Latest / Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast / Episode 81 - With Amy Parker (Part 1)

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Episode 81 - With Amy Parker (Part 1) · Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast

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Speaker 1: You are listening to Tom's Hirshbrung's Podcast, a space where
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Speaker 1: we talk openly about living with Hirshprung's disease. Whether you
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Speaker 1: live with it, care for someone who has it, or
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Speaker 1: just want to understand more, this podcast is for you.
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Speaker 1: Each episode, we will explore real stories and honest conversations
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Speaker 1: about a condition that often goes unheard. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: tuning in. Hello, and welcome to episode eighty one of
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Speaker 1: Tom's Hirshbruns Podcast. I am delighted to be joined by
0:51
Speaker 1: Amy Parker all the way from China, so we're going
0:53
Speaker 1: to hope the connection holds. We've got a slightly different
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Speaker 1: hirshprung story today, and I am fascinated to know the
1:02
Speaker 1: ins and outs of how this all came to be.
1:06
Speaker 1: And welcome Amy.
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Speaker 2: Thank you. They also a whole action holds.
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Speaker 1: Up, Yes it did, should do. I think we will
1:14
Speaker 1: be good. We'll be all right. I'll be able to
1:17
Speaker 1: hear you if nothing else.
1:19
Speaker 3: Now.
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Speaker 1: I know we were talking a little bit before about
1:22
Speaker 1: your daughter's hirshprungs, and as I said in the intro,
1:26
Speaker 1: it's not it's not a textbook case. As you told me,
1:30
Speaker 1: this isn't a not that hirshprings is a particularly textbook condition,
1:36
Speaker 1: but it's it's not a not a not a common one.
1:39
Speaker 1: And there's certainly some things in here that I haven't
1:40
Speaker 1: heard before. I guess we'll start from wherever you'd like
1:46
Speaker 1: to start from.
1:48
Speaker 2: The Bex was yeah, So we had her diagnosis in
1:57
Speaker 2: April of last year. She was almost fourteen months when
2:04
Speaker 2: we had her diagnosis, but it sort of started around
2:09
Speaker 2: six and a half months ish as she started solid foods,
2:15
Speaker 2: she became chronically constipated. Until then she passed stool without
2:21
Speaker 2: any issues. So we just briefly spoke about the five
2:27
Speaker 2: things of more common in boys than girls, the low
2:33
Speaker 2: birth weight, sicky baby, irritable baby, and the constipation. She
2:39
Speaker 2: had none of those things except for the constipation. After
2:44
Speaker 2: she started solids, so we started to notice that she
2:48
Speaker 2: wasn't drinking as much milk as much breast milk. She
2:53
Speaker 2: was only breastfed, but pumped milk, so we could see
2:56
Speaker 2: how much she was. Actually, I'm very type A. I
3:00
Speaker 2: didn't want a breastfeed, but I wanted her to have
3:02
Speaker 2: breast milk, and I wanted to see how much milk
3:04
Speaker 2: she was having. I was very type A before she
3:06
Speaker 2: was even born. I decided that's what I was going
3:08
Speaker 2: to do. And some people are like, oh, my breast
3:11
Speaker 2: feeding journey ended up being pumping. I was like, my
3:14
Speaker 2: breastfeeding journey is pumping, and that's that. I said, don't
3:18
Speaker 2: know how much she's drinking. I need to know. So
3:21
Speaker 2: that was how I did it, right, So, anyway, we
3:25
Speaker 2: started noticing she was refusing actually not a little bit
3:28
Speaker 2: before that. Now I think back, she was refusing bottles
3:32
Speaker 2: a bit around like four to five months. She was
3:34
Speaker 2: a bit irritable not drinking as much, but that was
3:37
Speaker 2: always put down to teething and that was that. But
3:42
Speaker 2: she would still drink enough. Right, it might be that
3:45
Speaker 2: she wasn't following the same sort of pattern as she
3:47
Speaker 2: was the day before or something like that, but overall
3:50
Speaker 2: she was still gaining weight. She wasn't losing any weight,
3:53
Speaker 2: so it wasn't an issue. Then when we started solids
3:58
Speaker 2: with her, I was here, don't really take my in
4:00
Speaker 2: the first couple of weeks, even month, two months, you know,
4:04
Speaker 2: they're just eating tiny tiny bits here and there. But
4:06
Speaker 2: she loved porridge, so she would have a porridge, so
4:10
Speaker 2: she'd have it morning bottle and then she'd have a
4:15
Speaker 2: porridge a couple of hours later, and then she'd started
4:19
Speaker 2: to maybe not have the third bottle or maybe just
4:22
Speaker 2: drink ten fifteen meals and then the same the rest
4:25
Speaker 2: of the day. And it was like, why is this
4:27
Speaker 2: child so full? So then we started giving her like
4:31
Speaker 2: a little bit less of the porridge because I was
4:34
Speaker 2: at that age they don't need the food as much
4:37
Speaker 2: and they still concentrate more on the on the breastwork
4:39
Speaker 2: with the nutrients and whatnot. So anyway, around six and
4:43
Speaker 2: a half months Stash, I noticed like her poor habits
4:46
Speaker 2: had changed, as you do when you're a first time
4:50
Speaker 2: I'm to a six month old. Your life is around
4:53
Speaker 2: there pooing and pin and drinking milk. And I had
4:56
Speaker 2: an app that I was also obsessed with, and actually
4:59
Speaker 2: and till she was two years of age. Literally the
5:02
Speaker 2: day she was two, I put in every nappy, pool pee,
5:07
Speaker 2: every middle liter of milk, every sleeping wake window, and
5:12
Speaker 2: every pump.
5:13
Speaker 1: Wow.
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Speaker 2: It was actually really good when it came to the
5:17
Speaker 2: diagnosis and following things because I had a record of everything. Yeah, right,
5:23
Speaker 2: but around six and a half months, it was the
5:26
Speaker 2: August time, so yeah, she was six months eleventh of August.
5:30
Speaker 2: It was towards the end of August. She hadn't gone
5:33
Speaker 2: for a week, like a full week, and now she
5:37
Speaker 2: was a bit irritable. She was trying to push and
5:40
Speaker 2: it just nothing was happening until a Sunday afternoon. I
5:45
Speaker 2: remember vividly she was waking up from her nap. We
5:47
Speaker 2: were ready to go out for lunch. We're going to
5:49
Speaker 2: meet some friends for lunch, and this baby just cried,
5:53
Speaker 2: like she was screaming, and I was like, what's going on?
