Where we are now ...

Wanted to make sure that the businesses who I've had posted for the last few weeks, didn't disappear and the "news" section is automatically deleted from the history as soon as I update it. So I'm just going to copy and paste the really lovely people here, who helped us with our fundraising in one way or another.

* Premier, Tron Court, Tullibody

* Tron Cafe, Tron Court, Tullibody

* Michael R More, Main Street, Cambusbarron, Stirling

* Matz Motorcycle Training, Springkerse, Stirling

* G Johns Newsagents, Cambusbarron, Stirling

* Broadleys Veterinary Hospital, Springkerse, Stirling

* Central Pharmacy, Tron Court, Tullibody

* Mim's Market, Main Street, Northfield, MA, USA!

* St Saviours Church, Bridge of Allan, Stirling

* Prudential and Capita, Stirling and Reading, UK

* First Choice, Stirling - special thanks to Deborah!

* Stirling High School

as well as many exceptionally lovely individuals whom contributed their time and services, as well as their finances! :-)

Met with Alyssa's paediatrician today for a quick general review, and go over the necessary paperwork I'll need for the trip to New York. Was a pretty good meeting today and we discussed the various aspects of Alyssa's problems - her posture and walking issues, her itching, gut pain and general comfort, her medications and the changes likely to happen in the near future, her diet and how well she's eating now (yay!), and obviously New York. We also discussed the fact that Alyssa's speech has clearly improved since last time we were there, but that I have also referred her for speech therapy as well. Quite where I am going to fit in speech therapy is another matter, but one I'll deal with once home from New York.

We also discussed (again) the surgery that Alyssa's having this Thursday at Yorkhill Hospital and debated the likelihood of it actually helping. It's still not exactly completely clear what is actually causing her pain - ie if it's the nerves in her digestive system that just aren't working properly to help propel things along, or if there is a physiological aspect which makes bowel movements seem impossible for her. She has had two previous endoscopic procedures and nothing abnormal was noted then, but she presented as a very different little girl back then and this was not something they were investigating - just any inflammation and a reason why she'd have so much gut cramping at that time. This small procedure may help ease her bowel movements and - if so - would make a huge difference to her daily life.

So we can only hope it helps. I am usually pretty good at not letting my hopes get built up for anything "trial-like" like this, where we have no idea what the outcome will be, but I have to admit that I already know I'm going to be gutted if she's not more pain-free after it. It's so hard to watch her every single day straining (sometimes to the point of screaming) and telling me how "sooo" (sore) she is. But there are really no words to describe how awful it is to hear her little voice over the monitor - every single night - crying "help" and begging for me to stop the pain! And then having to listen to that for an hour or two until she finally gets so exhausted that she falls asleep. :-( Logically, this procedure should help ... but we've had so many things which should have helped her - logically - but didn't, or backfired ... so I shall try to contain my thoughts and just wait to see what happens.

She's stomping her feet a bit more obviously again when she walks (and Alyssa's paed pointed out that she noticed it more clearly today too); and one foot is more turned in when she walks now, so she's falling over quite a lot again. Not sure if this is still a proprioceptive problem, or another physiological reason - her hypermobility and low muscle tone do make her pretty accident-prone, and are probably contributory to it all. Her posture is still pretty much the same, and she still has to be reminded to keep her head up off her chest when playing - plus her hypermobility still makes feeding herself with cutlery difficult, but the OT was hoping for solutions round that. Her heat and cold issues seem heightened again and she is once more screaming when put in the bath, and bracing herself for entering the waer. Hoping the specialist OT in New York can help me with these issues.

Ok, rambled again for longer than I meant to. There's always just so much to cover when I finally manage to get on here! Will post again once the surgery is over, and I have a rough idea of how she's doing post-operatively.

Wow, it's been a week again already!!!

Discovered when getting to the hospital last week that the anaesthetist still didn't have a surgery date for me, but he phoned me the next day to say they'd managed to organise it for the 15th (a week today) and that he'd check with the dentists to make sure they could all be there together. Had to double check with the dentists yesterday, because Alyssa was due to be there today again having another crown fitted - which I really wanted done under the GA seeing as she was having a GA anyway, due to how distressed she became last time - and thankfully, they are able to do everything at the same time. So got a little hospital reprieve today! :-)

Unfortunately, she's had a really difficult night and was complaining for hours last night about her sore tummy. It was really difficult for her to get to sleep, and she still hadn't managed to pass anything by this morning - despite straining for hours at times. Poor girl! She has now managed to have a small bowel movement, but not nearly enough and is still in pain. :-(

Her mouth is slowly healing, and she has not been allowed to drink from bottle since I discovered that she was damaging her mouth from them. There is still a fairly large ulcerated area where she tore it open, but it is much better than it was last week! The dental team will be able to get a good look at it (and the rest of her mouth) when she is asleep next week for the anal stretch surgery - which we also hope will finally put an end to her abdominal pain.

Fundraising News:

We have now more or less met our target for New York!!! Thank you to everyone who has helped us get to our target in such a short period of time! :-)

A very dear friend recently held a "bring and buy" sale, which raised over £700 ... and we held a Pub Quiz on Monday evening, which raised just under £700 - absolutely mindblowing, and we were all overwhelmed by the support and generosity shown at both events. Prudential raised £2500 (as well as individual employees donating on their own behalf!) for us, which was just a staggering amount of money, and I have just been told that Stirling High School have raised £950 for us today! They were meant to be raising money for their own purposes, then decided they would give half the proceeds to Alyssa's fund. By all accounts, they have since changed their minds ... and donated it ALL to Alyssa! There are no words to say what all of this means to me! And what it will mean to Alyssa, when she is old enough to understand how many people went out of their way to help us! :-)

So; the flights are booked, the hotel is finally booked (although not actually paid for as yet - the card has been pre-authorised but not actually charged) and the fees are covered by the amount Prudential raised. And I am no longer panicking about how much money I need to raise before we leave on the 24th! If I discover that I need more while there, it will just go on the credit card and I'll worry about it when I get home. Likewise; if I discover that we end up with more than we needed, then it will go in a separate bank account for Alyssa - in case we need to go back - or it will be donated to Yorkhill Childrens' Foundation, if we find out there will be no need for us to go back in future.

Thank you once again to everyone who has helped us achieve our goal of getting to New York to see Dr Axelrod. Now to hoping she can help Alyssa with her many issues ...!