NATHAN PULLS THROUGH!

Nathan had the Operation, He had made it through! We were only allowed a few minutes with him, he was trussed up like a Chicken!

He had bandage ties on his arms and legs to either side of his Cot, to keep him still, he also had a Plaster of Paris cast on his head, to keep his tubes in place!

We were only allowed to feed him at certain times and that was through the tubes with a syringe type tube!

The Doctor's decided he could not go home until he reached his Birth weight again, which was 6lb 13ozs, he had gone down to 5lb 2ozs with the illness!

Has I have said in previous posts, some of happenings from back then are hard to remember, especialy times & dates, so my Wife Susan often tells me what she can remember, and that is more than I remember!

Nathan made a slow and steady progress over the next couple of weeks!

But more aggrevation over our Living Arrangements were about to take another turn!

ITS A BOY!......."NATHAN"

So after nearly 10 months Susan finally had the baby, and it was a Boy!

But it quickly became clear all was not well with the Baby, in them days the Mother's stayed in the Hospital for about 10 days, after the Birth!

We soon found out after the birth, he was not keeping his feed down, he seemed to be bringing it all back up at a great force, all over who was ever feeding him or the floor!

This went on for a few days and then the Doctor's started carring out Tests on the Baby , to see what was wrong with him!

After about a week his weight had gone down from 6lb 13 ozs at Birth to 5lb 2 ozs, after 8 days the Doctor's found out he had an Illness called Pyloric Stenosis (the narrowing of the opening from the stomach to the intestines) this was what was causing the severe vomitting.

It was quickly decided they had to operate as soon as possible on our Son, as it turned out our Son was the youngest Baby to have this Illness in our Area!

Susan had already picked a name for our son before the Birth, he was going to be called "Nathan" at that time, we had never heard of anybody else by this name.

So after days of worrying for both of us, on Monday 11th September 1978, we had to have Nathan Christened in the Hospital because there was a fair chance he would not get over this illness! we were told he has a 70/30 chance of Survival, and the 30% was on our side of survival!

Straight after the Christening, Nathan had to have his operation, we were told the surgeon performing the Operation was on the Telephone to Great Ormond Street Hospital surgeon's in London, as he had not performed this Operation before on such a small infant and needed guidance!

The operation seemed to take an age, but eventually we heard that the Operation had been completed, but "Nathan" was "touch & go" whether he would pull through!

The picture was taken after the operation, Nathan had tubes coming out of his stomach and Head, he had also both sides of his head shaved, where the tubes went!

PANIC and KICKED OUT!

Exactly a week after we got Married, I was at work and a Phone Call came through, Susan had been rushed to the Hospital, the Baby was on its way!

After several hours at the Hospital, the Doctor said it was a false alarm, and nothing was going to happen now, "Thank God for that", we thought!

We were still at my Nanny's House, this I'm afraid was'nt going to last much longer, as my Nanny's Brother stuck his Nose in, saying we were using Her, she told us what he had said, I can't really remember the ins and outs of the Situation, but in the end we had to move out!

This has it turned out , was the only time in my Life I had any bad feeling's towards my Nanny, she was always Great to me and Susan, this incident I fully blamed on her Brother and his Big Snout and Mouth! (yes we were bitter towards him! and never spoke to him again)

Anyway my Nanny Passed away in 1989, and to this day we still now and again take Flowers to her Grave!

So once again we were Homeless and not having a Car anymore, we had to walk everywhere, and by now Susan had about 2 Months to having our Baby!