Wednesday 16 August 2017

An anniversary. 8 Years Ago. #CHD

Today is my fella, Stu's birthday. That is one of the reasons that today's date sticks in my head and we celebrate but it is also the anniversary of the day my girls and I traveled to the hospital so they both could have open heart surgery....


The short story is: One night the kids were messing about in their bedrooms and Becky shut one of the doors on Ellie's fingers....While getting her fingers fixed they realised Ellie had a problem with her heart and it was found she had a Atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) (A hole in her heart) Becky showed the same symptoms so we got her checked out. Becky had the exact same defect on her heart as Ellie. We traveled to the hospital on the 16th of August. Becky had open heart surgery on the 17th of August and Ellie had her's on the 18th. We were in hospital for a week and they are now left with leaking valves which will probably need surgery in the future....

You can read the longer version of our story.....Part One and Part Two.


Over the last year nothing has changed with my girls....Well nothing that I know about anyway. The girls were supposed to have a check up in April but the people who organise the appointments are idiots. I don't want to bash the NHS but the appointment people are idiots. For 8 years we have told them we can't get there for 9am. It takes us 2 hours to get to the hospital so it would mean us leaving at about 6.30/7am which is ridiculous.

A new one was arranged for August! That was the first time they could get 2 appointments round about the same time on the same day...It just goes to show how busy the child's cardiac clinic is. Great! The girls wouldn't have to miss any school. We then got a letter saying that had to be rearranged and they sent more appointments out for just after 9am! Grr! Back on the phone and fingers crossed we should be seen in October! 


The girls are fit and well and I have no worries about their hearts...I wrote a blog post just after Becky's birthday last year and it sat in my drafts until a couple of months ago....Full of questions? Death? What if? I know come October when the girls have their appointment I will start to worry...Eek!

I think when we go to the hospital I will have to ask about the Cinema room that I won for the hospital where my girls were treated....


It was so amazing to give a little bit back to the hospital which saved my girls lives and because of that we appeared in our local newspaper....

So today we will be celebrating Stu's birthday and I will be spoiling my girls a little bit more than usual....

To some it may seem strange that we celebrate a day of worry, pain, stress and heartache but to us it means a lot. Every year which passes means my girls are fit and well. We are celebrating that we all got through one of the worst times of our lives and the girls are still here with us now....


9 comments :

  1. It's definitely a day to celebrate - being eight years on is a wonderful milestone and so glad that your girls are doing well. Rearranging appointments is a pain - we've had ones at inconvenient times but I know that having to rearrange means adding another couple of months at least to the wait. Thank you for sharing with #hearttoheartlinky

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    1. It is such a great milestone....
      Ohh! They have re-arranged again!! Moved from the afternoon to the morning. We're just going to have a very early morning and go and them go off it about them giving us stupid appointment times x

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  2. Definitely something to celebrate here - glad you are doing much better.

    #pocolo

    https://lizziedailyblog.blogspot.co.uk/

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  3. good grief, in some respects a good thing she got her finger trapped, but wow at how scary that must have been for you, and then to find out both of them had it, absolutely terrifying.

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    1. Getting her finger trapped was the best thing to happen although it didn't seem like it at the time. It was a rough few months for us all! Thank you x

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  4. what a special celebration for the the girls and the family, such a pain though the hospital appointments and times #pocolo

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    1. It really is a special time for us. Thank you x

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  5. Definitely a day to celebrate - and the cinema is fab too. Thanks for sharing with #PoCoLo

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