The first movement......7th April 2011

....What a day we have had today. Maisie was being how she normally is - playing, shouting etc etc. After around 2 hours kip she woke up and after a cuddle was happy again. Maisie managed to wriggle about while she was laid on me, so I asked Alan to lay the duvet on the floor and put a pillow in the middle of it, we then placed Maisie's stomach over the pillow, out of curiosity I started to make a video on my phone....Maisie really amazed us, 2 weeks post-op and she has started to commando along the floor a little, I'm so chuffed i filled up when i saw her doing it...

Steph xxxx

6th April 2011......expensive trip anyone???

....Woke up this morning and went to change Maisie's nappy. There was more of the seeping stuff from yesterday, only this time it was more blood-like looking. Rather than ring our GP we tried to get hold of the surgeon, but there was no answer, so we rang the switchboard at The Royal London and asked to be put through to an orthopaedic doctor, once they were on the phone Alan explained about the seepage yesterday and what it was like today, the lady on the phone said that she would get them to ring us back after 3.30pm. Within 10 minutes of hanging up the phone they rang back, she had spoken to the ortho and they wanted to see Maisie at 11.30am!!! the race is on to get ready, best prepare for her needing a bottle etc. We rang a cab, and he came for about 10.40am. We got to the hospital just after 11.30am, which was lucky, but they were fine with that as they knew how far we had to travel, we showed the ortho the nappy from this morning, and he was a little concerned and wanted to have a proper look at her wound. We went round to the plaster technicians room and it was the same bloke who put the cast on Maisie, he said "this is one of my casts, last time i saw you, you were asleep" together with the ortho they both looked at the cast and what they could do to enable them to see the wound without weakening the cast itself. They decided to cut just a small piece out from the front, but clipping a bigger part where the bend at the top of her leg is. Once he had cut the piece off the doctor came in and pulled the sticky dressing that was put on her after surgery, this was very damp and a little on the smelly side, there was also some fluid running from her wound which he took a swab of. Upon examining her wound he told us that he wanted to put Maisie on some antibiotics as she has a low grade infection, and he wants to get on top of it to prevent it from getting worse. Because he had pulled the dressing off, and there wasn't a chance without fully removing the cast that he could get another one in, but he did say that we would be better with some soft swab gauze folded in half to soak up the seepage, and to change it every time we change her nappy. The ortho also wanted Maisie to come back next week and see her surgeon Ms Maizen, so she can have a look at it, and go from there on how the antibiotics have worked. Maisie is to see her surgeon on 14th April 2011 at 2.15pm....

Steph xxxx

5th April 2011....

....We tried to get Maisie an appointment yesterday about the muscle cramp she had, but they had nothing. We did make her an appointment for 6th April 2011, but this morning when we got up and took her nappy off there was some fluid-type stuff that looked like it had seeped out the side of the cast at the top around where the nappy is inserted. To describe is was like a very pale brown in colour yet had no odour? So Alan rang the doctors and they could fit her in today at 11.30am!!...

...I took Maisie to the doctors and explained everything, she had a look at the stuff that was seeping out, and said it was most probably left over blood, as she couldn't smell anything she didn't want to give her any antibiotics, but said to keep an eye on it, if it gets any worse we should take her back. For the muscle cramp, we should put her paracetamol back up to 4 times a day to try and help, provided she's not had cramp in the next week then we should start to reduce the paracetamol and see what happens....

Steph xxxx

3rd April 2011......oh no

.....Maisie had a pretty good day today, which is great, she finished her antibiotics, which is good, at last now were just on paracetamol wooohoooo!!!! Maisie went to bed as normal, and settled well, but she woke around 10pm and she was screaming like you've never heard a baby scream before, there was obvious pain somewhere...Alan cuddled her for a while, then I took over, we tried putting her teething stuff on her gums because she's teething again, but that did not help at all. Alan was stroking her right leg and foot, we did wonder if she was getting cramp as we know this can happen with a child in a Spica Cast, Alan gently put his finger into the cast on the right side as its only to her knee there is a nice gap around the top of her leg to get a finger in, Alan could feel the muscle that had tightened up....Muscle Cramp.....poor baby, she was screaming the house down in agony with it, I personally have never experienced cramps, but Alan does frequently, so I know how hard it is for Alan to deal with as he gets them really bad. I cannot see my baby like that again it was horrific. Maisie's muscle cramp took around a hour of screaming before it went away, then we had to get her settled again so we could put her back to bed! Will be making Maisie an emergency appointment with the doctor in the morning and see what they say about it....

