Tag Archives: Sleep

Daddy’s new toy

Somehow, and I’m not entirely certain how, we have limped our way through what has proved to be a tough 5-weeks and finally Term 3 has drawn to a close and half-term has arrived. M’s health was hit hard when he came down with Aussie ‘flu just into the New Year and the term has been turned topsy-turvy as he’s struggled with high temperatures, heavy head colds, aching joints, lethargy and low energy levels. He’s also been trying to cope with unbelievable bouts of insomnia since the end of last term, a problem that has taken its toll not only on M, but the rest of the household too as Mike and I have juggled home and work as well as the impact of the serial bed-hopping that has become an almost nightly occurrence. Except on Wednesdays. I’m not yet sure what makes Wednesdays so special, but over the last couple of weeks, M has achieved something that has been such a rare event that I can pretty much count the number of times it has happened in his lifetime on the fingers of one hand. In bed – his bed – fast asleep and then nearly 10 blissful hours of interrupted sleep for the rest of us!

One of the highlights of half-term has been opportunity to finally try out the new toy that Mike had for Christmas. A stove-top smoker. Following the discovery of what quickly became a new favourite with M when we were in Greece last summer, Mike has been exploring whether there was any way to replicate the delicate flavours of this smoked chicken at home. He talked a few times about the possibility of buying a smoker, but as so often happens in our household, the chat didn’t lead anyway and eventually the idea faded away into seeming obscurity. However, whilst all thoughts of a smoker had disappeared from Mike’s head, it had taken up permanent residence in my mind and I was undertaking some research of my own.

Finding the perfect Christmas present for my other half is always a challenge, particularly as his birthday is just 2 months before, but waiting until December gave me enough time to read around the subject and pick out what I hoped would be the perfect choice. It came as a complete surprise on Christmas day and a present that both Mike and M were looking forward to experimenting with in the New Year. Sadly ‘flu got in the way of any such trials in January, but Mike being at home with the children for half-term gave them the perfect opportunity to give the smoker and a variety of wood chips a whirl.

By the end of the week, it turns out that Mike’s worked hard to see just what flavours he can produce and M feels that there’s still some work to be done to perfect the chicken to his exacting standards. It appears it’s all too easy to over-smoke the meat and end up with a bitter dinner, rather than the aromatic flavours we were hoping to find. M has suggested adding lemon and herbs to help flavour the chicken and I’ve no doubt that Mike’s new toy will be a source of much fun and experimentation over the coming months.

The Italian Job

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Sometimes you just need some time off; a week away from it all; an opportunity to have a break from the everyday, to just rest and relax and be. The thing is that that is hard enough to achieve when you’re a parent and near on impossible when you’re a special needs parent. The stress of leaving your chronically ill child with someone else, even when accompanied by a small novel’s worth of detailed instructions about what to do in every possible and conceivable situation, threatens to overwhelm and can seemingly be insurmountable for a day or two, let alone more than that. Mike and I are lucky that my Mum lives close enough to give us some nights off during school holidays, but those days usually mean longer hours at work for me as I attempt to make up time missed for hospital appointments with M and include only the occasional trip out to the cinema or for dinner somewhere where we aren’t tied to the essentials of chicken, rice and cucumber of our everyday menus.

Last December, in fact the day before M was admitted to GOSH for those disastrous food challenges, I received a Facebook message out of the blue from one of my fellow FABED Mums:

“Is that you that has won a trip to Italy with schar? Saw Twitter post? Congratulations x”

and have to confess that at that point I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about! A quick unscheduled peek at my Twitter feed and a long look at my e-mails later, I was stunned to learn that she was indeed right and I had won a 4-night stay in Italy thanks to gluten-free producer Dr Schar and the Allergy and Free from Show, Liverpool. It has taken a little while to put all the necessary pieces in place, but finally, last week, 6 full months since I first received that message, Mike and I left G and M in my Mum’s more than capable hands and jetted off for a much-needed break from it all.

