A Smile Is All I Need

Many of you who follow my blog know how the last four months have been , filled with torment, worry and despair, seeing my granddaughter suffering so much pain and her health deteriorating. There have been no great changes just very subtle gentle changes, after another stay in hospital. Paige ended up being admitted to Salisbury General Hospital, we could not sit back any longer seeing her cry in pain, she had stopped eating and drinking so we asked the GP for admission. Once admitted the consultant was shocked to see the level of pain she was in and called in the acute pain team between them very quickly her medication was changed and she was on some serious pain relief. We have been told she may have to learn to live with pain but at least it will be controlled, the experience in Salisbury Hospital was so different from that of Southampton, we had nurses that cared, they had empathy for Paige, it was calm, peaceful and reassuring. The Doctors listened to what we where telling them and spoke to Paige, it was not the frightening experience that she had in January.

We still have a long journey ahead and we cannot predict the outcome, we are going slowly forward using the new medication. Paige still gets time when she has pain but we now have the drugs to help take that away or at least control it.

The months ahead are going to be with physiotherapists working out a plan to at least get her sitting again which she cannot do at the moment, along with getting her to eat properly again.

During the middle of last week I slept by Paige’s bedside as I do a couple of times a week just to give her Mum a slight break, I woke at 6.30am and turned to see her little face with a huge smile on it, she said morning granny, she had slept well and felt content, that filled my heart.  I felt as though I had won the lottery. My daughter and I spend all our time giving her the best care we possibly can and the times we get a smile like that make it all worth while.