Elizabeth unwell last week

We had a little visit to the RVI last Friday. Elizabeth had a minor cold but it went to her chest and she became very wheezy. I took her in for the day on the advice of our GP.  Elizabeth was started on her extra-strong antibiotics (she is till on the weekly prophylactic ones) and was much better by Tuesday of this week.

That Friday was definitely one of the worst (and funniest) mornings of my life. It involved Elizabeth hyperventilating, A being away for the week on a course and the discovery that Chloe had nits! Compared to that, any job would be a doddle for me now. Lion tamer? Wing walker? Those are jobs for wimps!

Aside from being a nitty nurse, my other occupation has been plotting (with Mr Jaffrey's support) to get some research done on the surgical treatment of exomphalos. Geeps has seen loss after loss of little ones born with giant exomphalos recently. Only three out of nine babies, including Elizabeth, have survived and that doesn't count the ones whose parents understandably chose not to go ahead with the preganancy because the prognosis was so poor. Well, the good news is that the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons is considering carrying out some research and we are doing everything we can to make that happen.

J
xxx

Summer update

Hi everyone,


I'm sorry that I haven't been updating the blog - it's partly down to the school holidays and partly because there has been mercifully little to report on Elizabeth.

Elizabeth has been doing really well and everyone keeps commenting on how healthy she looks these days (as you can see from the photo). Her new regime of meds really seems to be working and I also think that the damp summer has helped - I may be the only woman in England who was grateful for all that rain.


A and I are starting to relax, finally, and to believe that the worst is over. A is going to try out a couple of sessions at playgroup next month and I am starting to do some work from home (as a market research transcriber if anyone needs one!). We are enjoying a social life together, which is something of a novelty.

We has a real treat last week as we finally got to meet an exomphalos baby other than Elizabeth! Her name is Grace Campbell and she lives in Edinburgh with her lovely parents, Gen and Mike, who are Australian. Grace was treated in the same way as Elizabeth (conservatively) and is almost the same age, so they have an awful lot in common. It was also really great to finally meet Gen, who has been an enormous support to me via Geeps.

Elizabeth is coming on really well developmentally. She's still very small for her age and very slim, but she is chatting away happily and is a very sociable little thing. She can count up to twelve thanks to tutoring from her big sister. Chloe and Elizabeth are very much in love with one another and have lots of fun - long may it continue!

J
xxx