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From his first to his last day.
I didn't have time to to get comfy in the scan room when the nurse announced "your having twins." It was such a moment, we could see our two new additions so clearly. We came out of the room and I had a proud smile from ear to ear and declared to everyone in the room
"it's twins".
7 months later Julie started to show.
This picture of Julie has not been photo shopped
( I kid you not)
By the end of the pregnancy things were getting a bit tough for Julie. She had that big lump to take care of, she obviously had Mack to keep entertained all day and on top of that we were sleeping on the floor in our kitchen at our place in Minworth. Not ideal , but we loved every minute of our new life.
There was no mention of a cesarian so the pregnancy went full term bar a couple of weeks. It had been a text book pregnacy with no problems with Julie playing everything by the book. Loads of fruit and veg, no exposure to any tobacco smoke and not a drop of alcohol passing her lips.
On the 2nd of September 2007 of beautiful boys joined our world.
"Could life get any better" ?
I left Julie that night and made my way back home. I was so excited and proud. I couldn't wait to go and pick up Mack and take him to go and meet his new twin brothers Sid and Jed.
Mack was so excited. This is the very moment he was introduced to his twin brothers.
There you go, a rare picture of me. Sid is on the right
We grabbed a few more pictures then it was time to take our family home. I can't tell you how proud I felt carrying one in each arm out of that maternity ward and across the hospital grounds.
Mom and Dad bagsy the first proper hold.
Followed closely by family and friends
The next three months were just as expected. Heaven on earth.
I remember we had to have black nail varnish on the finger of Sid so that we could tell them apart.
This picture is the last one we have before our lives were changed forever.
20th NOVEMBER 2007
It was around this time we had noticed Sid had a couple of little twitches, a bit like a startled reaction to a louder than average noise. Then a few days later I seem to remember a day when I came in from work. Usually my beautiful twin boys gaze would follow me around the room with little smiles on their faces. On this particular day only Jed did this. Sid's gaze seemed fixed. We both new something was up, that was ok though we would simply book into the doctors and get it sorted out.
We visited our G.P who examined Sid. They new something was not right. They booked us an appointment with a paedeatric doctor.The appointment was weeks away. So we cracked on with our lives and our Christmas preperations. Such a hazey time, we kind of new that something was on the horizon but didn't have a clue what. When i look back now i can so see it in Sid's eyes. This was calm before the long storm that lay ahead.
Just after the christmas of 2007 we had our appointment with the peadiatric doctor. As we sat in the surgery the news began to unfold. The doctor held Sid by his torso face down parellel to the table. Then he said " there is something seriously wrong here" he couldn't explain what but said that Sid would be booked in for a brain scan in order to pin point the problem. I think we were both still thinking that everything would sort itself out.
That night when Julie was in bed I started to research Sid's symptoms. After 20 minutes of google and you tube we had Sid's problem diagnosed. I knew what his twitches and stomach clenches looked like I just had to find a clip on you tube. There were plenty.
I stayed up most of the night researching what I had discovered. It made grim reading.This was by far the worst moment of my life.
Click here to read what I found that night.
The next morning I explained to Julie what I had discovered. Between us we decided to take Sid to A & E at the childrens hospital. On arival there I told a string of white lies that I knew would get him admitted and get him the brain scan he needed. We said that he had stopped breathing , that he had gone blue and that he had some kind of elongated seizure. We got our scans that week.
One of Sid's first EEG scans
Julie had to stay at home to hold the family together, taking care of Mack and Jed and trying to keep some level of normality to day to day living. A grim situation for any mom. Your baby is severly ill in hospital yet it' is more or less impossible to be there by his side. It was my job to be there whenever I could.
The first few days I was there 24 hours a day, this was the grimmest of all as little Sid was still a "normal baby" he had all the characteristics of any baby but his whole day was frequently punctuated with west syndrome spasms. The were like a small electric shocks going through his body. A distressed cry would follow each episode. It was me, my boy and the spasms in a tiny hospital room, sad sad times.
The following weeks I would make my way to the hospital to be with Sid for an hour before work then would go back after work. Beryl and John would stay with Sid most days. The feeling of leaving our helpless little lad on his own is a feeling I'll never forget. The lonely walk from his bed to the car was the longest walk. Down coridoors, through automatic doors.
The brain scans and tests confirmed what we already suspected. It was west Syndrome. If I'm honest I still believed at this point that we would have some kind of progress with Sid, after all there were about five or six proven treatments that we were about to try. Each medication Sid was put on would bring a feeling of distant optimism. As each treatment came and went with no success the optimism would decrease. 2 months after diagnosis we had got to a stage where Sid could not communicate in anyway whatsover. We had no idea if he was aware of his surroundings we we unaware if he knew when we left his bedside. We just needed him home so our family could be together again. His Mom and brothers missed him desperately. After weeks of treatment we finally got him home.
