6 November 2012
I was 17 and "knocked up" as they say, kids having kids, yup that was me, during the 9months my blip turned into a bean, an orange a melon and what felt like an elephant at times.
I'd had a fair few problems during my pregnancy to say the least, among with morning sickness (yea that sucked) I had a dvt, deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot, it occurred very early on in my pregnancy and I was living each day injecting my stomach with "the remedy" as one doctor put it, something which stopped the clot from vacating my leg and moving up to my lungs or worse my heart. That was October.
January came and the blood clot had moved just like the months, to my lung. They kept me in hospital for 2 days much to my annoyance, but they never did anything other than watch over me "carefully", thus ruining my sleep by squeezing the living day lights out of my arm every fricking half hour! I suppose I was in preparation for when I had a screaming baby squeezing the sleep from me so good practice I suppose!
My 6month scan, scared the living crap out of me, at this time they never told you the sex of the baby so all there was to do was to check vitals, measurements and such the like and then your on your way, which certainly didn't happen in my case.
You know your in trouble when the sonographer turns and tells you she'll "be right back" and swiftly exits and re-enters just as quick with a consultant in tow! Oh my god what an earth was happening? Quiet whispers and a big huff and then they tell me he bad news. "Your baby's stomach is distended three times larger than what it should be and we know what it is"... Sigh... TELL ME ALREADY, I thought! "Your baby has a condition that needs surgery, it's called duodenal atresia, where during development, the baby's stomach and bowel do not complete and are not joined as they should be, therefore the baby can't pass food through its stomach". Okay great now what I thought! I had no idea what she'd just said she could've said it slower than a snail and it wouldn't have sunk in! Well that's certainly something you don't learn in sex ed. Things aren't all happy ever after! Damn! "There is another thing before you go, baby's who have this condition also usually have Down's syndrome, the odds are rather high." Double damn! "We'd perform a procedure to check the amniotic fluid which will tell us whether your baby has this, however, because your so far along this leads to a greater risk of miscarriage so we will leave you to think of it. If the test comes back that your child does have Down syndrome you can legally abort but that would lead to still birth, I'm sorry, go home have a think and we will see you in clinic in three days time".
Three days time came and went, I decided no matter what I was still going to have my baby so the test was useless to me and I'd just let fate make my path. I was 17 and shit scared! The baby could be disabled and really let's face it I was barely out of nappies myself. I would cope I knew I'd find a way, I was more than determined to do it right.
Meetings had took place with paediatricians and turns out my baby would need surgery immediately and would be transferred to Leicester royal infirmary for the op. Details were ironed out, I was having a baby any day soon!
The appointments were endless, every week at least! Me with my blood clot my baby with a life threatening "operable" deformity.
I sat my G.C.S.E's in my living room of my very own flat (my mum kicked me out once she knew I was pregnant) an exam invidulator came for each exam so I couldn't cheat! Best thing of all was I passed!! Every single one!! A-C's all of them! My determination had worked so far now for the hardest bit.
Life! Pt 1 • Opuss № I