Finally... I Know Who My Hero (Heroine) in This Life Is!!!!!

 

My absence from my blog has been spent concentrating 100% on my Hero (Heroine) - whom I have just realised is worthy of that honour!!

 

 

My baby girl, my only daughter - Naomi. Born in 1983 we were told she only had a 20% survival rate. She proved that wrong. Born with a Congenital Heart Deformity she had a shunt inserted at 2 days old. She was certainly a beautiful bonnie baby at 9lb 50z in amongst the other NICU babies who were all under 3lb!!! Again at 12 months old she had another shunt inserted. At 6 years of age we were told she wouldn't survive another 6 months - we could take her home and enjoy what time was remaining with her - or we could let her surgeon take her into theatre to see if he could do anything at all that might help her - she again defied death and her medical team gave us back a beautifully pink little girl (who had been so cyanose her feet, fingers and lips were blue black in colour). The fact that she adored her surgeon and her cardio specialist and believed they were going to fix her up to be like her brothers also played a big part in her surviving).

Again when she was 10 years old she defied certain death when her medical team at RMCH operated against all odds and presented us with a pink little girl - although she had complications following this surgery she fought and defied everyone and everything to come home with us. her specialist told us that in the following 6 months they saved the lives of 7 other CHD children with what they had learnt from their surgery with Naomi!!

Having a baby was something she was supposed not to do (medically that is). But she fell pregnant and in 2004 our beautiful little image of her mother Karah was born at 1250gms - she has just flown threw life with no problems what so ever - Naomi on the other hand had been airlifted to Sydney, had an emergency c section because her lungs and kidneys were shutting down and was a problem for the next 3 weeks. once again she rallied and came home with her little girl.

She now had a life plan - she was going to live to the age of 45 because then Karah would be 25 and they would have had made lots of memories and Karah was old enough and strong enough to continue on without her mum. Whatever hospital Naomi ends up in she is an immediate attraction for all medical students and interns and registrars as her surgery is very uncommon and she has had a baby!!!

Monday last week Naomi was hospitalised in Lismore (13hours away mind you) with severe bloating in the abdomen. 3 CT scans revealed a blockage in her liver (tumour) and 3 shadows on the outside of her liver. Her INR (warfarin) was 7.8 instead of the 1.4 it should be. She had approximately 10 litres of fluid in her abdomen (she looked as if she was 7 months pregnant).

So in the car we got and drove to Brisbane. It has been through this last week that we have seen how high her pain threshold is (we would be screaming messes if we had to cope with the pain she has been coping with); she has not been able to keep any food down and has lost a lot of body weight. The sample that was taken of the fluid came back clear contradicting what the CT results said.  Because her INR is not low enough they cannot do a biopsy for fear of haemorrhaging. Yesterday they did an MRI and today they started draining the fluid (7 litres so far). They are hoping the INR is lower tomorrow so they can do the biopsy.

Through all of this she has tried to eat, go without pain relief because that makes her vomit, and is generally easy to make smile and laugh!! We had to return home today and she is constantly on my mind - phone calls are good but not the same as being there with her. She is my hero because she keeps fighting against all odds (and she knows they are stacked against her survival again this time). What lays ahead for her we don't know but we do know she will fight tooth and nail and with every ounce of energy she has - she has 15 years of her life plan left to live!!!

So we are home to get commitments out of the way, to get things here on the farm sorted and then we will be back to Lismore to get this girl on the road to recovery!!! I read everyone's posts each day (I need to do that) but I really don't have the time to comment. I will post to my blog when I get a chance but that may not be very often over the next few weeks.

Happy Easter To each And Everyone Of My Followers - may you all enjoy wonderful family time over the Easter weekend!!!!