Getting to that point did take some effort and there were last-minute wobbles before we finally left. It took an unbelievable amount of time to confirm the dates for our hotel stay due to the relaxed attitude of the Italian hotel staff and our flights were researched and scheduled by me once I knew the preferred airports for us to travel to and from. Two nights before we left, Mike questioned whether we really could go abroad given M’s current ill-health, but we trust my Mum implicitly and knew we needed to take some time for ourselves. That’s something that my Mum supported fully as she knows that reality as well as we do due to my T1D diagnosis at age 9. The truth is that you should never under-estimate the impact of a sick child on a marriage: the focus naturally shifts from each other to that child and home life inevitably revolves around what they need in every waking moment. In our household, those needs have not just been during the day, but at nighttime too as M’s sleep issues have been an ongoing problem that we continue to struggle with and every time we seem to be making some headway with it, something happens to set us back to where we were before. His broken leg has been no exception and has added to that regression as it has seen us playing musical beds with G moving to M’s cabin bed and Mike to G’s room to give M the comfort he needed to enable him to sleep in the weeks following the accident. The physical strain of looking after M with his broken leg has taken its toll on me, leaving me exhausted and Mike and I have had little time to spend with each other without interruption.

Our plane is the one on the left, which looked tiny when seen next to the Easyjet one also waiting for passengers

Last Monday passed in something of a blur and proved to be a long day of travelling with more than its fair share of minor hiccups along the way, just to keep us on our toes. We were up at 3.30am to reach our regional airport before a 6.30am flight to Munich, followed by a couple of hours waiting at the airport before our shuttle bus arrived. Then there was the 30 minutes of pure stress as we failed to connect with the shuttle bus due to the unclear instructions as to where to wait that were written on the booking form and my tears of panic as Mike desperately tried to find a helpful German airport worker to help him communicate with the bus company, before all was finally resolved and the driver turned around to pick us up.

The following 4.5 hours in a minibus without functioning air-conditioning and unable to communicate with said driver due to my lack of German and his lack of English was interesting, though we drove through some amazing countryside and realised that 4 countries in 1 day (UK, Germany, Austria and Italy) was a record even for us. We finally reached Lana, our Italian destination, only to discover that the cable car to the hotel – the only way to reach it – had broken down and we were destined to wait for an indeterminate amount of time as the statement that “..it might be 5 minutes, it could be 30…” was accompanied by an unconcerned shrug. But, we got there in the end and, having reached what is an amazing resort, it was, without a doubt, all worth it in the end.

How to survive a hospital stay – the Parents Edition

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Courtesy of yoast.com

When M was admitted to GOSH for a week for repeat scopes back in October 2013, I turned to the wonderful support network that is FABED and asked for some tips on the essential things I needed to take to get us both through that week. The resulting list was my parent’s survival guide, a resource I found myself turning to once again before our most recent admission. However, the one area I didn’t cover in that survival guide was what I did to get through those endless hours, especially when M was otherwise entertained or busy at hospital school and my lovely friend, F pinged me an email all the way from Canada to make this very point. She had her own set of questions about what I’d got up to whilst M was in GOSH, telling me what I’d missed from my previous posts and I thought I’d share with you all my curiosity-satisfying answers.

Where did you sleep? – I do so hope you didn’t need a hotel

No, no hotel for me, though actually there were times when a hotel room would have been invaluable. I slept next to M’s bed in a modern version of a medieval torture device: a chair that supposedly converted to a bed, though I think sleeping on a mattress on the floor, or even just the bare floor itself, might have been more comfortable. There were definitely some mornings when I would have killed for a good night’s sleep or the opportunity for a long soak in a hot bath, but sleeping in “the bay” with 3 other patients including 1 baby meant that my nights were often disturbed. M’s cubicle contained 1 of the 2 sinks for the 4 beds, which meant that one notable night, I had doctors, nurses and parents trooping through past M’s bed in a steady stream during the early hours as they needed to wash or sanitise hands and access sterile gloves.

The long-term gastro ward is shockingly out-dated and the facilities don’t meet the needs of the patients or their parents. Unbelievably there is just one bathroom for 16 beds and only 2 other toilet cubicles, so you were constantly having to keep an eye on the bathroom to make sure you could dash in there before it was in use again. Given this was the location of the height chart too, you can imagine just how in demand that single room was.

What did you eat when you were there? (I can only imagine this expense adding up if you were buying all your own meals)

Courtesy of mirror.co.uk

The expense certainly did add up as I had to provide all food and drink for myself during the admission. The small kitchen had a fridge which parents were able to keep food in, but I often found myself heading out each day to get some fresh air as well as my meals for the day. There was also a microwave and crockery and cutlery, so that did make having a hot meal a little easier. I kept some bread and crackers for breakfast and then would go out to buy sandwiches, ready meals or other snacks for the rest of the day. There are several supermarkets in the vicinity, so there was reasonable choice, though the largest shop is a Waitrose, which definitely didn’t help with the cost.

