18 monthly check up appointments with his Great Ormond Street Consultant who has been in charge of his care for 4 years now.
Elijah now knows what to expect from his hospital appointments and is used having his heart scanned now too (along with alot of bribes!)
We talk alot about the appointment in the lead up so he is fully aware of what is happening.
The knot of fear in my stomach is back everytime we walk into the Children's Department for his appointment and doesn't ease until I see his heart on the screen and am told nothing has changed.
Elijah will have appointments for the rest of his life and will eventually be transferred to the adult clinic.
Elijah doesn't know any differerent, he has also gone to the hospital and always will and this is part of his everyday life.
It has taken a couple of years for him to be compliable during his appts being so young he just didn't understand at that age.
Now he is older he does understand alot more.
I sometimes wonder if he will come to resent his hospital appointments but they are going to be the one thing that is essential in monitoring his condition.
As much as I can ensure he eats healthily, rests and I keep his as well as I can I cannot see what's going on in there or know how to see if things have worsened.
It is only after we leave we our appointment for the next year or 18 months still with no resteictions that I begin to feel the knot ease slightly until the next appointment or illness.

I will be blogging every day in Feb and taking part in the #CHDphotochallenge to raise awareness this heart month.
Labels:
Location: Dereham, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dad's feel guilty too don't they?

      Recently, there have been so many articles and posts about mum Guilt. As a NICU mum I felt beyond guilty when Elijah was born. Check out my Mum Guilt post on Selfish Mother. However, where is the dad guilt? Do dad's feel guilty? Or is this something us mums take upon ourselves to feel? Another thing as a mum we feel we have to take on (and then feel guilty about) because they don't? Is it a common mis conception that dad's don't feel guilty about anything?   When you have a baby, guilt is a huge part of motherhood, it's almost instant. The whole breast vs bottle argument is thrust in your face once your baby is born and your decision is then criticized by anyone and everyone. Something that dad cannot really feel guilty about, if baby doesn't latch and you formula feed (I think whatever you want or have to do is fine!).   As an equal partner in bringing the baby into this world and raising them, do dad's feel what we do? Are the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Top 10 #Mumwins (okay 'win' may be abit of a stretch) of the week!

I have decided to do something a bit different, and update you all on what has been happening with us all this week. Hopefully, you get an insight that although I was a NICU Mum, I am also a Mum to a toddler as well. We are currently experiencing all things TODDLERDOM with my little Damien (666) seriously the older he gets the more worried I am he is the Omen!  Here is the little bugger covered in Oreos shutting me out of the house and making me knock on the door to come in! It also is nice to show you all how far away our life is from the time he was in hospital. We are fast approaching his year anniversary post op which is mind blowing. At times its so nice just to be a Mum to a normal little boy, and talk to other parents (many of you on Instagram) and laugh about all things #parentlife. So here are my Top 10 Mum Wins (more like fails) that have been achieved this week.   1. We thought we got away with it, we got cocky...
4 comments
Read more

The time Fajita night resulted in having a baby in a bath.

The newest Cockerill Do you all remember my ever so optimistic natural birth plan? You can read it here. However, spoiler alert, it didn’t happen. What did happen was something no one was expecting. Wednesday the 5 th July… a mundane sort of day spent cleaning the house and doing the weekly shop. With Greg going back to work the next day I was determined to make sure everything was ready for when this baby arrived! I was three days off my due date and still hadn’t had one single sign this baby was imminently coming. I had been receiving messages from quite a few people asking if baby was here yet. I was getting fed up as everything I had tried to induce labour failed miserably and every morning for the last two weeks I woke up disappointed I wasn’t in labour! I gave up, walking didn’t help, pineapple made me sick and I was beginning to tire of the raspberry leaf tea. This baby was staying put. In the evening I put Elijah bed, and we began to settle down for the eveni...
7 comments
Read more