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Speaker 2: What's going on? And then we're like, right, is like
6:00
Speaker 2: trying to pull because it's been a week, right, So
6:03
Speaker 2: we had been told by a midory friend of ours,
6:07
Speaker 2: like put some vaseline around abam, you know, try and
6:10
Speaker 2: help it come out. So we tried to do that
6:13
Speaker 2: and you could see like it was trying to come,
6:17
Speaker 2: and we like took a nappy off, we were like
6:18
Speaker 2: moving our legs and tried bicycle a bit rubber belly,
6:22
Speaker 2: try to put it in the bath, and then this
6:24
Speaker 2: pool just came, like whether she wanted it to or not,
6:28
Speaker 2: but it came with force. So you can imagine now
6:32
Speaker 2: what was the scene in that area. And we went
6:35
Speaker 2: straight to the hospital. I don't know. I didn't panic
6:41
Speaker 2: because I was more like, I know why she's crying.
6:45
Speaker 2: Like if she'd still been crying and nothing had come out,
6:47
Speaker 2: I think I would have been a bit more panicky,
6:48
Speaker 2: whereas I'm like, she's very sore because of what has
6:51
Speaker 2: just happened. This is why this baby's crying. Right. So
6:55
Speaker 2: we got to the hospital Sunday afternoon. We're like, oh,
6:56
Speaker 2: is there going to be a PEED on call, because
6:58
Speaker 2: that's the way the system is there. We went the
7:00
Speaker 2: private hospital, but usually on a Sunday you might not
7:03
Speaker 2: see a PETE. You might see a GP, right whoever's
7:07
Speaker 2: on call at the time. Luckily it was a pedetrician
7:10
Speaker 2: was on call as the GP that day type thing.
7:15
Speaker 2: So we saw him and he was like, look, let
7:18
Speaker 2: me see your notes whatever, and I'm like, literally, there's
7:20
Speaker 2: no notes. This child has been fine since they DOT like,
7:24
Speaker 2: she hasn't caused us any issues, she's been gaining weight
7:26
Speaker 2: the whole time, she's up to date with that vaccines, Like,
7:29
Speaker 2: there is no notes. The only notes that we've come
7:31
Speaker 2: to and the five clinic, which is what it's called
7:34
Speaker 2: in Zambia. And he was like, oh, okay, she's been
7:41
Speaker 2: constipated before. And I'm like nope, and he's like, oh, okay,
7:45
Speaker 2: this is very like different. And I explained that we
7:48
Speaker 2: started solids and and he's all, okay, right, very common thing.
7:53
Speaker 2: Babies need to adapt to the solid foods. And let's
7:57
Speaker 2: just give us some cream for the area that's sore
8:00
Speaker 2: right now, give us some lac to loose so that
8:03
Speaker 2: she can now clear out what's been in there the
8:05
Speaker 2: last week. Come back in a few days that we
8:08
Speaker 2: can check on the wound area because obviously the position
8:13
Speaker 2: of where she had a cat, they wanted to just
8:18
Speaker 2: check it with the clean and stuff, you know. So
8:20
Speaker 2: they gave us a suppository so that we could clear
8:23
Speaker 2: her out and then also the lacter loose. But unfortunately
8:26
Speaker 2: the supository they put it in the hospital, she'd pushed out
8:29
Speaker 2: because you can't tell a baby not to push when
8:31
Speaker 2: it feels like wants to push, right, son, baby, So
8:37
Speaker 2: we then had to insider supository when we got home
8:40
Speaker 2: when we realized, like, this maybe hasn't pulled like the
8:42
Speaker 2: supposit supposed to make cards, we had to do that ourselves,
8:44
Speaker 2: and I feel like that was the start of the journey.
8:48
Speaker 2: Kept it on the lact loose, went back five days later,
8:51
Speaker 2: saw Herpieatrishitan and then he was like, let's just give
8:56
Speaker 2: it a month, like, let's see if things are going
8:59
Speaker 2: to change, Let's see if it's a one time episode.
9:03
Speaker 2: Let's see what happens. Keep her on the lacder loose
9:06
Speaker 2: and do three times a day and then put it.
9:08
Speaker 2: We'll we'll go from there. So three times a day
9:11
Speaker 2: on the lac to looise she was going. She went
9:17
Speaker 2: once a day or went once every other day, and
9:21
Speaker 2: like just as oma, that was it. So then we
9:26
Speaker 2: went back to the hospital and he said, okay, let's
9:32
Speaker 2: lower the doors of the lact loose and see if
9:35
Speaker 2: that changes anything. So then we actually went on holiday.
9:38
Speaker 2: We went to Dubai, wet my parents in Dubai, we
9:41
Speaker 2: went for a week. My parents came for a long weekend.
9:44
Speaker 2: They had no idea of what had gone on at
9:46
Speaker 2: this point because there was only didn't tell them, you know,
9:48
Speaker 2: no point to worry them. And then we had to
9:51
Speaker 2: give her the lactose obviously when we were there, so
9:53
Speaker 2: I said, look, she's having this because she's had a
9:56
Speaker 2: bit of problem pooping, and that's that. At that time,
10:01
Speaker 2: we had no idea he twin's even existed, and finnally
10:05
Speaker 2: enough in Dubai, she was just going like there was
10:08
Speaker 2: no stopping her. So we were like, oh, maybe she
10:13
Speaker 2: did just need a little bit of lack doors. And
10:15
Speaker 2: she was eating more, she was drinking all of our bottles.
10:18
Speaker 2: She was even drinking a little bit of water like
10:21
Speaker 2: she was great. We we went back to Zambia, went
10:26
Speaker 2: back for another appointment and we told him this, so
10:28
Speaker 2: he was okay, less, lower the doors, and then he said,
10:31
Speaker 2: look also on you a prerogative. Now he's like, we're
10:33
Speaker 2: going to give her another month. Let's not keep her
10:35
Speaker 2: on the lackdoors if she doesn't need it, because you
10:37
Speaker 2: just told me she's had a week ten days of greatness,
10:40
Speaker 2: so let's put her down to twice a day, then
10:43
Speaker 2: keep going, put her down to one today and stop
10:47
Speaker 2: if things are going the same. So we got down
10:51
Speaker 2: to the point of given a doors down to once
10:54
Speaker 2: a day and then nothing for like three days, and
10:57
Speaker 2: then she didn't go again for ten days, so it's
11:03
Speaker 2: like something is not happening. Went back again. This was
11:07
Speaker 2: now like eight and a half months old, and he
11:11
Speaker 2: was like, okay, let's put her back on the laxatives,
11:14
Speaker 2: put her back on the lactero loos. Maybe it's something
11:16
Speaker 2: she'll grow out of. You know, there's a lot of
11:18
Speaker 2: things maybe grow out of by the by the time
11:20
Speaker 2: they want He's like, I don't want to go into
11:22
Speaker 2: anything serious, anything invasive, if she's going to grow out
11:26
Speaker 2: of it, because remember now she had none of the
11:29
Speaker 2: textbook symptoms. He actually threw the word hairshprungs out and said,
11:35
Speaker 2: we don't want to go into anything invasive like hareshprungs
11:38
Speaker 2: when she doesn't have any other symptoms. Okay at the time, right,
11:45
Speaker 2: he is a Lebanese doctor, and he said, let's just
11:50
Speaker 2: go back to it with beit, go back on the
11:52
Speaker 2: lastives and go from there. Okay. So then we noticed
11:56
Speaker 2: she would always pull in the car seat whenever she
11:59
Speaker 2: was in the car. A moment to we go in
12:00
Speaker 2: the car, she would go. Moment she was in the bath,
12:06
Speaker 2: she would go. But any other time she wouldn't remember
12:10
Speaker 2: she was still on the laxative store.