I didn’t really eat out too much, though I took G out for meals whilst she and Mike visited and I treated myself to the odd coffee or hot chocolate mid-morning from one of the nearby coffee shops. I also had a really lovely dinner out with one of my fellow Mums on the ward. We headed across the road from the hospital to a small Italian restaurant and enjoyed some delicious food, great conversation and a small glass of wine each, whilst the boys were under the watchful care of the nurses!

How did you pass time? – Surely M didn’t need you every second of the day?

The first few days M was reluctant to let me out of his sight for long, especially when he was struggling to cope with the effects of the bowel prep on his system. He understood that I needed to go out and get something to eat so that I didn’t make myself ill, but I would bring the food back onto the ward to eat at his bedside. He didn’t necessarily engage with me for most of that time, preferring to be plugged into the TV or playing his tablet or DS, but my presence was very much required. I took a supply of magazines, books and various puzzle books with me as well as my laptop, so I was able to entertain myself whilst he was absorbed in what he was watching.

Once he started going to school, I spent my time off the hospital ward as much as possible, taking walks in the local area and getting some fresh air or doing the more mundane chores of laundry or tidying up our very small bed area. I was lucky enough to be able to arrange to meet up with several of the lovely FABED Mums whilst we were there too as their children came in for various appointments or procedures. It was great to actually meet, sit down and chat with some of these folks who’ve been giving support over the last 4 years and to finally put faces to names.

Did you have opportunities to have ‘a break’?

My only breaks were relatively short ones when M was in school or the evening he went to Scouts. Some parents lived close enough to be able to go home or even into work during the day, but being over 2 hours away from London made that impossible for me. The 2 Saturdays when Mike visited, he spent most of his time with M, so G and I could go out and have some quality time together. We went to a coffee shop for elevenses both weeks, I took her out for lunch the first week and the 3 of us went out for dinner both evenings before they headed home. We were lucky that there are restaurants nearby that do gluten- and dairy-free food options, so eating out with G proved to be easy to do. But that was it. No other breaks for me as it was, all things considered, a relatively short admission and I needed to be advocating M’s needs during our time there, something I just couldn’t take a break from.

How do you stay sane while there?

Who said I did?! Truthfully, my sanity remained as much in tact as it did thanks to amazing support from family and friends. The folks who dropped me an email, sent me a text, popped something in the post for M or even arranged for a beautiful bouquet of flowers to turn up completely unexpectedly. And that’s not even thinking about the wonderful Mums I met on ward, who were all there for varying lengths of stay, for vastly different reasons and who gave me an ear to bend and a shoulder to cry on when I needed them the most. Believe it or not, we had a lot of fun in the evenings, sitting in the bay, comparing stories, sharing opinions of nurses and consultants, chatting about life and generally putting the world to rights. Those friendships were made in the hardest of times and the strangest of situations, but are worth more than their weight in gold. I met amazing parents who are facing much bigger challenges than we have to cope with and yet go about everyday with a smile and a kind word for everyone they meet. We all had our down days when we needed the support of those around us and I can’t think of a nicer bunch of people to have been through that experience with (Rhys, Lauren, Caroline – you know who you are and thank you!)

In Mummy’s arms

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Courtesy of susanstark.net

I lay awake in the early hours of this morning, watching my beautiful babies peacefully slumbering alongside me in the bed. I know that this morning, more than any other morning in recent days, both children needed the comfort of being in Mummy’s arms and resting with me. After weeks of (im)patient waiting, yesterday afternoon the phone-call finally came and at the remarkably short notice that I had been anticipating. I had less than 24 hours to book train tickets, pack a case, prepare crib notes for Mike and contact everyone who has anything to do with M to let them know about his hospital stay over the next 3 weeks, as well as the everyday tasks of cooking dinner, making packed lunches and sorting school clothes for the next day.

Whilst I whirled around the house in a haze of slightly panicked chaos, the children spent their last evening together for a while in typical fashion – hurtling from cuddling up to each other to threatening to scratch the other’s eyes out in a matter of minutes. M was particularly hyper and could barely sit still in his seat. Instead, he bounced, jigged and ran around the house like a mad thing, the clearest sign that his stress levels were high and gradually rising even higher.

We had a “last supper”, together as a family. One chosen by M. His consultant had suggested that he could relax his diet just a little before coming off food altogether and so Mike and I had expected him to choose something like fish and chips or Chinese. Instead, he requested the item that had been at the top of his Christmas list this year – an egg. So, the four of us enjoyed a poached egg on toast as well as a “dippy” egg with toast soldiers. It was a simple meal, but one that he heartily enjoyed and devoured with gusto.