Steph xxxx

2nd April 2011.....a&e trip

.....We had to take Maisie to a&e this afternoon, as her right leg and foot was freezing to touch, even after wearing toastie socks all day. Firstly Alan rang NHS Direct, who put him straight through to a nurse, she advised us, as Maisie is only 9 days post op, we should contact the ward for their advice. Alan then rang Grosvenor B at The Royal London Hospital, explained everything, they advised we took her to a&e to be checked over to make sure there is nothing wrong with the cast....

....We got a cab to a&e and were there for about 5pm, we waited around 1 1/2 hours for an orthopaedic doctor to come and check her over. He said that as her foot had warmed back up a little, he thinks that it is positional rather than anything to do with the cast itself and said we should just make sure that her leg isn't pressing on any of the cast to prevent it happening....Phew...

Steph xxxx

1st April 2011.......what a scary night

...Maisie's slowly getting back to her old self, it will take time, but its lovely to see bits of her coming back. It was around 10.30pm and me and Alan were sitting watching telly when we heard this sound over the baby monitor, Alan slowly got up to go and check on Maisie, then all of a sudden I heard this noise come over the monitor, I jumped and hastily said to Alan, "she's choking", Alan ran into the bedroom, and all he saw was Maisie projectile vomit into the air, for it to then land in her eye as well as her hair and face and pillow etc. Immediately Alan got her out of the cot, she was screaming and screaming, I cleaned her the best I could, but we had to wash her hair, as it was covered in the sick. After we cleaned her up and put a new nightie on her calmed her down etc, it was 1am and we put her back into bed, with clean sheets!....

....As we already had a doctor app for Maisie today I thought we should mention it, Alan thought it may be the nurofen as she's not eating too much, when we explained to the doctor what she was like, and what she's eating, the doctor said that we should stop the nurofen as her stomach lining was probably sore with not eating enough to cope with the antibiotics and nurofen, which would make it painful and also make her sick....that's it no more nurofen, if Maisie can't cope with her pain on just paracetamol then we will have to be given something stronger....

....Maisie had a whole day free from the stomach-stripping nurofen and she ate and drank a little bit more than what she has done, which is great stuff, hopefully it is all up up up from now!....

Steph xxxx

30th March 2011....

....Our first night home with Maisie wasn't too bad, because my mum and Grandma were still here they stayed in Hailie's room, as Hailie the madam was in our bed! I got into bed with Hailie and Alan crashed out on the sofa. Maisie surprisingly only woke twice through the night, which I thought was brilliant for a first night home....

....We took Maisie over to the school to get Hailie, which Hailie loved, and of course in true 8 year old style, she wanted to show Maisie's cast off to all her friends...that night wasn't too bad either Maisie went to bed at 8.30pm-ish, woke at 11.30pm-ish, it was then that we had to get her up and cuddle her, Maisie went back to bed around 1.30am....

Steph xxxx

29th March 2011.......HOMEEEEEEEEEEEEE

.....When we spoke to the nurses this morning, we were told that as long as the paediatric and medical doctors were happy with the way Maisie is, then we should be able to go home!!! Fingers crossed...

...We eventually saw the paediatric doctors, who said that from their point of view, Maisie's open reduction was a success, there was no complications, and they only needed to do the reduction, there was no need to do the osteotomy, which is fab, however we do have to wait for the medical doctors to say that they are happy for Maisie to be discharged and allowed home....

....Seen the medical doctor in the afternoon, Maisie is fine to go home, but they want her to have some anti-biotics as something is slightly raised in her blood results, so we just have to wait for pharmacy to bring down her paracetamol, nurofen and co-amoxiclav anti-biotic...once they have arrived on the ward the nurses can arrange for an ambulance to take Maisie home on a stretcher....we all know what the pharmacy dept is like in a hospital....."how Long's a piece of string" as to how long the meds will take to come down, oh well, its worth the wait if we get to go home....

