Stormy Weather & Valentine Ball!

Stormy Weather & Valentine Ball!

Well what a week! As you know last week was CHD awareness week and to finish it off we went to the annual CHSF Valentines Ball. It;s an opportunity for us to get together and have a good night out and also raise much needed funds for the Children's Heart Surgery Fund and Leeds General Infirmary. This year they are hoping to raise enough money for a state of the art Pain distraction system (I thought that was what alcohol was for ;-) !! ) Seriously this is a fantastic piece of kit that helps when children need to have certain procedures. So we got dressed up,

T'Old Lass scrubs up well!

met up with old friends, had a good meal, listened to some emotional speeches, raised a few quid....

Trying to unlock the door to an iPad!

we even had a boogie,! A good night was had and over 5k was raised. As ever it;s not enough, so if you wish to donate, leave me a message!

Then, as one of the many recent storms paid us a visit, the tree outside the house decided it had had enough and would try and hitch a lift somewhere else oh the front of the Mrs's car!

Think we need more than a bit of T Cut to shift this!

Ouch! It could have been a lot worse, only a few minutes Earlier Helen had been getting Leon out of the car, so it was quite a lucky escape. So the Car is in the Garage, the Tree is now woodchip, and Mrs Blackbird is now looking for somewhere else to sit and sing! Just reminds me that if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any at all at times!

So remember folks, be careful out there, and there's always someone worse off than yourselves, at least I'm not a Homeless Blackbird!

XX

CHD Awareness Week 7 - 14 February.

CHD Awareness week 7 - 14 February


Imagine the scene, after years of trying, (with some heartbeaks inbetween) along comes the long awaited Little Leon after a reasonably uneventful pregnancy, Arriving on the 7th December. to all intents and purposes Mother and baby are doing "well".

















So we spend the day telling friends, family and in all honesty, anyone who would listen about the new arrival and thinking how lucky we were. So Helen & Leon Stay in hospital overnight and I go home to get my "last" night of sleep before we bring him home the next day.

Or at least that was the plan...........

The next day it all goes pear shaped. Leon has a lousy night and wouldn't feed, the Breast Feeding stasi had pretty much blamed Helen and said there was no problem she just had to try harder!  (But that's a whole other story!!!) Luckily for us a rather observant Paediatrician had picked up that something "wasn't quite right" and wanted to check out a few things, so they would just take him to SCBU and do a few checks. Whilst a little concerned we didn't really think that much of it. It was only when I went down to find out what was happening and when we could go home, i was met with a a group of very concerned medical staff, crowded round an incubator all looking very concerned and having animated discussions. They advised me that they were tyring to get an Intensive care bed and that we would be transferred to Leeds general Infirmary, I didn't really take in what they were saying, it just didn't make sense.
How serious is it? i asked,  "expect the worse" they said.... Words, no parent should ever have to hear.
Within an hour or so the embrace team arrived, Leon was placed in the space age pod and blue lighted, we followed, i don't remember the drive or much else to be honest.

The next few days are a blur, Leon was in HDU for a few weeks and in hospital for quite a while.

He was Diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot, ASD, pulmonary stenosis and a PDA.

At six months old he underwent a 14 hour operation to repair some of the main issues and has had further procedures, all of which documented on the blog  http://www.little-leon.blogspot.com and elsewhere.

We were lucky, yes, lucky. Leon has survived and, whilst he will need more surgery. he is in reasonably good health. The harsh reality is that Congenital Heart Defects are the biggest child killer of all, more than all the cancers put together, but get relatively little funding. CHD is more common than you think, Approx 1 in 100 kids will have some form of a CHD, Leon's condition is one of the rarer ones, but, it is more than likely you will know some-one who is affected by it.

Help us to raise awareness, wear Red on Friday 7th, Share this blog around during the week, don't be afraid to ask questions about it. If you can spare a few quid donate to either the CHSF, or  message me and i;ll send you details,

Leon Says Thanks for all the support over the last three years...

Woah, where did January go?

Well, where did it go?

Oh No, I've missed January'

Last time I looked it was christmas and New Year. Where does the time go. 

It's been a busy month month in the Little Leon household with lots of things going on and somethong new and exciting happening.

 Christmas day came and went, Little Leon had great fun he got lots of lovely presents and had fun at Uncle Tony and Aunty Nicolas, eating, laughing, playing... ooh what fun!

Just after Christmas Leon was invited for a lunchdate with Aunty Jess & Uncle Manir, so off we went to York to have Fish & Chips. Uncle Manir loves Fish and chips and eats them whenever he gets chance!

Leon Shows Jess & manir the finest points of Cbeebies
 

Daddy got very spoilt at christmas, mummy bought him an new Camera, so expect loads of super pictures over the Spring and summer, (he promises not to bore you to death with them!)
 Heres a couple he snapped of Little Leon to be going on with!

Daddy has had some new body art, given that he owed Leons life to the skill of the wonderful Mr watterson who literally had his heart in his hands  The symbolism of which is shown here in some great work by Rich Peel @Scorpio Tattoo in Selby.

His heart in their hands! 

 Now, the really exciting / scary (delete as applicable) news.
 After Mummy decided that she had had enough of working away from home and parted company with her former employers, She has made the bold and brave step to "go it alone". So to that end we give you..... Big Fanfare please Leon.....  


                         

Yes the scary move of setting up her own company, HDP Occupational Therapy Ltd.

Over the last 6 years Helen has built up a wealth of experience in Training and assessing and is now going to put these skills to work. So if you need a tailored solution for all your Occupational Therapy needs contact us, we can Offer Hourly, daily, Weekly or contract rates. We offer OT services, Equipment use training, Peadiatric First Aid Traing, Mobility assesments, so if you need an OT call HDP!

More news on this later, we will have a website and brochure up and running shortly, so keep your eyes peeled....

Apart from this we have a few exiting things coming up this month, Wear Red day! (more on that this week), The CHSF Valentines Ball) and Little Leon is off the see Grandma and Grandad soon as well!

Leon says Nap time now

Laters peeps!