Finally bathed and in their pyjamas, Mike read them a bedtime story, whilst I ran through my mental checklist and gathered up the last few bits to accompany us to London. G settled to sleep as quickly as ever, whilst M was awake until 11pm. He finally slept, snuggled into my side, with my hand tightly gripped in his much smaller one. Mike carried him back to his own bed and then we tried to sleep ourselves, knowing that, for me in particular, sleep would be a precious commodity over the next 3 weeks on a hospital ward.

I’m not to sure what time G crept in to our room, but I was suddenly aware of her presence on my side of the bed and she was quick to climb in for a cuddle as soon as I invited her in. My big girl doesn’t need my comfort so much these days, especially at night, but tonight she needed to feel Mummy near and I loved having that opportunity for an extended cuddle. Less than an hour later, just as I was drifting back to sleep, I heard the sound of footsteps running across the landing and in climbed M, snuggling down in his preferred position between Mike and me.

Courtesy of paediatricsconsultant360.com

Our bed isn’t really big enough to fit 4 these days, but tonight, of all nights, I relished the quiet opportunity to have our whole family together, in peaceful harmony; something that won’t happen again until M and I return from our adventures at GOSH,

Mr Sandman

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Sleepless nights are the bane of many new parents’ lives. You don’t realise just how dependent you are on 8 uninterrupted hours until you no longer have them. We were truly lucky with G. She was one of those very irritating babies who slept through from 6 weeks old and quickly developed a habit of 10-12 hours each night, meaning we never really suffered with early mornings either.

The first few weeks of M’s life lulled us into a false sense of security. He spent many of those early days sleeping, something that is typical of preemie babies I’ve learned. However, once we’d hit, and passed, the magical point of his due date, everything changed and not for the better. From the age of about 4 or 5 months to the present day, I can count the number of full nights’ sleep on the fingers of one hand. Actually, I don’t even need that hand to enumerate those memorable occasions because the only undisturbed nights that Mike and I have enjoyed in the last 8 years are those when M has been staying with my Mum.

Last year, we thought we had finally turned a bit of a corner with M’s sleep habits. We had persuaded him, through the lure of sticker charts and a much-desired Lego Millennium Falcon, to start going to sleep in his room. His bedroom was revamped for his birthday to match his passion for everything Lego Star Wars and became a place befitting of his 7 year-old status. I won’t pretend that it was all plain-sailing, but we gradually moved away from the constant shouts downstairs for food or stories until he was finally falling asleep in his own bed, albeit close to 11pm most nights. His 2am visits into us also slowly started to disappear and it really felt like the sleep issues were on their way out.

Unfortunately, we were once again counting our chickens too soon and, in the middle of 2013, everything reverted back to the old “norm” with a bump. I can only assume that a big part of this dramatic shift was the unexpected decline in M’s health that had started in the April. Since then, M has been almost completely unable to fall asleep by himself and spends almost every night pleading with us to “settle” him at bedtime. It doesn’t matter has much settling we do, within minutes of us leaving him tucked up in bed and heading downstairs for our own dinner or jobs to do, M is up on his feet, singing and dancing to whichever CD is that night’s pick. The rhythmic thuds that accompany our evening meals are a constant reminder of just how awake he is, but he seems unable to switch off and relax.

Around 9.30pm the questions start floating down the stairs: “Can I have a snack because I’m starving?”, “I need a drink – I’m dying of thirst” or, my personal favourite, “What time is Mummy coming to bed?” It is this last request that inevitably traps me between a rock and a hard place. If I go upstairs after about 10.15pm, M will climb into bed beside me and be fast asleep within 10 minutes; BUT any attempt made too early is a complete disaster. M will just lie next to me, hunting for Odlaw, Wenda and the rest of the Where’s Wally? gang, chattering away and almost without fail, I will be in dreamland before him.

Since Christmas, things have been getting progressively worse and Mike and I are both almost at wits’ end. This last weekend was spectacularly bad on the sleeping front and we’ve had to do some quick thinking to try and get things back on track. One of the biggest complaints we have from M is that he is hungry, regardless of how much he’s eaten throughout the day. To avoid a repeat of Saturday’s demand for a snack at 11.45pm, we have introduced a relatively substantial snack for M before he goes to bed. As soon as both G and M are washed, in their pjs and otherwise ready for bed, they can each select a snack or two to have, along with a mug of either hot chocolate or hot milk and honey. We tried this for the first time last night and appear to have scored an early success with no subsequent food necessary before he went to sleep.