....It would have been around 5pm when Maisie's meds were ready, but then her temperature went back up...so the nurses had to get the medical doctor to come and check her over to make sure that she was safe enough to go home as planned! We waited around half a hour for the medic to come and see her, she spent a while reading through Maisie's notes, checking what had been going on over the last 6 days. She came and did some checks on Maisie, and told us that her temperature wasn't that bad as it was the higher side of 37oc, she was happy for us to manage her temperature at home, but stated that should we be unable to control it we would have to bring her back...which we were fine with doing! The nurses booked an ambulance at 6.30pm, and we just had to wait for them to arrive. Maisie fell asleep around 7.30pm, while she was asleep I packed her stuff up from around her cot so that we would be ready to leave as soon as transport came for us....

.....9pm came, still no sign of transport, the nurses tried to ring them to find out how long they would be as it was getting late, but they couldn't get any information on it! Maisie woke up and it was time for her to have paracetamol and anti-biotics, which the nurse gave to her from the drug trolley off the ward. Alan went back to Stevenson House where we had been staying to pack up our stuff, as we both weren't allowed in the ambulance for insurance purposes Alan's mam Maggie was going to take Alan home with all our bags. 10pm came and I was given the thumbs up from the nurse, transport was here, they were just on their way down to the ward....FANTASTIC....we got Maisie comfy on the stretcher, legs propped nicely and they covered her in a blanket to keep her warm and put the strap across her just to be on the safe side, they did ask if I wanted to sit with her on my lap on the stretcher, but there was not a chance I would have been able to hold Maisie for that long, she was really heavy and although I had some confidence with the handling of a child in a Spica Cast, I thought it would be best if she was on it on her own for her comfort. We got home around 11pm, when we got off the ambulance, the driver apologised for it taking as long as it did but he didn't want to go too fast and hit little bumps in the road, so that the journey didn't cause any additional trauma to Maisie, which was really nice....

....I also got to keep the blanket they had wrapped Maisie in lol, oh well never mind, they never asked for it back once they had helped us inside with the bags that I had with me =)....but finally were home and ready to start Maisie's Hippy Adventure.....

Steph xxxx

28th March 2011....

....Things aren't too good, Maisie was sick through the night, & her temperature went back up! The doctor has put her back on the higher dose of the saline drip...during the day Maisie did pull this drip out, and because it was on her wrist (where all the veins are) and Maisie pulled and pushed the cannula, she has hit her tissue's with it, which has caused a little lump to form where the cannula was placed. For now they are going to leave the drip out and see how she goes...

.....Maisie did need more Ora-morph today to help with her pain! Maisie surprised us today with it though, because within a few hours she was as ok as can be after having morphine, but did kind of smile with me for a photograph =).....

....We really want to go home, we know she will start to recover better in her own surroundings and we can control the heating, rather than be in what seems to be a constant sauna on the Children's Ward...I know it has to be like that, but it really is no wonder Maisie's temperature wont stabilize in a very hot environment...hopefully we can go home soon, just need Maisie to pick up eat and drink enough for the docs to give her the all clear to come home....

Steph xxxx

27th March 2011...

....Maisie is soooo much better today, they took her off her drip first thing to see if that would prompt her to get thirsty and drink something! For her dinner she ate a small milky bar, a few small spoons of custard and half a bag of quavers!!!! Fair enough its not the best of food, and the doctor wasn't that impressed that was what she had had to eat, but from mine and Alan's point of view, something is better than nothing at all, if Maisie had turned down the milky bar we would have had major concerns, because she loves a milky bar!...

.....By 6.30pm Maisie's temperature had gone back up, this time it was 38.9oc, wouldn't eat any tea, but she did drink 3oz of milk....

...Lets hope for a better day tomorrow...

Steph xxxx

26th March 2011....

....Yet another day on the drip, Maisie still hasn't eaten or drank anything, which is a growing concern! So they upped her saline drip to compensate what she's not drinking herself, but she cannot stay on the drip forever. Maisie was more perkier today, which is fantastic, & the paracetamol & nurofen controlled her pain, so no Ora-morph today =) The doctor also took another blood test today to check her liver function, should have the results tomorrow.....

....It was a "better" day with Maisie today, had a few, and i mean a few, smiles off her. Which was really lovely to see, she did try and play about with her drip, but we did manage to distract her from pulling it all out...