12:12
Speaker 1: Right.
12:14
Speaker 2: So then the next time we went back, I told
12:16
Speaker 2: him this and he was like, hmm, okay, let me
12:19
Speaker 2: examine that again. So then he was like, ah, actually
12:26
Speaker 2: it looks like her her amus is a bit anterior.
12:32
Speaker 2: Maybe there's something inside that is not quite lining up.
12:38
Speaker 2: And I'm like, okay, I definitely haven't studied I'm holes
12:43
Speaker 2: in my life, so okay, I'm gonna listen to you
12:46
Speaker 2: on that one. And he's like, but that's me looking
12:52
Speaker 2: really hard, you know, like it's not something you would
12:55
Speaker 2: have noticed, definitely not on entrained eye. He's like, I'm
12:58
Speaker 2: clutching at straws because you're saying, no, these positional things
13:02
Speaker 2: are happening, right, we're thinking more about those things. He said,
13:07
Speaker 2: let's just hold on till she's one. I'm like, okay.
13:12
Speaker 2: So we kept going. But at this point now she's
13:14
Speaker 2: not gaining weight. She was six point five kgs at
13:17
Speaker 2: six months and she was seven point two one right,
13:22
Speaker 2: but she was drinking her milk. But everything was then
13:25
Speaker 2: coming out right. You know, she wasn't. She wasn't thriving
13:28
Speaker 2: in that failure to thrive wood that they throw around.
13:34
Speaker 2: She wasn't. But she was happy as larry, like, she
13:37
Speaker 2: was fine. She was not irrisible. You would not look
13:40
Speaker 2: at her and think, oh, well, she can't poo, you know,
13:43
Speaker 2: like she's having trouble. She's a barrier of her No
13:47
Speaker 2: like not at all, and we always knew, like if
13:50
Speaker 2: she'd had two or three days where she hadn't gone,
13:52
Speaker 2: even with taking them Backstives took her on the car
13:55
Speaker 2: for drive, she'd be right and she'd go right. It
13:58
Speaker 2: was it was madness. So I don't know if there
14:02
Speaker 2: was something to do with her positioning of her being
14:04
Speaker 2: able to get a bit of umph behind it or
14:08
Speaker 2: I don't right, but that was what's happening. So he
14:14
Speaker 2: was really leaning more towards there was some sort of
14:17
Speaker 2: positional something right. Then we got to the Christmas time,
14:24
Speaker 2: we went to the UK for Christmas, and she just
14:27
Speaker 2: ate anything and everything and was drinking all our milk. Again,
14:32
Speaker 2: I'm like that she just need to be on holiday,
14:34
Speaker 2: like feel relaxed and everything's okay. Like we had to
14:40
Speaker 2: put the lax of loose doors down because she was
14:43
Speaker 2: going quite often and she didn't have diarrhea, but she
14:46
Speaker 2: was going more often, and I'm like, what is it
14:49
Speaker 2: changing water? But then like we don't give her bottled water.
14:53
Speaker 2: She has and xama anyway, and she wasn't really drinking
14:55
Speaker 2: much water at that point because she was still on breastline.
14:57
Speaker 2: She was in ten months, no ten laugh months, and like,
15:01
Speaker 2: you know, I looked at my own diet. I was
15:04
Speaker 2: going so my breast milk was fine. You know, it
15:08
Speaker 2: was all of those things. Let me eat a high
15:10
Speaker 2: fiber diet, let me change this, let me change that,
15:12
Speaker 2: and then see if that helps, you know. So anyway,
15:17
Speaker 2: we got back in the January. I had an eleven
15:20
Speaker 2: month appointment because we had gone back once a month,
15:22
Speaker 2: because he was like, no, let me see you once
15:23
Speaker 2: a month, just to in case there's any changes. We
15:26
Speaker 2: women got back after that that, we had great Christmas
15:28
Speaker 2: a me. So he was like, look, let's stop the
15:31
Speaker 2: latter loose. Then clearly she didn't need it the last
15:34
Speaker 2: couple of weeks. Let's just think her first birthday is
15:37
Speaker 2: in a couple of weeks and we're at the end
15:39
Speaker 2: of it. And then we went and we went to
15:47
Speaker 2: be at the Star. So we went for a partment
15:53
Speaker 2: shooting one on the Sunday. We went to the hospital
15:55
Speaker 2: on the Tuesday and I walked in and he went, oh,
15:59
Speaker 2: I wish you hadn't come. Like I thought we were done.
16:04
Speaker 2: I thought that was it. I thought we did the
16:05
Speaker 2: nail on the edge, you know, And I went, yeah, no,
16:10
Speaker 2: she hasn't pood and he was like, oh okay, and
16:14
Speaker 2: he picked up the phone and he called the pediatric
16:16
Speaker 2: surgeon there and then he said, I've got a baby
16:18
Speaker 2: I need you to see and I need you to
16:20
Speaker 2: see it now. And we saw it on the Saturday.
16:23
Speaker 2: Imagine that. Yes, it was right. And he said, look,
16:30
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna worry you and throw things at you
16:33
Speaker 2: that you can go on Google between now and Saturday.
16:36
Speaker 2: And I went, thank you. Yes, you said, we've already
16:40
Speaker 2: spoken about a few things. I couldn't remember the word
16:42
Speaker 2: who sh wings at that point and thank god I couldn't, right,
16:46
Speaker 2: And he said, we have spoken about not the anterior nurse.
16:50
Speaker 2: Maybe that's it. Let us surge and see it. He's like,
16:54
Speaker 2: I'm a pediatrician, but I'm not a surgeon, right, So
16:57
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, so on that's that. Today we saw her.
17:02
Speaker 2: She did fitted an X obviously examined there and said
17:06
Speaker 2: the same as him, of like maybe maybe because it's
17:10
Speaker 2: like borderline, you know, it could just because she's quite
17:14
Speaker 2: a betite child. Anyway, I'm five and change five foot
17:17
Speaker 2: and some change. My husband's al not tall either. She
17:20
Speaker 2: was never going to be six foot two, right. The
17:22
Speaker 2: older dish was she She's beetit anyway, right, she was
17:25
Speaker 2: always gonna be petite, tshepunks or not. So she's like,
17:28
Speaker 2: maybe it's just the way she's built. Like, maybe it's
17:31
Speaker 2: not a reason. So let's let's look inside. So they
17:35
Speaker 2: did an X ray. Obviously couldn't see too much through that,
17:40
Speaker 2: but she wanted to see like her pelvic bones and
17:42
Speaker 2: see if there was anything to do with that. And
17:46
Speaker 2: she was like, look, I want to do a contrast enema.
