May 2007

Corwin is now nearly one!! He is doing very well and we do not expect any surgery for at least two years. His physical development is a little delayed, but that is no surprise given what he has been through. He has just started to sit nicely on his own and is beginning to bare weight on his legs. He has a lot of medication throughout the day and night, but it is easy to forget his condition.

We are so so proud. I will use this blog to keep you updated!

abi x

Second Stage, February 2007

Corwin recovered very quickly from his first stage heart surgery and we were able to enjoy our little man. He had special milk to help him gain weight for his next operation , and he had medication for reflux.

In December 2007, at nearly 7 months old, Corwin had a heart catherisation (key hole surgery) to meassure his lung pressures and perform an angiogram (dye injected into the heart to get a clear picture of it's anatomy). Again we had to kiss our little boy goodbye which seemed just as hard as before. Corwin suffered a heart block during the procedure but thankfully they were able to get his heart rate steady very quickly. He recovered quickly and was home two days later! What a star!

The results of the catherisation were that Corwin needed his second stage soon. On Febraury 19th 2007 we kissed our boy goodbye as he was put to sleep yet again. It was harder than before as this was by far the riskiest surgery he had gone through. His heart would be stopped and he would be put on a heart lung machine. This surgery would reroute his upper body blood straight to his lungs and widen one of his holes.

This surgery was not as straight forward as planned. Corwin had very high lung pressures during surgery( dangerous for this type of surgery). They also struggled to get Corwin off the heart lung bypass machine.

We saw our little man, full of wires on life support , 7 hours later. He looked so poorly.

After a few days it was clear that he was not getting better. He had a nasty chest infection and fluid on his heart, brain, liver and lungs. His head was very swollen. He was not breathing for himself. He was unable to move his left side and had seizures. The doctors belived he had suffered a stroke.

After three long weeks, Corwin was well enough to come home. His recovery had been slower than expected, but considering the set backs, he had done very well.

We were so proud of our little fighter!

May 30th 2006 to First stage operation

Corwin is born!!

I was induced into labour so that there would be a neonatal team to look after Corwin as soon as he was born, a bed availlable in neonatal intensive care and a bed at Glenfield hospital where a team of cardiologists would look after him.

After an easy and quick labour, Corwin was rushed to a trolly to be assessed, he was wrapped up and handed to Tom who placed him in my arms. We had a couple of minutes with him, he looked perfect!!

He was taken to neonatal intensive care and given a drug to keep a duct in his heart open. He was very stable so he wasn't transferred to Glenfield until the next day, I was discharged just hours after giving birth so I could be with him.

He spent a week at Glenfield hospital. His heart function was good so there was no need to operate at this stage. We were sent home and asked to look for signs of heart failure ( breathlessness, blueness, sweating).

We couldn't believe our baby looked so well!

At 6 weeks old he was looking thinner and had lost weight. He was sweaty and sleeping lots. He looked very pale and blue around his lips. Corwin was in heart failure. He was admitted into hospital. After a week Corwin had his first operation. He had a band fitted onto his artery leading from his heart to his lungs to artificially narrow it as there was too much blood in his lungs which was causing the heart failure. We kissed him good bye as he was put to sleep. This was so hard. After 6 hours we saw him again. He had been out of theatre only a short time when his heart rate had dropped and he was given heart massage to keep him alive. He recovered and was out of intensive care the next day! Five days later he was home, putting on weight and staying awake longer.

At just 8 weeks old he had overcome so much already. Our little miracle.

This is Corwin's Website!

This is a website for my son, Corwin Thomas Meynell, born with a complex congenital heart desease. In short, he has just half a heart. He will need serveral operations that will not cure his condition but will help him live a longer and better life.

This Blog will be a diary of his progress. A place for those who know him to keep up to date with his progress and learn a little more about his story.

I am having to back date this diary by one year, so excuse the rushed posts early on!

abi x

January 2006

January 2006, two excited 'parents to be' off to have their unborn child scanned at 20 weeks into the pregnancy. They were myself, Abi 25, my husband , Thomas, 25.

As the sonographer scanned me we asked to find out the sex of the baby...a boy! Visions of my son playing rugby flashed through my mind! I was asked to go for a walk as the baby was lying awkwardly so the nurse was unable to get a good picture of the heart. Off we went, still excited. There were two people at the second scan looking concerned, then a third, then we were told that they could only see half of the baby's heart and they were sure that our baby had a hypoplastic right heart ( a tiny right side).....

.... a scan with a consultant two days later confirmed this...we were given the option of a termination , but we wanted to see a specialist first...off to Brimingham...I was scanned by a cardiologist and given the news for certian ( we had been clinging onto the hope that this was all a wrong diagnosis). Our baby had a small right ventricle ( pumping chamber) , two holes, his arteries were the wrong way round and he had a valve missing. This condition was labelled 'Tricuspid Atresia'. We were given three options: termination ( a still birth at this late stage); allow the baby to die naturally after birth; or three stages of surgery that would not cure the condition but would help our child live a better and longer life. The longterm outcome, and our child's life expectancy with these surgeries was not known. The consultant said he had many patients about 12 or 13 years old who had has the surgeries, but sadly he had also lost many patients.

Surgery was our decision. We wanted to give our child every chance to live a happy life, no matter how long that would be. There would be no rugby for our little one, but we decided he will play golf! Ofcourse it felt like our world had collapsed around us, but we stayed strong and hoped that some clever surgeons would work their magic and we would have a very special little son, our little miracle.