Steph xxxx

What a fright.....25th March 2011

......Me and Alan were asleep back at Stevenson House and it was 3.30am, Alan didn't feel too good and had the runs, all of a sudden my mobile started ringing. It was a withheld number, I answered it with caution whilst thoughts of...." who could it be? only the hospital would be ringing at this time! its Maisie! theres something wrong! whats wrong? oh i hope its nothing serious!"..... spun around my head in a split second! As I answered the phone, it was the hospital, Maisie's temperature had shot up to 39.7oc and she wasn't well, instantly i replied with " I'll be there in 20 Min's, just let me get dressed" I leaped out of that bed, I have never in my whole life got out of a bed so fast, and started to get dressed, Alan turned around and asked what was the matter, so i explained what the nurse had told me, he jumped out of bed too and got ready while feeling so ill! Although he knew he couldn't come in with me in case he had an D&V (although he had not been sick so far) he didn't want me to walk through the streets of Whitechapel at almost 4am! Alan walked with me to the hospital so I wasn't alone, and he waited outside until I came out with some more news! As I briskly walked onto the ward, all was silent, Maisie wasn't properly asleep, but she had calmed down and was relaxed....once I was there the Doctor came over, and explained that they wanted to take some Blood Cultures which take 48 hours to come back which will show if there's any infection, plus they wanted to take a chest x-ray to see if there was any infection because she is only just post-op! Getting bloods wasn't easy, they tried getting blood from the top of her hand (palm down) there was no vein to be seen, so the doctor went in where the vein should be, but found nothing, she then went in the top of Maisie's foot, again went in blind, nothing there either, so she went in Maisie's wrist on the tiniest vein, and managed to get the cannula in and get some blood from her, as she already had a cannula in her other hand which was giving her saline, they decided to give her i.v antibiotics too. Then a lady came around at about 5am with an x-ray machine and took an x-ray of Maisie's chest....

.....I saw the doctor again around 8am, and she told me Maisie had a very mild chest infection, which was most probably caused by the gas that they use to put her to sleep and the device they put in her throat while she was in surgery. The doctor did also say that she will be getting the consultant to double check that it is mild and that there is nothing more serious there!.....

.....By 9am, Maisie was still very unsettled and seemed to be in a lot of pain, and she hadn't long had some paracetamol and nurofen, so the nurses said that they were going to give her some Ora-morph (oral morphine), after they had given her the Ora-morph they brought her a slice of toast, but she wouldn't eat or drink anything By the time it was 10.20am Maisie was so drowsy, but within 15 minutes she was asleep, so I left the ward. Alan met me outside the hospital and we went to get some cash and something to eat, and we got Alan some Imodium.....

......When I got back to the ward, Maisie was fast asleep, which I expected her to be, especially after the Ora-morph. One of the nurses told me that Maisie needed to have a CT scan done over her cast just to check that the hip was still in a good position! Maisie was called at around 1-2pm for the CT scan, I stood in the room with her to make sure she didn't try and attempt to roll off the bed.....CT didn't take long at all, I doubt it was even a minute, we then took her back to the ward, and she fell back to sleep....

.....I had spoken to the nurse about Alan not feeling well, and she asked me what was wrong with him, so I told her that he had the runs, but had not beed sick, and that his last runny poo was the night before. The nurse told me that as long as he hasn't been sick with it, then its not D&V and he can come onto the ward to see Maisie, as Alan was going crazy not being able to see her, knowing what a bad time she was having, he was so relieved when I told him he was allowed in, not that there was much light to Maisie, she was still really drowsy off the Ora-morph. Maisie did not eat or drink anything all day, and was asleep really early. Me and Alan had left the hospital at around 6.30 because she was sound asleep.....

Steph xxxx

The Big "Operation" Day......24th March 2011

....Maisie was starved from 2am, she was woken by the nurses at around 1am to have a bottle of milk. They had informed us when we arrived at the Hospital at 8am that Maisie was first on the list, but that we had to wait for "them" to phone the ward to say they were ready for her! We sat and played with her until the nurse came over at 8.40am and told us that they were ready for Maisie, we asked if we would both be allowed in while Maisie was anaesthetised, the nurse said we should both go up, but ultimately it would be up to the anesthetist if we could both be there.....I carried Maisie around the hospital to the anaesthetic's room, to which he said we were both allowed to be with her until she fell asleep!....

.....Once we were in the room, we were asked to confirm Maisie's date of birth. I then sat on a hard chair positioned next to a stretcher type bed, Alan sat on his heels in front of where my knee's were, stroking Maisie's legs. The anaesthetist then brought over a very small mask, which covered Maisie's mouth and nose. Maisie did not like the mask over her face, tried to pull it off and tried to move her head away from it. I held her hands down and cupped as much of her head between my arm and chest, while the anethiatist held the other side of her head to prevent her from moving. Her cries we really intense, and the gas stank, I started crying with her....and for what felt like an eternity, but most probably less than a minute, Maisie was floppy, we then gently placed her onto the bed, mask still over her face and we left the room, Alan gave me a much appreciated cuddle, then we left and went back towards the ward with the nurse.....

