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Isabella Was Born 5 Weeks Early On 5th July 2015 By Emergency C-Section And Weighed 4lb 9oz. Soon After She Was Born, She Was Diagnosed With Duodenal Atresia Which Meant Her Bowels And Stomach Were Not Connected And Therefore Needed A Life Saving Operation To Connect Them Both Together. She Was Whisked Off To Addenbrookes Hospital In Cambridge For The Operation.
Whilst The Surgeons Were Operating On Her They Found By Chance That Her Stomach, Liver And Heart Were Not In The Correct Places. Her Liver Was On Left, Her Stomach Was On The Right And Her Heart Was Directly In The Middle Of Her Chest. And That She Had Got 2 Speens. This Is Called Situs Invertis Abdominos And Polysplenia.

The Surgeons All Did A Fantastically Wonderful Job In Repairing Her As Best They Could.

18 Days Later She Was Transferred From Addenbrookes Hospital To Our Local Hospital (Colchester General Hospital) And We Were Told That She Would Make A Brilliant Recovery And A Few Days Later We Were Allowed To Take Her Home 🙏🙌....Little Did We Know That This Was Just The Start Of A Completely Devastating Diagnosis...
When Isabella Was 20 Days Old Our Community Nurse Told Us That Her Stools Looked Almost White In Colour And That We Needed To Go Back To Our Local Hospital For Blood Tests. We Did Just That...After Loads Of Blood Tests And A Biopsy On Her Liver, We Were Told That Isabella Had Biliary Atresia (Rare Type Of Childrens Liver Disease) And That Her Billirubin (Jaundice) Levels Were Very High And That She Will Imminently Need Yet Another Life Saving Operation To Restore Bile Flow To Her Liver, This Was Called A Kasai Portoenterostomy, Which Will Restore The Bile Flow To The Liver, We Agreed.
7 Days Later 7th August 2015 We Were Sent To Kings College Hospital In London For Isabellas Kasai. She Was 4 Weeks Old! She Was Tiny And Was About To Have Her 2nd Life Saving Operation. We Were Told By The Surgeons At Kings That The Operation Will Go 1 Of 2 Ways....It Would Either Fix Her Temporarily Until She Was An Adult Or It Would Not Work And Then She Would Need A Liver Transplant!...
Immediately After Her Kasai, She Showed Signs Of Getting Better And Her Jaundice Levels Were Almost Non Existent 🙌🙏...Onwards And Upwards From Here Is What We Thought. 2 Weeks After Her Kasai We Were Discharged Home 💛 Finally We Could Be A Family And Took Isabella Home To Her Siblings 👍 William And Abigail-Grace ❤
She Was Doing Fantastically Well And We Were Over The Moon. She Had Regular Blood Tests And Ultrasounds On Her Liver At Kings.

However December 2017 And Isabella Had A Chest Infection That No-One Knew She Had. Until She Had An Appintment With Dr Cackett, Her Gastro Consultant At Our Local Hospital Who Decided To Send Isabella For A Chest Xray...Little Did We Know...She Had Pneumonia 😱😥 Quite Bad In Both Lungs...We were Admitted With IV Antibiotics For 10 Days Before We Were Allowed To Go Home. Further Blood Tests Revealed That Her Jaundice Levels Were Gradually Going Up. Her Liver Wasnt Coping With The Pneumonia That She Had And We Were Given The News That They May Have To List Her For A Liver Transplant As She Would Only Get Sicker From There.

They Were Right, As Each Day Passed She Did Infact Start To Fall Very Ill, Her Jaundice Levels Kept On Rising And Her Blood Tests Showed That Her Liver Was Struggling.

17th June 2018 Isabella Was Listed For A Liver Transplant! We Were Devastated, She Was Only 3yrs Old. She Was In Pain, She Was Tired All The Time And Her General Health Was Altogether Failing. Something Had To Be Done, Before I Lose My Baby Forever 💔

Everyday Was A Battle For Poor Isabella, We Were Told By Justine, Our Transplant Coordinator That We Were Basically To Put Our Lives On Hold Whilst We Waited For The Call For Transplant, Phones Were Not To Be On Silent Or Switched Off And We Were To Answer The Phone Immediately If A Private Caller Called. The Next Few Months Went By, Nothing...No Transplant Call, A Few More Months Went By...Still No Call...A Year, Again, No Call Came, I Came To The Conclusion That I Was Waiting For A Phonecall That Was Never Going To Happen 😥😥.

July 2nd 2019, My Phone Rang At 0900, It Was Private Caller, I Answered, It Was Our Transplant Coordinator, There Was A Possible Liver For Isabella And The Ambulance Was On Its Way To Pick Myself And Isabella Up...We Got To Kings, And The Day Consisted Of Waiting Around, Until Early Evening, We Were Told That The Organ Wasnt Suitable For Our Little Girl, We Were Devastated, We Had No Choice But To Go Home And Continue Our Wait.

Exactly 2 Weeks Later, 15th July 2019 At 0345 Came Another Call And The Ambulance Was On Its Way Again To Take Us To Kings.
Again Our Day Consisted Of Waiting Around For News Just Like We Had 14 Days Previous.
We Were Told That Again The Organ Was Not Suitable For Isabella 💔...We Were Sent Home 🤦‍♀️.

We Heard Nothing For Another 2 Months...

16th September 2019 At 1717 We Had A 3rd Call For Transplant..I Thought, This Has Got To Be Third Time Lucky 🙏🙏...The Ambulance Came, Picked Us Up And Blue Lighted Us Straight To Kings! The Next Morning We Were Given A Time For Transplant! 11am It Would Start And She Would Possibly Be In Theatre For 10hrs....

That Was The Longest 10hrs Of My Life 💛🙏🙌

Isabellas Transplant Was 17th September 2019...Exactly 17 Months To The Day That She Was First Listed. 

Please Donate So More Research Can Be Done As To Exactly What Causes Biliary Atresia. And How To Find A Cure 💚💙