17:49
Speaker 2: So the following Tuesday, yeah, four days after that, we
17:55
Speaker 2: have the contrast enema. Now we weren't really told what
18:00
Speaker 2: that was going to entail, and when we arrived for
18:05
Speaker 2: the appointment, it was like, oh, we need to wait
18:07
Speaker 2: for the antist and I was, excuse you, Michelle's gonna
18:10
Speaker 2: see what. We haven't told any of this. And they
18:14
Speaker 2: were like, well, she's a one year old. Is she
18:16
Speaker 2: going to sit to have a contrast enema? That bit
18:20
Speaker 2: in us, you know, And I was like, but I
18:23
Speaker 2: don't really want to go to sleep, but she doesn't
18:25
Speaker 2: need to as well, because no, she's one, know, can
18:30
Speaker 2: somebody talk me through it here? You know? So the
18:34
Speaker 2: guy that does the enema, I don't know what the
18:36
Speaker 2: official like. He's a doctor, I suppose, but I don't
18:38
Speaker 2: know what the official name is for it. He was like, look,
18:42
Speaker 2: if you want to try, we can try. It might
18:44
Speaker 2: take fifteen minutes all together. And we were like okay,
18:51
Speaker 2: So we held her and yeah, I don't really want
19:00
Speaker 2: it all with that bit.
19:01
Speaker 1: No, no, no, that's absolutely great.
19:03
Speaker 2: Were held her and that that happened, and then you
19:08
Speaker 2: can imagine what happened after the enema, right, which again
19:13
Speaker 2: we were not prepared for. Luckily, I still at the
19:16
Speaker 2: X ray apron on. Yes, yes, you could just see
19:20
Speaker 2: the child eyes of like what is going on right now?
19:25
Speaker 2: Like things are flying out of me and I don't
19:27
Speaker 2: know how and why and I can't stop it. You
19:30
Speaker 2: could sort of see afterwards that she.
19:32
Speaker 4: Was relieved, I bet pie like even though she was
19:37
Speaker 4: never a child that was irritable, you could suddenly see
19:42
Speaker 4: she was relaxed, right.
19:46
Speaker 3: And it's one of those things that I like, oh
19:47
Speaker 3: my god, as she felt some type of way all
19:50
Speaker 3: this time, but because she's always felt that way, she
19:54
Speaker 3: doesn't know what relaxed feels like that you know, she
20:00
Speaker 3: always been in some sort of pain. We have no
20:02
Speaker 3: idea and she's never gonna tell her.
20:04
Speaker 2: She's never know, right, but you could just see she
20:08
Speaker 2: was sort of relaxed. And I just remember leaving the
20:11
Speaker 2: hospital and looking at my husband. Hesband looking at me like,
20:14
Speaker 2: we don't need to have to talk about this again.
20:15
Speaker 2: This happened, it is what it is, and let's go home.
20:18
Speaker 2: I mean, I su had a friend of ours visiting
20:19
Speaker 2: Dambia at the time, and we walked in and she
20:23
Speaker 2: just went tea or vodka and she could just see
20:27
Speaker 2: our finaces. It was like eleven o'clock in the morning.
20:31
Speaker 2: I was like five minutes, a minute, ten minutes. She's like, hey,
20:37
Speaker 2: you'll just let me know when you're ready, and you
20:39
Speaker 2: let me know because she was like a Google contrast enema.
20:42
Speaker 2: As soon as you walked out the door, everybody right.
20:46
Speaker 2: And that was that I didn't know. I didn't because
20:50
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't want to. I'm scared, I
20:52
Speaker 2: don't want to. So I actually didn't. I know something
20:56
Speaker 2: had to go into us so that they saw it
20:58
Speaker 2: on a scan, but I didn't think about it and
21:01
Speaker 2: process what that's something I had to go into it
21:04
Speaker 2: for uscat. You know, I was very naive, I think
21:07
Speaker 2: with a lot of the things because there's nothing wrong
21:09
Speaker 2: with that. She just can't put you know, there's nothing
21:11
Speaker 2: wrong with that? Then'hing wrong with that? She's just fine? Right,
21:16
Speaker 2: And then we waited about two weeks after that. Wait, no,
21:25
Speaker 2: it was about a month, was it? No? Sorry, And
21:31
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of the math now. That was
21:34
Speaker 2: like the first Tuesday in March. Then it was April
21:41
Speaker 2: that we went and decided what was going to happen.
21:45
Speaker 2: So it was about three weeks. I think it was
21:47
Speaker 2: about three weeks. But in that meantime, so the surge,
21:52
Speaker 2: and she she was visiting that hospital, right, So she
21:56
Speaker 2: works out of the main government hospital or two totally,
21:58
Speaker 2: there's two main government hospital. She works out of one
22:00
Speaker 2: of those, and then she visits a couple of private
22:03
Speaker 2: institutions like on the weekends and stuff. So she wasn't
22:09
Speaker 2: supposed to be at that hospital until like the following
22:13
Speaker 2: Saturday or something, and then she had an emergency that
22:16
Speaker 2: didn't go and then she was on a work trip.
22:19
Speaker 2: So we probably would have had the results the five
22:20
Speaker 2: days later, but because it just didn't work out, it
22:23
Speaker 2: took us three weeks, right, and they were the longest
22:25
Speaker 2: three weeks obviously, but then I also knew that maybe
22:30
Speaker 2: from that animal we still wouldn't have had the answers.
22:32
Speaker 2: So I was like, well, as long as we're gotta wait,
22:34
Speaker 2: we gotta wait. It is what it is. We just
22:35
Speaker 2: kept it on the lacto loose, right. So then I'd
22:39
Speaker 2: had a message from the surgeon to say, look, I've
22:43
Speaker 2: seen them. I've got them as in the scans. When
22:49
Speaker 2: when you were available for us to meet, I'm at
22:51
Speaker 2: this hospital and this day this was with that today.
22:53
Speaker 2: So we actually weren't that pleased with the care at
22:58
Speaker 2: the private hospital for what we were paying insurance wise,
23:02
Speaker 2: after the enemous situation, there was a lot where that
23:04
Speaker 2: went on that day and like, I just didn't want
23:06
Speaker 2: to see anybody there ever. Again, so the fact that
23:08
Speaker 2: I could see the surgeon elsewhere, I'm like, let's go there.
23:12
Speaker 2: So we did go to a government hospital in Southern Africa,
23:16
Speaker 2: which after people like are you mad, and I'm like, well,
23:22
Speaker 2: it's what we've got dealt, and you go to see
23:25
Speaker 2: the surgeon rather than the facility.
23:27
Speaker 3: Right.