....While Maisie's operation was going to last approximately 2 hours, and they were still unsure as to what procedure they were going to do on her, obviously they had to do the Open Reduction, but the surgeons pre-warned us that she may need to have an Osteotomy done at the same time, but that it all depended on how the Reduction went. With 2 hours to kill, and not knowing Whitechapel at all, we went for a little wander to find a cash point....found a bank...now only me and Alan could do this....we both looked at the title of the bank, which was IBB thought nothing of it, I continued to put my card in, for the cash point to spit it back at me, as we looked around the building, we saw the bank was one of those banks that only accepts its own cards and was called the Islamic Bank of Britain!! So we carried on walking, and eventually found a cash point that would take my card. We went for something to eat, not that we really wanted to eat anything but we knew we had to, pottered about for a bit then went back to the hospital to wait for them to let us know we could go and get our baby...

....Recovery phoned the ward at around 11.30am to say Maisie was awake and in recovery! So we went up with the nurse and as we walked into the recovery room Maisie was laid their in the hospital cot, as we got near the cot Maisie took a great lunge, grabbed the bars and flung herself round, I panicked as I hadn't been told or shown how to hold her yet or how to deal with her, the recovery room staff gently pulled her round and laid her back down, to which Maisie kicked off at. They asked me if I wanted to hold her, which of course I did. I sat on the chair provided and they placed Maisie on my knee. I have to say I did not like the look of it, or the feel of it and was quite freaked out by it, they then gave her to Alan to hold, then we made our way back to the ward with her....where she spent the rest of the day asleep mostly....

Steph xxxx 

Maisie's run up to the op.....23rd March 2011

...Oh my this was a fun day today...nerves were going mad all morning, and it wasnt even 9am. Waiting anxiously for 9am so we could ring the hospital to comfirm that they had a bed for Maisie....I think even   Maisie's older Sister Hailie was ready in record timing! Surprisingly Hailie went to school, Alan's mum had stayed over the previos night to help with Hailie this morning, so she took Hailie to school and me and Alan were making sure we had everything packed and the us and Maisie were dressed and all ready to leave, adn that all the bags were by the door ready to leave....

Then 9am came.....as Idialed the number given i could feel my heart starting to race, once they had answered, i asked if the bed was still available for Maisie today, "oh yes, can you be here for 12.30pm" so i asked if we were a little late would it matter as we had to get the train then the tube, and explained that it may take a few hours as we don't live in London! He was fine with that....good job too!

We got on the train, at our local train station, price = £28.80! That was paying for Maisie too, by paying for her we qaulified for the "family saver thingy" bonus. So we set off to hunt out Whitechapel in London! It was actually pretty easy to be honest, train direct to London Liverpool Street, change to the tube, and i think we took the hammersmith and city line, to Whitechapel.....

Once we had arrived at Whitechapel tube station, we had to find where the Sick Childrens Trust Charity had left the room keys for us, i for some reason was under the impression that they had been left at the train station, but they wern't, they had been left inside The Royal London Hospital at the security office for us to collect, the baggage we had was amazing, so rather than take everything to the ward and with it only being 12pm, we took all our stuff to a beautiful house run and funded by The Sick Childrens Trust named "Stevenson House". We were greeted with care by one of the staff! By the time we had got the stuff to our room and changed Maisie's nappy etc it was just after 12.40pm, so we rang the ward and asked if it would be ok to take Maisie for some lunch before bringing her up as she would have missed the dinner trolly, which they were fine with. So we went to as lovely little shop called Trio Sandwhich Bar, and had a sandwhich each, then took Maisie to the ward....

Maisie was on Grosvenor B Ward at The Royal London Hospital, bed 8! We went through all the paperwork that needed to be done, and that was that, we then went for a walk around for a bit as they didn't need her to be stuck on the ward! We took her back and she had some Tea, then thought it would be a great idea to run all around the ward...barefoot lol! All the staff were laughing at her, and she was so happy and was really enjoying herself, she didn't settle down and go to sleep until well after 10pm lol.......if only she knew what was to come the following day......

Steph xxxx