Secondly, we’ve given M an incentive to improve his behaviour at bedtime and reduce his demands on us. We’re off on a big family holiday later this year and both children are keen to earn some spending money for whilst we’re abroad. M’s modest request for £5.90 for the 3 weeks has been judiciously upped a little and he can earn stickers (yes, we’re back to that damn reward system once again) for working hard to achieve this target. The stickers are awarded retrospectively, so last night’s bedtime routine and today’s behaviour will be assessed at snack-time tonight and stickers given accordingly.

Draining as all this is, I have been able to draw some comfort from discovering that we are not the only EGID family struggling with sleep issues at the moment. Another Mum recently posted about her anxiety over her child’s sleeping on the FABED forum and asked for help. Within a relatively short space of time, replies flooded in from across the country, from other parents who have been there and who are quite probably still dealing with it. I found it particularly interesting to read the perspective of a now adult EGID-sufferer, who was able to explain to us all exactly how the condition can impact on the body and therefore on sleep.

So, for all you parents out there who are longing for a good night’s sleep, believe me when I say that I feel your pain and will be hoping that the sandman visits your homes sooner rather than later tonight.

A Pizza Express birthday

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The first day of December heralds the start of the busy season for most, but an especially hectic time in our household. As well as the much-awaited day itself with all the associated celebrations at school, work, choir and church, we also have to fit in a 10^th birthday and a wedding anniversary. This weekend we got the ball rolling in fine fashion with an early birthday celebration for G.

Whilst G is most definitely a December baby, this year other commitments near her birthday led to my decision to throw her party early and sneak it in at the end of November instead. The first discussion was about the format her party was going to take. G was keen to combine cooking or baking with a sleep-over. I was less keen. The prospect of organising a group of near 10 year-olds (and two 7 year-old boys) to prepare, cook and possibly decorate a selection of M-friendly foods lacked appeal. Add in M’s inability to settle and sleep at the moment and I could see that it was more likely that full-scale battle would break out, rather than the joyous birthday celebrations G had in mind.

Thanks to some wise words from Canadian friend F, I found the perfect solution – a pizza-making party at Pizza Express. Now I appreciate that throwing a pizza party for a child with wheat- and dairy-intolerances and her multiple food-allergy suffering younger brother sounds somewhat off the wall, but thanks to the gluten-free menu introduced by Pizza Express earlier this year, we knew it was a viable option. We discussed our requirements with our local restaurant and were reassured that both children could participate fully and work around their dietary restrictions.

The date was duly booked, invites sent, travel arrangements made and finally the day dawned. Following our prompt arrival at the restaurant, each child was given an apron and hat to don before their starters of garlic dough balls and a side salad were served. Thanks to the information provided by Pizza Express, I was fully equipped for all eventualities and the chef was able to lightly toast 4 slices of M-friendly bread, which was served with garlic butter that I had prepared at home.

Next the task of making the pizzas themselves. G, M and their friends were given a ball of pizza dough each and were then instructed in the art of rolling, pressing out and filling the pizza pans. The children had varying success with their pizza bases, but eventually, after a couple of false starts, everyone had a base to be proud of. They were then given a selection of toppings to add before their pizzas were baked in the ovens. G and M were able to take full part in this, preparing pizzas for Mike and me to enjoy.

Stretching and fitting the dough to the pan

Adding the GF tomato sauce to the base

Once these pizzas were ready to be cooked, G and M were then given the opportunity to make their own lunch. Our party host was fantastic and explained just how Pizza Express make sure that their GF options are kept safe from the risk of cross-contamination in their kitchens. The GF pizza bases are pre-made and kept in separate storage as is the GF tomato sauce for the base and they use different pizza pans to cook the GF pizzas, which are easily distinguished from the normal ones. I had brought our own supplies of grated goats’ cheese for G and chunks of Violife vegan cheese for M, which is both dairy- and soya-free.

G’s with goats’ cheese and ham and M’s with black olives and Violife cheese

We finished the meal with a small portion of ice-cream with various toppings they could add at their discretion. Once again I had been able to bring with me a tub of Booja-booja chocolate ice-cream for G and M to enjoy and was thrilled to discover that the Pizza Express toffee sauce was safe for them too as the party host had made the effort to check the detailed allergy listing for all their products and could reassure me that it was safe.