23:29
Speaker 2: So we saw the surgeon. She brought the scans up
23:32
Speaker 2: on a computer and she was like, look and I'm
23:35
Speaker 2: at what I have no idea what things are. So
23:41
Speaker 2: she showed us like a normal digestive system and then hey,
23:48
Speaker 2: digestive system and the sigmoid area was just huge. All
23:55
Speaker 2: I could think of it being like, you know, a
23:58
Speaker 2: long balloon like balloon, animal type balloon. It was just
24:03
Speaker 2: h like it was just interesting, was so enlarged and
24:06
Speaker 2: around and it was wild like scary, like it was age.
24:13
Speaker 2: And then she explained to us like it works like
24:15
Speaker 2: a muscle. When it's worked, it gets bigger and all
24:18
Speaker 2: that sort of stuff, and we were like, okay, but
24:20
Speaker 2: then she's like, look from what I can see from
24:24
Speaker 2: the scan, so clearly there's a problem, but I still
24:28
Speaker 2: don't know what that problem is. I know I need
24:32
Speaker 2: to goin right. Whereas it's actually somebody I met through
24:38
Speaker 2: the Hirschmann situation. Her daughter also had hair sprungs, but
24:42
Speaker 2: was more of a textbook case of didn't pass maconium.
24:47
Speaker 2: And she's actually a radiologist, so she looked at the
24:50
Speaker 2: scans afterwards, and she went on that baby got hairsprings
24:54
Speaker 2: because she could tell the way it was and obviously
24:56
Speaker 2: experienced with her daughter and all of that as well, right,
25:00
Speaker 2: and maybe the surgeon thought it at the time, but
25:03
Speaker 2: didn't want to put it out there until she had
25:05
Speaker 2: biopsy confirmation. Right, Yeah, so she suggested after that was
25:12
Speaker 2: let's take her to theater. Right. No, now I've remembered.
25:16
Speaker 2: It wasn't three weeks later because on the thirteenth of
25:20
Speaker 2: March she had the biopsy, so it was about ten
25:24
Speaker 2: days later. The longer wait was between the biopsy results
25:27
Speaker 2: and seeing her again. Right, that makes sense. Yes, So
25:33
Speaker 2: between us seeing the surgeon on the fifteenth of February
25:37
Speaker 2: she had the biopsy on the twelfth of March, got
25:40
Speaker 2: it all right, so we'd already had the X ray,
25:44
Speaker 2: the enema and then into the biopsy. Yes, So the
25:48
Speaker 2: hospital that we did the biopsy from they only do
25:51
Speaker 2: elective surgery on Mondays, so we always had to be
25:54
Speaker 2: admitted on a Sunday for the surgery to be done
25:56
Speaker 2: on a Monday elective peede surgery. Then they time stopped
25:59
Speaker 2: for the pede surgery was on a Mondaybviously, if an
26:01
Speaker 2: emergency came in it is where it is. Luckily for
26:05
Speaker 2: us that never happened and for everybody else because there
26:07
Speaker 2: was one majency. But yeah, so she was taking to theater,
26:11
Speaker 2: but they were checking for the sphincter muscles to see
26:15
Speaker 2: if it was something to do with maybe like a
26:17
Speaker 2: lazy spinter muscle that wasn't working properly all of the time,
26:23
Speaker 2: Was anything anterial, was anything out of position? And then
26:26
Speaker 2: they said, look, I mean, as we're going in, let's
26:30
Speaker 2: take a biopsy and we send it off. And we
26:33
Speaker 2: were like okay. And her words at the time were
26:37
Speaker 2: like to rule things out, not in right, So I
26:44
Speaker 2: was like, best case scenario, they come out here and
26:46
Speaker 2: tell me that she's got an anterior in us and
26:48
Speaker 2: that's just the way it is, right, and maybe they
26:52
Speaker 2: might have to do some sort of surgery to like
26:54
Speaker 2: maybe make it wider or I don't know. Right, So
26:59
Speaker 2: that was the longest forty five minutes of our lives. Yeah, right,
27:05
Speaker 2: And it's not like it is on the TV. Guys.
27:06
Speaker 2: You don't get to go in an older child's hand
27:08
Speaker 2: and count cheap, not at all, right, that's not you
27:13
Speaker 2: have the child, get your handy child over and that's it.
27:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is hair. It by the you know, terrifying thing.
27:25
Speaker 1: Imagine all.
27:27
Speaker 2: Hey apps you bought. And then it was like right,
27:32
Speaker 2: calm down, calm down, calm down, you can't do anything.
27:35
Speaker 2: She didn't save hands. It is what it is. And
27:39
Speaker 2: that was that she came out and she was awake
27:41
Speaker 2: and was like fine, like honestly, was really okay. And
27:47
Speaker 2: when I say the child is strong, this child is strong. Right,
27:52
Speaker 2: she was okay. And we were discharged in the afternoon
27:55
Speaker 2: because she was okay. She had no fever, she had
27:57
Speaker 2: no vomiting. We were told in all look out for
28:00
Speaker 2: those things. But she was Finally she slept hours, agree,
28:05
Speaker 2: no problem, and that was that. Now she was a
28:08
Speaker 2: bit sore dune below. We had to make sure now
28:10
Speaker 2: she wasn't bleeding or anything. Afterwards she was okay. Then
28:17
Speaker 2: the way things work in Zambiera's you can have things
28:19
Speaker 2: tested in the government facilities, but you may never see
28:24
Speaker 2: that again. It may take six to twelve months, it
28:28
Speaker 2: may take on us how long. So we went insurance
28:31
Speaker 2: route for the biopsy. So yeah, we we were given
28:36
Speaker 2: the test tube with a bit of intesting in with
28:41
Speaker 2: a stick around it with her name and did and
28:44
Speaker 2: what was in the bottle and we had to take
28:46
Speaker 2: that to the lab. Okay, mm hmm, okay, right, wasn't
28:53
Speaker 2: it wasn't really for that but either no, no, I
28:56
Speaker 2: can't imagine anyone told you that was going to happen either,
28:58
Speaker 2: m hm. And I remember being like, oh, so here,
29:01
Speaker 2: here's the sample and I'm like I know what, excuse you?
29:09
Speaker 2: And then she's like to go to the lab and
29:10
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, we got to take it. And then
29:13
Speaker 2: she's like yeah, okay, and then just went because I
29:18
Speaker 2: was like I ain't taking that and he just looked
29:21
Speaker 2: at me like I ain't need that.
29:23
Speaker 1: So what's someone's gonna get it there?
29:27
Speaker 2: Right? So the thing was there was a nase. There
29:29
Speaker 2: was a nurse with us because they had to take
29:30
Speaker 2: us back down to the ward right. So the nurse
29:32
Speaker 2: was like, took a glove out of our pocket and
29:35
Speaker 2: just put it into the glove and we walked down
29:37
Speaker 2: the stairs and I'm just going to my husband, what
29:42
Speaker 2: do you think we know her? So he starts stroking
29:45
Speaker 2: to the nurse like we went told anything and they're like, no,
29:49
Speaker 2: you want to take it to the private lab, right,
29:50
Speaker 2: and like yeah, she gets you need to take it.
