Quote[/b] (TonyTheKray @ Sep. 13 2006,17:06)]Thank's to one and all for the congratulations! And to naps for the PM!
I haven't been on here the past week due to unforseen circumstances, of which i'll tell you all about in a minute.
I've missed both the Sheff Wed and Norwich games as well.
Well the birth of our young Son Tomas was the most brilliant time of our lives. I left the hospital in the early hours of 6th September on cloud nine and posted a message on here.
What turned out to be the best time of my life, turned out to be the worst experience in my life.
I went back up to the hospital in the morning of 6th September (Southend away shirt on too) to see Tomas, and Mrs TTK. It was so good to see them both.
An hour or two later a Doctor came round to check Tomas and found a murmur of young Tomas' heart. This Doctor alerted a Consultant, and she checked him out. A little while later we was informed Tomas was to go down to the neo-natal unit for further monitoring.
We was left dumbstruck as Tomas was wheeled away in his little crib, and we was left just the two of us on a ward full of happy mum's and their babies. We couldn't believe it!
An hour passed i think, and this as mentioned consultant came rushing back. She said the problem was more serious as once thought, and he might need transfering to Great Ormond Street Hospital, or The Royal Brompton Cadiac and Lung Hospital (both of these are in London).
He was kept in observation in a swealtering hot baby ward, and we were told his blood saturation's were very low (basically the oxygen level in the blood). The level in a normal person should be between 96-100. Tomas' level's were between 50-60, not good!
We were told a specialist Ante-Natal (ANTS) team from Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge were on the way to transfer him to London!
Seeing Tomas in the neo-natal before he got transferred was very upsetting, he had so many wires and tubes attached to him, and he was getting so stressed.
The ANTS team turned up and it took them about 6 hours to get him stable before they could transfer him. If they didn't have any luck, a more specialist team from London would have had to transfer him.
The ANTS team got him stable by about 1030 at night. My partner had self discharged herself long before we left. So we followed the ANTS ambulance in full blue light and sirens mode down the A12, round the M25, and down the M11. We were on our way to the Royal Brompton. We managed to lose the ambulance around Redbridge cause it went though 3 red lights on a roundabout! Bad news! We got lost.
We had to navigate with sh!te directions though Bethnal Green et al!
We ended up in the square mile and i knew the Brompton was near Kensington and Chelsea, so i just kept heading West along the Embankment till i see some signs!
We finally got there by about midnight, with my partner very sore after her Caes section and a very bumpy journey!
The ANTS team had done very well in getting Tomas there, thankfully it wasn't rush hour!
We were guided to a family waiting room and were met by two top dog consultants. We were told Tomas had got Critical Pulmonry Stenenosis (a congential heart defect). One of his heart valves were smaller in width than what it should be, and the heart was not letting enough blood to the lungs, thus the low blood saturations!
A procedure to correct this was required which involved a catheter passed up through his groin and into his heart. Then a type of balloon passed through this valve and back again via this catheter to allow better blood flow.
This was to be carried out the next day, so we were put up in hospital accomodation, which was quite good as we were so tired!
The procedure was a success when carried out, but he had to stay in for further observations, x-rays, and echo's etc.
He made so much progress over this time, and they transferred him from the Pediactric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), to the childrens ward.
We got the ok yesterday to come home, we were so pleased. We expected to be up there for two or three more weeks. It was unreal!
It took us three hours to get home to Essex, across London through rush hour traffic wasn't good! It was so tiring! But we was home!!!
The Royal Brompton were superb, and if it wasn't for them, then who knows? Considering we nearly lost him hours after he was born, it was unreal the progress he made in London!
We have to go back up there in 4-6 weeks time for a check up with Tomas' consultant to see how he's been.
In the future he will have to have open heart surgery to replace the dodgy valve, or another catheter procedure to stretch the valve again.
So all in all a very stressful week, and so glad to be home! Out of our Hospital accomodation room we could see the brightness of the Chelsea floodlights.
The Kings Road and all it's glamour wasn't that far away too (a two minute walk).
As i said earlier, i missed the game last night and had to make do with updates on sky sports news with Tony Cottee at Roots Hall! Seemed a good result to get a last minute equaliser! I was singing Southend songs to Tomas last night!
So hopefully we can get some normality back in our lives now, with as i write this now, Tomas is having a nice cuddle with Mummy!
UP THE BLUES!
