Thursday, June 13, 2024

anxieties and fears

as adults we see things from a whole other perspective as kids

my son will be going into surgery without much fear or anxiety, although he is a bit worried, he's more just worried about the pain that will come once he wakes up

adults however know more, know more details, have heard more stories and definitely know more of the nitty gritty details that surgery, in this case heart surgery entails

knowing my creative mastermind child who loves making his own movie posters, his own games and is most definitely better than maths than his Mama is going to have his chest cut open like that is something I cannot get past

the thought of watching him going into theatre and putting his entire life, literally his entire being in the hands of other people is unfathomable.

it's the what ifs that are poisoning my brain. what if something, anything goes wrong, what if he's that very small percentage that doesn't make it through.

and I know it's not healthy to think like that, I need to fill myself with positivity, the same positivity I give my boy every day 
"everything will go well and you'll be back to yourself in no time" "they are very skilled and know what they're doing".

but why, at night time when my world is quiet can I not believe that myself. 
I try so hard to keep positive and believe nothing bad will happen but it's like there's someone else in my brain feeding me negativity and I don't know how to stop that

the mental toll this has taken on me has been astronomical. like the light has gone from my eyes and from my life and I just want it to come back

and I feel selfish even just saying that, i'm not even the one having surgery.

but I'm the mother, who has thought they might lose their child many times in just half a year, who's watched flashbacks in their mind of their child's first breath, first steps and first words because they've felt like his short life was going to just be snuffed out and taken from them.

I can't remember the last day or night I didn't cry, I'm entirely exhausted in every single way. 


your child needs heart surgery

Four words you never want to hear

Four words you never think you will have to hear. 

And what I know for sure is you cannot even begin to imagine how that feels unless you have heard those four words and been through it..

My 8 year old boy with the biggest, kindest heart I've ever known now needs it to be fixed. How is this his life now?

He's still such a happy boy and looking at him you wouldn't even know he was sick. He's incredibly strong and I only wish I had the amount of strength he has. 


13.2.24. the day our lived changes forever

There's been many times I've gone through traumas that have made me say 'this is the day my life changed forever' and while that is true, because everything big and small changes your life in some way  I feel like this time was different. This time my world imploded with just the next sentence.

"Your son has rheumatic fever which has damaged his heart"

What do you mean?! My firstborn son, the one who made a Mama has something wrong with his heart?
Why him, why me, why us?.

It took us 5 or so days to get this diagnosis and within those days my mind was filled with possibities, from something small to something really scary, never did it cross my mind that it would be something THIS scary.

I was in disbelief, even though I saw with my own two eyes that heart scan that confirmed everything. We were told one month off school and the thought of him not being able to go to school and play with his friends broke me, little did any of us know it would be so much longer.

Fast forward 3 weeks, he was discharged to continue bedrest at home only to be back 2 weeks later with more symptoms and to be told even more news we didn't expect..