29:53
Speaker 2: I'm mm hmm okay. So I have a friend who
29:59
Speaker 2: works for like a I'm want to say biotech comany
30:01
Speaker 2: I don't know what the right word is, but deals
30:03
Speaker 2: with like lab equipment and testing and all that sort
30:05
Speaker 2: of stuff. And she's Irish originally but living in Zambia
30:09
Speaker 2: straight in the blow when I'm just giving us a
30:12
Speaker 2: test too, but a bit of whatever and what we
30:14
Speaker 2: do with it. And she's like, yeah, remember you could
30:17
Speaker 2: have told me that she was gonna thought you knew
30:19
Speaker 2: And she said, ah, what don' want me to jump
30:23
Speaker 2: to come and get it? And I'm like, and then
30:25
Speaker 2: my husband's grip, no, We'll go and take it as fine.
30:27
Speaker 2: We need to do it the first time, you know,
30:29
Speaker 2: make sure everything's right. And then she was like, do
30:31
Speaker 2: you want us jump to meet you there? And I'm no, sorry,
30:35
Speaker 2: putty big yup panties on. We'll do it. We'll get
30:37
Speaker 2: it done right. And even to this day, I'm still like,
30:40
Speaker 2: that's a bit weird. You know who wasn't the first time?
30:44
Speaker 2: Was it? Because there was more after this situation. Readie right,
30:48
Speaker 2: continue with the story. So that was that we were
30:52
Speaker 2: told it would take ten to fifteen working days because
30:55
Speaker 2: they actually sent the samples to India. Okay, right, everything's
31:01
Speaker 2: outsourced sent injured and that would have cost us think
31:06
Speaker 2: about eighty five quid pounds British Serlinka, but my husband's
31:13
Speaker 2: government issue runs. My usin works for government in Zambia,
31:17
Speaker 2: so with his health insurance it actually covered it. The
31:20
Speaker 2: private lab was actually covered under the insurance. We never
31:24
Speaker 2: paid for anything of her sageries. Everything was covered with
31:30
Speaker 2: his local insurance, which I don't think many people realize
31:34
Speaker 2: how good that local insurance actually is, because you know,
31:39
Speaker 2: a lot of Africa still is veritable with medicine and
31:42
Speaker 2: going to the doctor in general. They'll just drink a
31:44
Speaker 2: tea and be like, no, I'm right now, well very
31:47
Speaker 2: much which doctor medicine is is still there is there,
31:51
Speaker 2: you know, it is still very much a thing, but
31:54
Speaker 2: people are coming round to medicine and anyway, so we
31:59
Speaker 2: were to all tend tofif teen days. It was. We
32:04
Speaker 2: took it on the Tuesday, took a sample on the Tuesday,
32:08
Speaker 2: We got the results the following Thursday, so it was
32:11
Speaker 2: like nine days, not working days, nine days general. Now,
32:15
Speaker 2: the thing was those results were sent directly to my
32:18
Speaker 2: husband's email. So then I was there old Google and
32:25
Speaker 2: I was like this, I'll got hitch ones is what
32:32
Speaker 2: sent it to the surgeon. And I was like, can
32:35
Speaker 2: you please confume what I think these results say yeah
32:39
Speaker 2: or response for a while. You know, she's a surge
32:42
Speaker 2: and clearly busy. I'm not our only patient, don't we.
32:45
Speaker 2: We then have doctor friends. I'm sending it to them, now,
32:48
Speaker 2: can you even can you interpret this trip? And they're like, look,
32:50
Speaker 2: we can, but we're also not a pediatrical surgeon, so
32:54
Speaker 2: we don't want to tell you the wrong thing and
32:56
Speaker 2: worry you. And this and one of our very very
32:58
Speaker 2: good friends that we actually met in China where me
33:02
Speaker 2: and my husband met and my very good friends of ours,
33:06
Speaker 2: is a doctor and he called me and he was like, look,
33:09
Speaker 2: whatever you're reading is probably right. I'm not going to
33:12
Speaker 2: confirm or deny anything, but please just don't like freak
33:17
Speaker 2: out until you've seen the surgejourny. You know what the
33:20
Speaker 2: next steps are. And I just said to him, but
33:24
Speaker 2: this isn't going to go away, is it? And he
33:26
Speaker 2: went no, but he doesn't know enough about hersh browns
33:32
Speaker 2: and everything to like, you know, he's not a surgeon, right,
33:35
Speaker 2: not a PI surgeon either, So he was like, this
33:39
Speaker 2: isn't gonna go away. It's not something that's gonna go
33:41
Speaker 2: away with medicine. Something's gonna have to happen, but I
33:44
Speaker 2: don't know what, so I don't want to freak you out,
33:45
Speaker 2: and I don't need to overthink. Just wait for the
33:48
Speaker 2: surgeon to respond. I'm like, okay, cool.
33:51
Speaker 1: Was that helpful or not helpful?
33:54
Speaker 2: It was one of those things of like, I know
33:56
Speaker 2: why she's not poor in now, Okay, okay, Ryan. But
34:01
Speaker 2: then also at the same time was like, what's gonna happen? Now?
34:06
Speaker 2: What is the next step?
34:07
Speaker 3: Right?
34:10
Speaker 2: So then another family friend of ours who was in
34:12
Speaker 2: the UK, who is a GP now she sent me
34:18
Speaker 2: some literature on her shprungs, which to this day is
34:23
Speaker 2: still quite useful. I got a feeling it's maybe BBC.
34:27
Speaker 2: I'll have to check the link. I'll have to find
34:28
Speaker 2: it what it is, and it's it's just like a
34:30
Speaker 2: three or four pagely flat, very straightforward. What's going to happen?
34:36
Speaker 2: Stormer reverser that type of thing, right, very standard procedure then, right,
34:43
Speaker 2: textbook standard persie.
34:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, if there is such a thing, as we said before.
34:48
Speaker 2: I was okay, right, so had some idea, But then
34:55
Speaker 2: I was like, ah, but she didn't stop stop pulling
34:58
Speaker 2: until she was seven months. Maybe it's different. Maybe it's
35:01
Speaker 2: not going to need all of this blah blah blah blah.
35:03
Speaker 2: So we then went to the stage and the first
35:07
Speaker 2: week of April, so that's when she said, look, we
35:13
Speaker 2: are confirmed Hoshbuns diagnosis. That was not what we were
35:18
Speaker 2: expecting because of blah blah blah blah blah. But from
35:22
Speaker 2: the contrast Enema, I knew it was a possibility, but
35:26
Speaker 2: we wanted to rule everything out. And I'm like, okay,
35:29
Speaker 2: so where do we go from here? And she's like, look,
35:34
Speaker 2: there are different roots, there are different scenarios and in
35:38
Speaker 2: different countries. She's like, you know, you do have the
35:42
Speaker 2: UK as a possibility if you were thinking of maybe
35:45
Speaker 2: going there now for if you wanted a second opinion.
