On 23rd August 2016, our beautiful boy Drew was born. Within a couple of days, it became apparent that he was not well and would need an operation straight away. We found out he had a rare condition called Colonic Atresia, which is a type of obstruction in the colon. The operation resulted in him having a stoma and a colostomy bag. This wasn’t how we imagined our first months of parenthood, but we took it in our stride and didn’t let the issue stop us doing all the things any new parent would do with their new baby.
At six months old, Drew went back into surgery to have the stoma reversed and the colostomy bag taken off. Little did we know what was to come in the following weeks. The operation seemed a success, but things soon went downhill. Drew became increasingly unwell, he underwent an emergency operation where it was discovered his scar tissue healed onto his bowel, tore and then perforated his bowel. With no improvement over the following days, a second emergency operation revealed it would be necessary to reverse the procedure and give Drew another stoma and colostomy bag. Hoping we had turned a corner and was now on the road to recovery, we were soon faced with another set back and a third emergency operation showed that his bowel had ruptured. After almost three weeks in intensive care, three emergency operations and two procedures to drain the infection and excess fluid his body was storing, Drew is now making small steps to recovering and we hope to be home with him in the next couple of weeks.
The Sick Children’s Trust is a charity that provides a home from home on the Addenbrookes Hospital site called Acorn House. During Drew’s time in intensive care, Acorn House gave us somewhere to stay, completely free of charge and close to our baby boy. This meant we could be with him from early in the morning until late at night, without having to worry about travelling home every day and battling with traffic. The house really is a home from home and without it I don’t know how we would have coped. In what has been the most traumatic time of our lives, being able to stay at Acorn House has been an incredible help to us and something I will forever be thankful for.
Acorn House is funded solely by voluntary donations, so to show my appreciation and thanks for all the support they have given us, I would like to give something back. On 28th May 2017, I will be doing a charity skydive to raise funds for The Sick Children’s Trust. If you would like to donate to such a worthy cause I would be massively grateful for your support, no matter how big or small. We need to keep Acorn House fully funded for any future families who are unfortunate enough to find themselves in a similar situation.
Thank you,
Gemma xxx