We don't like this twist in the textbook perfect baby story but, it had to happen.
We got a long break from our very pleasant times. After we moved to this house, we were shut off from the world for more than two weeks...we were telephone and internet starved. There were some technical defects in the lines here and we had to bear the brunt. Anyway, this was just setting the mood for what was to come.
We had never imagined that we'd have to see our lil darling hurt, atleast not this early, when she's just 4 months old. I always thought our love would shield her from all the pain in the world.May be a little fanciful but a parent has the right to fancy a bed of roses for the precious lil one.
Probably the most painful moment of my life so far.....5 o'clock 11th September. The pictures of Ananya on the floor haunt me day and night and I constantly battle the gush of emotions. "Why didn't I run to her a minute earlier?" ,"Why didn't I place another pillow in the direction in which she rolled?","Why did I leave her on the bed and go to another room?" Questions like these keep baffling me every minute and I am left clueless. The only answer we can think of is, "May be this was a reason for us to take her to the hospital and get her checked by the doctors",because otherwise , it wouldn't have occured in the wildest of our dreams that she could have a problem with her heart.
Ananya's smile is the energizer in these rather rough times. We have this really strong faith that nothing can go wrong with our lil darling because NOTHING CAN GO WRONG WITH THE ELIXIR OF LIFE ITSELF.
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
Our Personal turmoil on 9/11
It has been a long time since we last posted onto this blog.
And the void has been very turbulent and disturbing for us as well.
9/11 has cast a dark shadow in our otherwise peaceful and cool going lives.And both me and Lalitha are enduring this mierable time with the hope that it too shall pass.And it is with the same hope that things will get back to normal that we intend to document all the happenings since our last post on 1 sept.And since there is sizeable material to write on, we will soon end up filling pages and pages.
First the sad story.
Baby Ananya has been diagnosed with an enlarged heart.
And that has been shattering news to us.
Let me re-live the moments.
It all happened on an otherwise normal day - 9/11. Five in the evening and Ananya falls off the cot onto the carpet. She scaled through the protective pillow barriers to land on the floor in an ackward sandwich fashion. Lalitha was in another room trying to dispose Ananya's nappies.
When lalitha heard her agonising cry, she rushes to find Ananya on her back, her head still resting on the wall of the cot and tears in her eyes.Her loud wails and gasps for breath could even melt the hardest hearts.I was in the office at that time. Lalitha called me up and after expaling the situation, we decided to take her to the children's emergency.
It took me 45 minutest to reach home.By that time, the pain had subsided and things looked more in control. Ananya managed to give me her usual 'Good evening daddy' expression.Still, to err on the side of caution, we decided to take her to hospital to rule out any internal injuries.The long wait in the hospital, waiting to be seen by the medical staff, gave us an insight into the physical damages which young children can cause onto themselves oblivious to dangers around them.
After an hour and half of waiting, we were seen by a nurse, who noted the case sheet and directed us to a pediatrician.Another hour later, we went to the pediatrician's room.She again heard the story from us and pressed ananya's tummy hard to see if there are any internal damages. She then took a kind of an instrument and inserted it in her ear and removed it for a brief moment. ( we later learned that this instrument measures the electrical activity of the brain and thereby any damage to the brain)
Then, she took the steth and observed ananya's chest and heart and her back.Her expression slowly changed. She immediately went and fetched another senior doctor who came over and repeated all the examination.
Anxiety nearly killed us.
We knew something was not okay, though we were unsure.
Then the doctor broke the news.
Ananya has a murmer in her heart and an enlarged heart.
Murmers, we know are very common in infants ( upto 50% infants have murmers and they are mostly innocent ( systolic murmers)But what troubled both the doctors and us was the enlarged heart part.We were then advised my the doc to get an instant ECG and chest x-ray for Ananya.Another excruciating wait.Back home in India, they apply some sort of gel and clip the electrical contacts directly on the body for ECG tests. But here, the nurse put some stickers with a dangling end and clipped the contacts to these dangling parts.We thought this was a better approach. But what we did not realise was that peeling off the stickers from her chest would cause her a lot of pain. The power of the glue is too strong for our comfort.
We then went to the xray chamber to get her xray done. She was made to sleep on the cold xray film. I wore a 20 KG lead suit and stood holding her still.After the xray, our next ordeal of waiting for the results.we were called back in at 11PM and were finally confirmed that the heart was indeed enlarged.
A disastrous way to end a rather nice day
Will write more on this in my next posts.
And the void has been very turbulent and disturbing for us as well.
9/11 has cast a dark shadow in our otherwise peaceful and cool going lives.And both me and Lalitha are enduring this mierable time with the hope that it too shall pass.And it is with the same hope that things will get back to normal that we intend to document all the happenings since our last post on 1 sept.And since there is sizeable material to write on, we will soon end up filling pages and pages.
First the sad story.
Baby Ananya has been diagnosed with an enlarged heart.
And that has been shattering news to us.
Let me re-live the moments.
It all happened on an otherwise normal day - 9/11. Five in the evening and Ananya falls off the cot onto the carpet. She scaled through the protective pillow barriers to land on the floor in an ackward sandwich fashion. Lalitha was in another room trying to dispose Ananya's nappies.