35:47
Speaker 2: You know, all of those things. And then also a
35:50
Speaker 2: lot of people go to India from Zambia, and a
35:53
Speaker 2: lot of people go to so Africa because they have
35:55
Speaker 2: like better infrastructure, they have more doctors, they have more facilities,
36:00
Speaker 2: and just everything in general. There's there's more of it
36:03
Speaker 2: and it's more I don't want to say proper, probably sophisticated.
36:08
Speaker 2: There we go, so there are opportunities for different ways
36:15
Speaker 2: of getting things done. And she told us about frozen
36:19
Speaker 2: histology of a way of like, you can be on
36:23
Speaker 2: the table and take out more in testing and test
36:27
Speaker 2: it there and then and do things quicker. But I
36:31
Speaker 2: think she's thinking more like super high tech. I don't
36:35
Speaker 2: think she's out of research to the ENERGSS at this point,
36:37
Speaker 2: you know. But she's like, that is something. She's like,
36:41
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's a possibility for you or not,
36:44
Speaker 2: but it would mean no stormer, right, Okay, yes, right,
36:49
Speaker 2: because it can be done there and then you wouldn't
36:52
Speaker 2: need the stormer part of it. There was obviously the
36:56
Speaker 2: route of stormer bowel resection, storma reverse up, and she
37:04
Speaker 2: was like, these are these are the options, This is
37:07
Speaker 2: the way I would do it, This is the way
37:09
Speaker 2: I would suggest doing it. Then she also said about
37:13
Speaker 2: the thing of eighty five percent of Hirschbunk's cases a
37:16
Speaker 2: short segment fifteen percent along, there's no way to know
37:20
Speaker 2: that until you test further in yes, right, So she
37:26
Speaker 2: was in the mind frame of why put her through
37:30
Speaker 2: all of this to remove the sigmoid side, and then
37:34
Speaker 2: actually she's in the fifteen percent, so she wanted to
37:39
Speaker 2: do further biopsy, which is why she spoke about the
37:42
Speaker 2: frozen nostrology part of it because she's like, if they're
37:44
Speaker 2: going and do the do the further biopsy is frozen
37:48
Speaker 2: histology wise, then you'd know there and then what are
37:51
Speaker 2: we taking out? You do the reception there and then
37:54
Speaker 2: all right. So in places like someone, I say, some
37:59
Speaker 2: places in India, which that radiologist friend of mine what
38:04
Speaker 2: They went to India with her daughter and they knew
38:08
Speaker 2: she was short set, she was long segment because of
38:13
Speaker 2: the way everything was, and they she had a stormer
38:18
Speaker 2: from birth to eleven months. That's when she hit twelve
38:26
Speaker 2: ki laws which was what they wanted for the surgery.
38:29
Speaker 2: Then they took her to India and they did the
38:32
Speaker 2: bower section and the reverse at the same time. Okay,
38:37
Speaker 2: but they she only now has eight centimeters of intestine.
38:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
38:44
Speaker 2: So being on the opposite end of now.
38:46
Speaker 1: Pulling too much, yeah and not enough stuff to she.
38:51
Speaker 2: Is similar to my daughter, she's too wish.
38:54
Speaker 1: Yeah.
38:56
Speaker 2: Anyway, that's somebody, that's the story. But we were told
38:59
Speaker 2: these options, right, and I was like, I would go
39:05
Speaker 2: to the UK or I would do it in Zambia.
39:07
Speaker 2: I don't feel comfortable going to a third country, right, Yep.
39:11
Speaker 2: That was just my opinion. My husband Zambia, and we've
39:15
Speaker 2: got insurance here, We've got friends who are doctors here,
39:18
Speaker 2: we've got a support system here. We go to the UK.
39:21
Speaker 2: My family's in the UK. We have a sports system there.
39:24
Speaker 2: If that's what we're gonna do, that's what we're gonna do. Now,
39:26
Speaker 2: people assume when you get married to somebody from the UK,
39:29
Speaker 2: even just go and live in the UK. You can't
39:34
Speaker 2: want the people saying, yeah, so he's got a bridge
39:36
Speaker 2: passport now here, I'm again no, not even close. So
39:43
Speaker 2: we were like, he has a five year visa at
39:44
Speaker 2: the minute, so I can come in and out for
39:46
Speaker 2: five years, but can't stay for longer than six months.
39:49
Speaker 2: You also has a full time job that he could
39:52
Speaker 2: have taken some leave from, and luckily they do have
39:55
Speaker 2: an option of like longer leave and unpaid leave and
39:57
Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff. And we were like, look,
40:00
Speaker 2: however long this is going to take, we need to
40:01
Speaker 2: be together. Threat, so are we going to go to
40:04
Speaker 2: the UK? Shall I go at first? We know what
40:07
Speaker 2: they're going to confirm, and then you came once to
40:10
Speaker 2: surgery stuff, and then in my head, all of a sudden,
40:13
Speaker 2: I'm like, it's not going to be as quick as here. Yeah, right,
40:21
Speaker 2: not at all. Then this is when we had to
40:24
Speaker 2: like feed my parents in on it and be like, look,
40:27
Speaker 2: this is what's happened. This is everything that's going on.
40:31
Speaker 2: What's going to go from there. So my mother works
40:34
Speaker 2: for the NHS. She manages an out of patients department,
40:36
Speaker 2: so you know it has a lot of friends within
40:38
Speaker 2: different departments because she manages their clinics and things like that.
40:43
Speaker 2: So obviously you're going to ask a friend a question
40:46
Speaker 2: of this, so earlier do that. And actually the hospital
40:50
Speaker 2: she works in doesn't DOPDA surgery like as in elective staff,
40:56
Speaker 2: so nobody really knew lot about it because Hushbran's again
41:01
Speaker 2: textbook usually more younger than older, right, yes, yeh and yeah,
41:11
Speaker 2: and even the our GP she's only ever heard of
41:15
Speaker 2: one case of hirshbrans in the in the valleys of
41:19
Speaker 2: South Wales. You know, there was only one in her
41:21
Speaker 2: career and she's I want to say, definitely laid forties,
41:25
Speaker 2: if not in the fifties now I think. And it's
41:30
Speaker 2: only they're a good of one case, you know, not
41:33
Speaker 2: familiar with it at all, so you know, to even
41:37
Speaker 2: get a referer and all that stuff. We knew it
41:39
Speaker 2: was going to take time, and my child is not
41:44
Speaker 2: and well, currently, okay, she can't pool, but with last
41:48
Speaker 2: if she is going, So we never had washouts or
41:52
Speaker 2: enemas apart from that contrast enema, which again is not
41:58
Speaker 2: the usual of hirsh So because she was going, it
42:04
Speaker 2: was like, oh, maybe she is short segment because it's
42:06
Speaker 2: not like as serious. But then with what the surgeon
42:11
Speaker 2: was telling us, it was like, look, we certain need
42:13
Speaker 2: to check. But also it's the same procedure whether it's
42:18
Speaker 2: short segment or long segment. You have the stormer, you
42:21
Speaker 2: have the reception, you have the reversal.