A game of “Pin the moustache on Paulo” entertained them whilst the pizzas were cooking

All the children had a wonderful time and we were hugely impressed by the attention to detail that PIzza Express makes to ensure that their allergy-friendly options remain safe, even down to serving G and M’s pizza on separate platters to once again ensure no cross-contamination occurred. It was a real treat to be able to offer a “normal” birthday experience to G and for them both to enjoy the birthday celebrations with their friends.

Big decisions

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Courtesy of stuff.co.nz

We’ve recently had to make a decision about where we’re headed with M’s health and what tests, if any, we want to push GOSH to consider.

We’ve had a mixed success with the Movicol as he has started using the toilet successfully again and we’ve been able to banish the pull-ups to the bottom of the cupboard for the next time there’s a “just in case” situation. However, M now seems to be fluctuating between constipation and chronic diarrhoea and we’ve reduced his dose down to 3 sachets a day as the 4 were really proving to be too much for his system. We’ve tentatively settled there, even though it doesn’t yet feel 100% right.

The positive and best thing is that he’s conquered the toileting struggles. These had been a major source of distress over the summer and it’s nice to back on an even keel. M feels as if he’s more in control of his body – well as much as he can be whilst dealing with the ongoing battle with the symptoms of the EGID – and he’s really happy in school. What’s more, school have been working hard at putting a medical care plan in place for him to deal with the changing nature of his EGID and his medicines, which means that we feel confident that they’re taking the situation seriously and will support him during the school day.

Courtesy of warriorfitness.org

BUT – and you all knew that was coming didn’t you? – I’m still feeling unsettled about his over-all health and have a feeling that we’re not really dealing with the root cause of the problem. Despite some days when it appears he could eat for Britain, his appetite is down and his lunch-box is emptier than ever. He’s beginning to object more to taking his daily medicines and there’s been numerous mornings recently when I’ve held my sobbing child on my lap and had to coax him to take the full implement prescribed.

His sleep patterns are off once again and I’ve lost count of how many mornings I’ve woken up to find a small limpet-like child clinging to me and stealing the duvet from my back. Last night, I disappeared into my bed at 11.20pm, having found M still avidly reading his atlas and discovering new and interesting facts to share with me. It has to be said that a lot of the sleep problems appear to be related to his emotional and psychological health as when Mike came upstairs just 10 minutes later, M was flat out and fast asleep in his own bed. It’s as if he needs to be reassured that Mummy is nearby and once that’s clear, then all is well with the world and he can let himself drift off to sleep.

He’s emotional and tired and fed-up; and, to be honest, so are we. We’re working hard at remembering and focussing on the positives, but sometimes that feels like a step too far. The constant barrage of frustrated behaviour, food management, pain relief, sleeplessness, appointments. emails and phone-calls have drained me completely and I just felt unable to face another discussion with yet another faceless registrar at GOSH, who has little or no knowledge of M and needs me to bring them up to speed before I even get to the point of the phone-call.

So, at the beginning of the week, I asked Mike to speak to GOSH and put forward our case for another set of scopes. It’s been nearly 2 years since the last ones were done and we felt it was high time he was checked again. We’ve got no real answers as to whether all the medicines are 1) necessary or 2) working, the limited diet is a strain and this past week we seem to have added raspberries to the list of forbidden foods. This might seem like an easy decision to make, something of a no-brainer, but, as some of you may remember from my previous blog posts, M suffers from an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic. It’s been a big decision to make to put him through an ordeal that we hope might provide some answers, but that we know will definitely cause him pain.

All I can say is that someone must have been smiling down on Mike on Monday. I’d warned him that his initial phone-call would only get us put on the list and that if he was lucky he’d speak to a registrar on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday. I fully expected that we’d then have to wait for M’s consultant, Dr H, to be consulted and that we might get a final answer by the end of the week. If he argued our case well enough, then there was a possibility we’d get a yes, but I prepared him for battle. So imagine my surprise at getting a text message at 3.45pm on the same day saying that not only had the registrar been spoken to, but they had agreed to recommend scopes and, what was more, Dr H had been contacted, given her agreement and scopes would be scheduled for 6-8 weeks time.

The GOSH gastro team have expressed the same concerns about M’s progress as us and made making that big decision for more investigations much easier than I could ever have hoped. So all we need to do now is wait for the appointment date to be set and it’ll be full steam ahead.

7 years to diagnosis

Searching for an answer