The Beginning..



I’m going to start right at the beginning... 
My Mum (Jules) and Dad (Barry) had 3 healthy boys, Phillip, Adam and Neil.
My mum really wanted a little girl, so they tried lots of different ‘old wives tales’
to try and have a baby girl. 
In July 1990, my mum found out she was pregnant with me. Due to being a
pickle in the womb, they were never really able to tell my sex, or see any abnormalities. 
On April 29th 1991, I was born. My mum had a very difficult birth with me, as
I came out bum first with my legs up to my head and my arms wrapped around
them, medically known as posterior flexed breech position. I had slight difficulties
breathing when I was first born, but the main thing that was noticed is that my lower
jaw was set back quite far. This was when I was diagnosed with Pierre Robin Syndrome.
(You can find out more about this in another post).
As my lower jaw did not form properly, my upper airway was unable to grow. Which
meant that I was unable to be on my back at any point as I would stop breathing. I was
nursed on my front for 5 weeks and fed via NG tube as I was unable to feed due to having a
cleft palate. Numerous times I stopped breathing but the Drs were always able to
intubate me and get be back breathing again, until one day my airway had swollen
up so much they were unable to get the smallest tube down my airway. So I ended
up having to be transferred to Southampton General Hospital in an ambulance,
escorted by a police car to get me there as soon as possible. My mum was not
allowed in the ambulance and had to find her own way there, because they didn’t know
what they may have needed to do during the journey and there was a high possibility
I could have died. 
When I arrived at Southampton Hospital, I was taken into theatre straight away. That
was when they inserted an emergency tracheostomy.

The little tube, that saved my life.

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