Gastroschisis

We discovered that our precious little girl and Gastochisis on our 12week scan, and as like most of you spent the next few months constantly worrying about what lied ahead for us. We were closely monitered by monthly scans, followed by weekly as our due date approached.

Millie decided to make a early arrival and was born 5 weeks early weighing in at 5lbs 9oz and she was then whisked away to SCBU as soon as she was born, it just didnt feel real whilst I was still in the delivery room, our little angel was lying on an operating table with her life in the hands of the surgeons.

We finally got to see her when she was 3hrs old, only to be told that the operation was not a sucsess and further surgery was needed, as the opening where Millies bowel was had started to close over and had almost closed and it had survived by one tiny blood vessel keeping it alive, so Millies bowel was all inside but not conected to anything, so from the outside Millie looked like a normal baby, but nobody knew what was actually going on inside, we then spent an agonising 6 weeks just waiting for her next op to find out if any of her bowel had mended itself and survived.

Thankfully Millie came back from her 2nd surgery and all her bowel was all ok and as soon as she got over the surgery and all had settled down she could finally start having some milk which seemed like forever that we had waited for this day, Millie was 8weeks old , She tolerated milk well and gradually increased over the next few weeks and finally her bowel was working well, and at 11 weeks old we could bring her home.

She turned 1yr old last week, and what a yr, Millie is still very small for her age, she still gets weighed weekly to keep a close eye on her, she eats well, but she has difficulty absorbing all the nutrients from her food due to the damage from the bowel being on the outside, but we are told that it is something that she will grow out of, as she grows her bowel will grow, but to look at her you would never think what she has been through to get where she is now.

I hope my story has given some of you some inspiration, and I would be happy to hear from anyone.

Emma (U.K)

read comments (2)