When lalitha heard her agonising cry, she rushes to find Ananya on her back, her head still resting on the wall of the cot and tears in her eyes.Her loud wails and gasps for breath could even melt the hardest hearts.I was in the office at that time. Lalitha called me up and after expaling the situation, we decided to take her to the children's emergency.
It took me 45 minutest to reach home.By that time, the pain had subsided and things looked more in control. Ananya managed to give me her usual 'Good evening daddy' expression.Still, to err on the side of caution, we decided to take her to hospital to rule out any internal injuries.The long wait in the hospital, waiting to be seen by the medical staff, gave us an insight into the physical damages which young children can cause onto themselves oblivious to dangers around them.
After an hour and half of waiting, we were seen by a nurse, who noted the case sheet and directed us to a pediatrician.Another hour later, we went to the pediatrician's room.She again heard the story from us and pressed ananya's tummy hard to see if there are any internal damages. She then took a kind of an instrument and inserted it in her ear and removed it for a brief moment. ( we later learned that this instrument measures the electrical activity of the brain and thereby any damage to the brain)
Then, she took the steth and observed ananya's chest and heart and her back.Her expression slowly changed. She immediately went and fetched another senior doctor who came over and repeated all the examination.
Anxiety nearly killed us.
We knew something was not okay, though we were unsure.
Then the doctor broke the news.
Ananya has a murmer in her heart and an enlarged heart.
Murmers, we know are very common in infants ( upto 50% infants have murmers and they are mostly innocent ( systolic murmers)But what troubled both the doctors and us was the enlarged heart part.We were then advised my the doc to get an instant ECG and chest x-ray for Ananya.Another excruciating wait.Back home in India, they apply some sort of gel and clip the electrical contacts directly on the body for ECG tests. But here, the nurse put some stickers with a dangling end and clipped the contacts to these dangling parts.We thought this was a better approach. But what we did not realise was that peeling off the stickers from her chest would cause her a lot of pain. The power of the glue is too strong for our comfort.
We then went to the xray chamber to get her xray done. She was made to sleep on the cold xray film. I wore a 20 KG lead suit and stood holding her still.After the xray, our next ordeal of waiting for the results.we were called back in at 11PM and were finally confirmed that the heart was indeed enlarged.
A disastrous way to end a rather nice day
Will write more on this in my next posts.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Our search for a new home
Our house rental lease expires this month end.We have been very very busy house hunting. And what an experience has it been over the past three weekends. All range of emotions from fun to frustration.We finally found one yesterday. Pretty much similar to what we desired to seek when we started.This was an experience in more ways than we could anticipate.After the birth of the little one, these happened to be our main outings. (stretches of over six hours on road). We had a new dimension to our planning. We had to find baby friendly places to care for Ananya.We also got to see many parts of london where would normally not visit. Some of them were real good and that kept us going!Ananya enjoyed these sights as well. We have now lifted her buggy back rest so that she can now get a better view. So she kinda sits in the
buggy as against lying on the buggy, though We try not to keep her sitting for long. Her neck/head is pretty stable and she moves her head without us having to support it.
We got our house yesterday and will be moving in end of this month.
London officially is now the costliest city in the world!
London has a lot of "victorian" houses, some of which are very old. WE wanted to stay in a modern apartment complex ( not that we could really
afford the high rentals, but because of the following reasons)1. Wanted an open kitchen plan adjoining a reasonably big hall. Lalitha can keep an eye on Ananya even when cooking.2. Wanted the rooms to be reasonably bigger than current one.3. Did not want too much furniture. Wanted to have as much open space as we could afford to give the baby freedom to move without banging
herself.4. We got a carpeted house ( mixed feelings). I would have preferred a wooden floor easier cleaning. But Ananya hits her legs so hard on the floor in a cycling action that we are afraid they might hurt her tender legs. We thought we would keep her in thick socks/ boots to prevent her
getting hurt.But didnt seem workable always. A carpet can cushion some of that shock. so we went for that.Now, we have to start packing slowly. and unpacking once we reach there. Such a boring task.
We have a nice big communal garden by our new apartment. While the sun lasts, we can use it to good benefit. But winters are harsh and long here.
buggy as against lying on the buggy, though We try not to keep her sitting for long. Her neck/head is pretty stable and she moves her head without us having to support it.
We got our house yesterday and will be moving in end of this month.
London officially is now the costliest city in the world!
London has a lot of "victorian" houses, some of which are very old. WE wanted to stay in a modern apartment complex ( not that we could really
afford the high rentals, but because of the following reasons)1. Wanted an open kitchen plan adjoining a reasonably big hall. Lalitha can keep an eye on Ananya even when cooking.2. Wanted the rooms to be reasonably bigger than current one.3. Did not want too much furniture. Wanted to have as much open space as we could afford to give the baby freedom to move without banging
herself.4. We got a carpeted house ( mixed feelings). I would have preferred a wooden floor easier cleaning. But Ananya hits her legs so hard on the floor in a cycling action that we are afraid they might hurt her tender legs. We thought we would keep her in thick socks/ boots to prevent her
getting hurt.But didnt seem workable always. A carpet can cushion some of that shock. so we went for that.Now, we have to start packing slowly. and unpacking once we reach there. Such a boring task.
We have a nice big communal garden by our new apartment. While the sun lasts, we can use it to good benefit. But winters are harsh and long here.
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