42:27
Speaker 1: Right.
42:28
Speaker 2: So the other thing to throw into the mix at
42:31
Speaker 2: this time was we were moving to China in the August.
42:35
Speaker 2: This was April. Yeah, and my family at the time,
42:42
Speaker 2: I don't idea about that. So we were like, well,
42:50
Speaker 2: if we want to get done, gotta get done. And
42:52
Speaker 2: in my head, I'm going to be done. As I said,
42:54
Speaker 2: I'm very type A. It'll be done. It'll take this
42:56
Speaker 2: one a week and it'll be done and be done
42:57
Speaker 2: and be done. And we were actually supposed to have
43:00
Speaker 2: been going to Greece for some friends. Their child was
43:04
Speaker 2: getting baptized it was my thirtieth birthday, so we were
43:08
Speaker 2: going and like having a nice party and whatnot. Having
43:10
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks. We were going to the UK
43:12
Speaker 2: for ten days then as we were on that side
43:13
Speaker 2: of the world, and then we were like, right, if
43:17
Speaker 2: we need to go to China, we definitely need to
43:20
Speaker 2: get this done now. But also we've just been diagnosed
43:25
Speaker 2: with some sort of disease. We'll get everything at this
43:30
Speaker 2: point and apart from the child, right. But then again,
43:35
Speaker 2: talking with a surgeon, a sergi like, look, she's not
43:37
Speaker 2: a well right now, but she's not going to get better. No,
43:44
Speaker 2: she's not going to get better. She could stay the
43:46
Speaker 2: same for years and years and years if you want
43:48
Speaker 2: to keep her on the laxatives, right, but she could
43:53
Speaker 2: get worse, and she could get worse quickly. And hearing
43:58
Speaker 2: those words was like cool, you know, And we went
44:05
Speaker 2: back and forth. We am an ard. We consulted as
44:09
Speaker 2: much as we could with friends who were doctors and
44:11
Speaker 2: midwives and medical personnel and just people we'd looked up
44:15
Speaker 2: to for advice and you know, stuff like that, and
44:19
Speaker 2: we came round to the decision of let's get this done.
44:23
Speaker 2: I felt very comfortable with the doctor in Zambia. She'd
44:28
Speaker 2: studied abroad. She'd had extensive training, she'd studied at the
44:34
Speaker 2: Royal College of Ireland. A very good friend of ours
44:39
Speaker 2: in Zambia who's also a medical professional, who's Irish, did
44:45
Speaker 2: a lot of her stuff in India, then South Africa,
44:47
Speaker 2: then Zambia. She's a midwife niece. She was like, I
44:51
Speaker 2: know this lady. I would trust her. And after that
44:56
Speaker 2: it was just like, you know what, let's just do
44:59
Speaker 2: it and then whatever follows follows, right, And that's just
45:03
Speaker 2: the way it is. So we said, okay, let's get
45:06
Speaker 2: it done. So she had the stormer put in on
45:10
Speaker 2: May the eighteenth, which again was a Monday. The Sunday
45:17
Speaker 2: was Mother's Day in Zambia, so my mother's day was
45:21
Speaker 2: spent in getting admitted. She had the storma put in
45:28
Speaker 2: on the Monday, and the biopsies as well, And honestly,
45:33
Speaker 2: that freaked us out a little bit more. And we're
45:35
Speaker 2: seeing the scar from the biopsies rather than seeing the storma, right,
45:40
Speaker 2: because it was quite long. It was about maybe eight
45:46
Speaker 2: centimeters or so. Honestly, dean mental baby, sorry, fiftan mental baby, Yes, right,
45:54
Speaker 2: it was. It was big. It's a university teaching hospital. Saw.
46:00
Speaker 2: You know, there's always students around Monday to Friday, especially
46:03
Speaker 2: in the mornings when the doctors are doing the around
46:05
Speaker 2: at ten o'clock, there's always students around. There's always too
46:08
Speaker 2: many students. There's the doctor plus the junior doctor, plus
46:13
Speaker 2: a nurse who's on duty, plus the parents in the room,
46:16
Speaker 2: plus the child, and another bed in the room as well.
46:19
Speaker 1: Right.
46:20
Speaker 2: Luckily, a lot of the time we didn't have another
46:21
Speaker 2: patient in with us, but sometimes we did. And I
46:25
Speaker 2: remember my husband was sat in the corner of the
46:26
Speaker 2: bed holding her should just fall asleep. Doctor's always come
46:30
Speaker 2: and the child has just fallen asleep. It's like, you know,
46:34
Speaker 2: they know this child has taken this amount of hours
46:37
Speaker 2: to settle. I was going to check something. Sugars usually
46:41
Speaker 2: let me put that thinger anyway, And I just remember
46:45
Speaker 2: him being like father and father up into this corner
46:49
Speaker 2: because all of these students and everything just came in
46:54
Speaker 2: and he couldn't go anywhere. And I'm just looking at him,
46:56
Speaker 2: and he's looking at me, and the doctor's like, okay,
46:59
Speaker 2: let me just grab her here, and she starts crying,
47:01
Speaker 2: and then I'm just like I can't cry. I can't cry.
47:04
Speaker 2: I can't cry, and he's just in the corner like this.
47:09
Speaker 2: I'm stood now at like the foot of the bed.
47:12
Speaker 2: I can't like get to her because of all these
47:15
Speaker 2: students in the way, and I was sad. I don't
47:16
Speaker 2: want to be in the way of the doctor as well,
47:17
Speaker 2: because she's coming to check the wound, checked the stormer.
47:21
Speaker 2: This was the day after and the stormer had become
47:24
Speaker 2: active in the night. This was another thing you never
47:27
Speaker 2: told to me. It was just going to come out right,
47:30
Speaker 2: But it took quite a time, Like it was she
47:35
Speaker 2: had the sturgion the one she come out to surgery,
47:36
Speaker 2: I want to say, around like twelve to a half thirty,
47:39
Speaker 2: and it didn't go active until two in the morning.
47:42
Speaker 2: Oh wow, very long hours. And I'd gone home to
47:47
Speaker 2: sleep because okay, wait, we'll go back into that bed
47:50
Speaker 2: in a minute. So yeah, basically, the doctors came in.
47:53
Speaker 2: He was in the corner and I was just stood
47:55
Speaker 2: there and she removed the bat the dressing, and I
47:59
Speaker 2: just went.
48:03
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48:06
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48:20
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