wow, we are exhausted but elated. an absolutely overwhelming, emotional and draining, best part of a month, in melbourne, for chelsea's surgery. but yes, we are home. our beautiful messy, cosy, familiar, spacious home. we've been cramming in a one bedroom apartment for the last month, all 6 of us, sometimes minus chelsea, sometimes with jeff's mum and for another bit, my sister too.
here's me with all my girls, my mum to the left and jeff's mum to the right. jeff was getting the car when my sister snapped this pic. i don't know what i would have done [or not done is more the case] without these two women. my mother and my mother in law. they cooked on the nights i just couldn't be there or face it, they mothered my other girls when i was at the hospital with chelsea, they sat by chelsea's bedside while i spent time with the other girls. thank goodness for mothers. they held the fort when i just could not be all things to all people. we are eternally grateful to our mums, we love you!!!!!!! i bet they are just SO exhausted and so glad to be at their own homes for a nice rest and yet another cup of tea!
gee it really is SO great to be home. here's a summary of our trip for the record with a few pics too.
the trip to the airport on that first day began with 2 double prams, 4 kids, jeff and i, 2 large suitcases, 4 backpacks, 2 small suitcases and a another bag full of as much baby food & nappies as would fit! from the first second we were unloaded onto the footpath we became a travelling freakshow. as i stood there on the footpath with all the kids and luggage while jeff parked the car, so many people stopped to talk to us, many just pointed and laughed. 3 people [tourists] stopped to photograph the kids. anyway, we trundled through check-in and then headed to catch the plane.
the kids were fabulous. the twins slept most of the way, georgia was a bit frightened so held on to the arm rests the whole way [cute] and charlotte just sat, quite content to just eat snacks the whole time. we hired a large people mover with 2 baby car seats and 2 capsules to get us to our new home, north melbourne serviced apartments on flemington road, for the next weeks, month, whatever. so we moved in, unpacked and got settled. that night jeff headed up to the supermarket and shopped and i got the kids to bed.
the next few days were full of pre-admission clinic appointments at the hospital for chelsea, zoo trips, aquarium visits, queen victoria market shopping and a cake eating expedition in ackland street st kilda. we only expected to only have 2 days as a family before the surgery so we wanted to have a full crammed in time together with chelsea doing & seeing lots, so we were happy with what we accomplished. our mums arrived the night before chelsea's booked surgery date but of course the surgery was cancelled, and then again, 3 more times so we ended up filling up our days with more of the same activities from the previous week plus the museum. totally fabulous museum by the way. could easily spend a day there.
i desperately wanted to catch up with some melbourne scrapbookers, friends and an old school friend but there was not the time. the first couple of days were of course reserved for my kids then it was just not practical. with cancellation day after day it always seemed too late to ring friends late afternoon and ask, 'can you come and play with us tomorrow?' and then of course i was by chelsea's bedside every other day until the day we flew back to adelaide. so we will have to catch up under better circumstances. thanks to all you melbourne scrapbookers who reached out and offered help. *overwhelmed* - i would love to see you next time!
so here's some pics...
here's the girls eating their huge cakes at st kilda...
a few shots from the museum...
and these funny mirrors at the museum cracked us all up for ages.... here's my short & tall girls!
it rained a couple of days we were there and we got caught a few times out in the rain waiting for trams... the girls looked so cute in their raincoats.
a couple of half decent shots from the aquarium...
and zoo fun... chels absolutely loved that abino snake! amelia happy to just chill back and have her bottle.
and some beautiful blossom [snapped for my chelsea blossom] at the japanese gardens at the zoo...
we also spent alot of time in the apartment. the girls used our bed as a trampoline...
we brought a few dress ups and toys for them...
and we spent a fair bit of time in the hospital starlight room doing all sorts of activities...
the girls also contributed these canvases to the hospital as part of childrens week.
so whilst it was a nice enforced break from life at home & work, we had the surgery hanging over our heads so i can't say it was completely relaxing. we were there for a reason. the rollercoaster of emotions was hard. you'd get prepared and scared but then a reprieve. i must say i almost enjoyed every call to say the surgery was cancelled as it meant another day with her, so beautiful at that time, in our care, in our arms, alive & safe. when we finally got the call to say that surgery would be the next morning, i half hoped it would be cancelled again but i think i knew that this time it would go ahead. and it did.
i took this shot and a bunch of others the night before her big big day. oh man, we just adore this girl....
anyway, the big day came and went. she was in huge trouble coming off bypass but over the couple of days following they managed to stabilize her and get a few things pointing in the right direction. it was baby steps from there but i've detailed all that in previous posts on the heartkids blog.
here's some pics of her progress in the days that followed surgery. you can see how she changes and each day got closer and eventually back to our gorgeous smiling girl again...
our sweet girl. she is incredible. how she got through this immense ordeal, just inspires me, amazes me, overwhelms me.
she's back! her heart has been repaired.
following post op check ups however, there is some concern over her pulmonary artery, the pulmonary stenosis. the valve isn't great and the beginning of the artery is pretty narrow. her surgeon and adelaide cardiologist have said that whether she requires more surgery is up in the air. it will be monitored and it'll depend on how her heart grows and develops. it may fix itself, but its highly probable that it won't. we are ok with that. we always knew that valve replacements may be on the cards later. whilst the surgery will be big, it'll be alot less than this repair she has undergone. but we are not going to dwell on that today.
for the moment, she is home. she is SO happy to be home. those last few nights in the ward were hard!!!!! we had to wait for bottles, had to hear the other babies waking up and crying and not settling for what seemed the longest of times... thank goodness i stayed with her. i'm not sure i'd ever want to leave an unsedated baby in hospital. too stressful for them to not be able to get reassurance from seeing mum or dads face.
anyway, the care chelsea received particularly in icu, was amazing. they brought my baby back from a very dangerous position. i am eternally grateful to the surgeon Yves, and all of the ICU staff at the RCH. there are just not enough words to express how thankful we are. a box of chocolates for them seemed ridiculous but what else is there?
we will carry on trying to do some fundraising for heartkids, i guess that's something we can do. the expense for families going to melbourne is immense. we have been twice this year at a personal cost of $1000 per week after some subsidy. and this year we spent almost 5 weeks in melbourne with chelsea. with 4 kids, we don't have that kind of money sitting in the bank but at least we can afford to somehow pay off the money, many other families can not. we know of another family sleeping in their car on the side of the road. that's how desperate families are to be with their babies. there are not enough places in ronald mcdonald house so the rest just have to pay. so that's what we'll do, we'll fundraise. and i have a big scrapbooking date here in adelaide to kick off our contribution. stay tuned.
best wishes and a
heartfelt thanks to all of you around the world who have left comments on the
heartkids blog, have emailed me or sms'd. as i slowly unpack our bags and get things in order here, i'll get out some replies.
love kate
xo
