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Tag: hospital

  • Don’t Answer Back To Your Wife

    My wife and I went to the auction in Texas last week and one of the first exhibits we stopped at was the breeding bulls. We went up to the first pen and there was a sign attached that said,

    ‘THIS BULL MATED 50 TIMES LAST YEAR’ 


    My wife playfully nudged me in the ribs ……smiled and said, ‘He mated 50 times last year, that’s almost once a week.’


    We walked to the second pen which had a sign attached that said, 

    ”THIS BULL MATED 150 TIMES LAST YEAR’


    My wife gave me a healthy jab and said, ‘WOW~~That’s more than twice a week ! ………..You could learn a lot from him.’


    We walked to the third pen and it had a sign attached that said, in capital letters, 

    ‘THIS BULL MATED 365 TIMES LAST YEAR


    ‘My wife was so excited that her elbow nearly broke my ribs, and said, 

    ‘That’s once a day ..You could REALLY learn something from this one.’ 


    I looked at her and said, 

    ‘Go over and ask him if every time was with the same old cow.’ 


    My condition has been upgraded from critical to stable and I should eventually make a full recovery.


  • Molar Pregnancy-Have you heard of it? 

    Easter Saturday 2012, we got those 2 blue lines we had been trying over a year for and we’re completely over the moon!

    I phoned my doctors and made an appointment, and told our immediate family, in our excitement we even naively started to buy odd little clothes as we saw them. 


    As the weeks went on I got very big very quickly, I was so ill, I remember when I couldn’t get out of bed mum saying, and I quote ‘its good you feel so sick, it means everything’s going well.’ I knew to expect to be tired but this was something else, and so battled on, after all I wasn’t the first person to ever be pregnant! 

    We became convinced that we were some weeks ahead or having twins due to the size of my stomach! Booking appointment with the midwife and bloods all fine…. 


    24th May 2012, we had moved into our new house the day before and woke up bright and early for our first scan, supposedly 12 weeks, I remember sitting feeling so ill but never  thought anything would be wrong, my name was called.


    She began rubbing the cold jelly onto my belly, it felt like forever before she said she couldn’t find a pregnancy and wanted to do an internal scan as I may not be far along, we knew this was not possible!


    After what seemed like a lifetime we were taken to a ‘comfy’ side room. The next few hours were a blur. I remember the words “no baby” “mass of tissue” “surgery” and “chemo”. Within 2 hours I was in surgery having a d&c, nothing had sunk in, as far as I was concerned I was in surgery having my baby removed. 


    It wasn’t until I had come round it was explained to me that there was no baby. When a sperm meets an egg but there is an imbalance in genetic material it becomes a molar pregnancy, sometimes there is a foetus that cannot survive- a partial molar, and others there is no foetus at all- a complete molar. 

    The body produces HCG in very high levels giving off very strong pregnancy symptoms, hence the severe sickness, so for 12 weeks I had been ‘pregnant’ but was now grieving for a baby that didn’t exist. My head was in a right mess!


    It was then explained that sometimes the tissue can start to regrow so I would need my hcg levels monitored by the specialists at charring cross hospital in London and if the levels didn’t come down as they should there was a possibility of needing chemotherapy. 


    I was one of the lucky ones, although I became very ill and spent a week in charring cross ready to start treatment, I never needed it. My levels lowered on their own. After weekly and monthly blood and urine tests confirmed there was no longer any HCG in my system, we then had to wait another 6 months to try to conceive again. That felt like forever, being told you can’t try for the one thing you want most of all.


    Molar pregnancies are very rare, but after having one you have higher chance of having another so all future pregnancies need monitoring, I went on to miscarry after this but now have 2 happy, healthy, gorgeous boys!

    Please don’t give up hope!




  • SIDS…A Story Of Survival

    I was always under the illusion that cot death/SIDS only struck babies under 3 months of age.

    I always thought that if i didn’t smoke, didn’t have toys in the cot, had a new cot mattress, had my baby at the foot of the cot, and followed all advise to prevent it my child would be safe.

    On November 17th 2010 at 1:30pm i put my very tired 7 month old son Elijah down for his nap, i didn’t want him grumpy on the school run, he was tired and teething so needed a little sleep.

    At around 2pm my little dog Sinder became agitated and barking frantically, me not having a clue tried to calm down the dog, she wouldn’t stop and was scratching at my son bedroom door.

    I looked in on my baby, my tiny sweet little lad was lifeless, lips were blue his eyes were closed, he didn’t move.

    I grabbed Elijah out of the cot and then I stopped being his mum, he wasn’t my son, he became my patient, I cut off all emotions, I went into first aid mode.

    I did CPR and rescue breathes, I didn’t have time to call for an ambulance i was alone and scared.

    It took me 10 minutes of robotic movements, a cold woman just going through her previous training hoping to see a sign of life.

    My baby screamed!!! He screamed in away ive never before heard.

    I then realised I hadn’t even called an Ambulance, after doing so I phoned my friend and asked her to have my 3 year old son who was still at nursery.

    I didn’t pick up my baby,I didn’t cry,I didn’t feel, I waited for the paramedics in silence.

    On route to the hospital I just stared into space, phoned Elijah’s Father and told him to meet me at Colchester Hospital and hung up, I couldn’t say what happened because in my mind I didn’t know I didn’t feel anything, i was in shock.

    We arrived at the hospital and Elijah’s Dad and Nan where waiting for us, once he was with the experts and his dad I decided to step outside to get some air.

    Now I knew my son was safe I was free to feel, the second I stepped outside I broke down into hysterical tears, dropped to the floor and felt guilt, fear, relief, i replayed everything that had happened in my head and was scared.

    How had this happened?

    What did I do wrong?

    Why didn’t I pick him up?

    Why didn’t I cry, how could i have felt so numb?

    Obviously I now know had I felt, had I cried, had I thought for more than a second I would have panicked and my son may not be here today.

    Elijah had to have numerous tests and then the heart breaking realisation that he had to have an X-ray to see if I had broken any of his ribs, and worse knowing that I couldn’t go in with him as I was 4 months pregnant with his baby sister.

    Elijah spent sometime in hospital having bloods taken, sleep analysis and his father being trained in resuscitation.

    Elijah is now 7 and every year I am thankful that I still have my amazing boy still with me, had I not known how to revive a baby things could have been very different.

    I make sure all my family members and anyone who babysits has knowledge of basic first aid, if you can’t get on a course to learn how to revive a baby and child, how to clear an airway etc please go to the library and get out a book, even watch YouTube videos, download and print off have step by step guide and keep it on your fridge it could one day save someone you love. XGemx

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avYRvVHAvfM]