Tony Doherty

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#FFCC80" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="1088e8e3.jpg"> <div> <IMG SRC="10995810.png" border=0 width="149" height="129" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="12297710.jpg" border=0 width="151" height="113" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <I><B>Tony and his family</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B><IMG SRC="12497710.jpg" border=0 width="151" height="113" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FF9900" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="10e00c82dwnjbj.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>TSNI</B></FONT> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#3366FF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>   |     <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#CC0000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TSNI"><U>home</U></A></FONT></div> <div> Tony Doherty   |   <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tony and family"><U>Tony and family</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tony"><U>Tony</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tony"><U>Tony</U></A></div> <div> Tony Doherty</div> <div> Tony is one of my lights and part of my strength! Yet two years ago just after he was born if you had told me what he and I were going to go through in just two years I would have said that we were not strong enough. You see I thought I had already been through enough as when I was expecting Tony and had 7 weeks to go I was told after a major scan that they couldn't find his legs his feet might be attached to his bottom his kidneys weren't working his bladder wasn't emptying his heart looked wrong and his head was deformed. Achondraplasia was a relief and then he piddled on the Doctors at birth but he has a shadow on 1 of his Kidneys. His heart is enlarged mildly but I have since been told that is because his heart had to work harder to give his body enough Oxygen.</div> <bR> <div> Within three months of Tony's birth I was ragged he had been in hospital twice since birth with chest infections. Tony was sleeping the night and he was so happy all the time he was awake, but he was fighting to breathe whenever he was asleep and going blue around his face. Doctors only saw him awake and as he was always happy they said he was fine. I also expressed concern about his poor weight gain. As time went on Tony was in Hospital more often than he was out. Then they said it was my milk that wasn't good enough for Tony. I was devastated I blamed myself for all his problems. There was no improvement when he was on bottles at all part of me was relieved but no less concerned. I had the most gorgeous little boy in the world and nobody could tell me why he had to fight to breathe.</div> <bR> <div> In May 2003 he was rushed to hospital by ambulance our local hospital is 50 minutes away on a good day it took 20 minutes he was blue. He was to be kept in for observation for two nights they said on the Saturday morning. By the Sunday evening he was rushed up to I.C.U.and they were looking for a bed in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Dublin. 6hours from home. They got one on the Monday and it took us 2hours 20 minutes by ambulance Tony wasn't good! Tony was admitted to the cardiac I.C.U. and assessed I was told that he had a 20% chance if they couldn't pin point the reason for the episodes. Within 12 hours they had assessed that he had an upper airway obstruction of some sort and given him an 80% chance! By now it was Tuesday and they were happy enough for Tony to be on a general baby ward. On the Wednesday morning they removed his adenoids things didn't go smoothly but Tony eventually came through. His Surgeon wasn't 100% happy with the results and called in the Respiratory team. This team did extensive sleep studies. After about 5 weeks of tests we came home (around the end of June). Tony was on Oxygen through nasal prongs while sleeping and a very special feed and he had actually put on some weight at long last. By August Tony was back in Crumlin again he looked so sick they tried to fit a stent under a general anaesthetic. Designed to keep his tongue forward to help make breathing easier. After 36 hours the stent had to be removed Tony was so distressed, and his feeds were coming down the stent. The ENT and Respiratory teams mentioned Tracheostomy for the first time. I think that I was so shocked they said that it was the last resort. We were only in two or three weeks that time but we were spending more and more time in the local hospital mainly for pneumonias. Tony's Oxygen needs were going up and up. Back to Crumlin in November for out-patients Tony was kept in for 12 days that time. The local hospital had us over Christmas and New Year with RSV Bronchialitus and needing 8litres of Oxygen 24 hours a day just to keep him pink. He came home on 2 litres of Oxygen 24 hours a day. </div> <bR> <div> Crumlin for out patients on the 5<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> of February to check his heart. But they sent for his respiratory team as his blood pressure was up a bit and his breathing was not the best. Respiratory kept him in for observation and got ENT to come and check him over too. Both of his main teams decided that a Tracheostomy was the only route left this was Friday the 6<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> of February and that the following Friday would be the ideal time. I must of gone pale as they started to fuss and said that they would do some tests to convince me that</div> <div> It was the only thing left to do. They gave me loads of information on tracheostomy Shaun my husband came down for the weekend and we talked things through and made up our minds that the Doctors knew best! On the Monday morning ENT came around and I told them that they didn't have to do the tests that we realised that they wouldn't be doing this unless it was necessary. So the week was to be filled running pre-op tests and Physio then Tony's ENT surgeon came to see him between ops on the Wednesday and got the fright of his life it was the first time that he had ever seen Tony asleep and he wanted to take him there and then for the tracheostomy. He expressed concern about how much he was sweating as well as how he was fighting for every breath. To which I answered no you can wait till Friday when Shaun will be here for support for me. When Friday came it was hard to stay calm but I had to for Tony.  The op went well took a little longer than we hoped but better safe than sorry. Tony went to ICU afterwards and came on really well hours after the op but the next day he had gone down hill a bit. Shaun didn't like seeing him so sick and went home. Over the next two days I watched him picking up steadily and by Monday lunch time he was ready to go back to the ward. Then the hardest thing was facing the fact that I wouldn't be hearing him again not crying or laughing or talking and he did have about 20 or so words and 1 sentence  <I>bad dad did</I> yes I know it's a terrible thing to teach but its easy to say. Altogether we spent 15and a half weeks in the hospital as Tony kept getting very chesty so each time we thought he was getting better he would plummet down again. Tony had loads of tests done again his heart was again mildly enlarged. Tony was also found to be an asthmatic. He is unable to take thin liquids no thinner than syrup consistency. All the time Tony is in Hospital I stay with him but that means I both miss and worry about my other 2 older children. We finally got him home all be it on loads of medication for his asthma. He was on 16 medicated nebulisers a day and roughly 6-8 saline nebs. This all meant that I would be getting very little sleep but my family was together again. Tony was doing really well he was in the local hospital a couple of times then back down to Crumlin in November for a check on his Tracheostomy, asthma and a feeding review as he had been fed by a nasal gastric tube for 9 months so they wanted to replace that with a tummy peg, another general anaesthetic but Tony didn't want solid food. Tony blamed solid food for making him sick and the doctors took him off oral feeds when he was constantly sick, so he had gotten out of the habit of feeding. The operation went well and we were home on the 17<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> of December Tony's nebs were cut right back too as the intense period of medication had helped to strengthen his lungs. Now he was only on 2 steroid nebulisers so I was at last going to get some sleep. And at last as a family we had a great Christmas Tony was well and he loved the whole parcel opening bit. Now we are still waiting for Tony's peg site to heal as he also has a condition which means he doesn't heal very quickly but that is minimal on our worry list! Since the Tracheostomy his sweating is almost normal. The dieticians have given me all these different things to try to get him to eat solid food, each unsuccessful and he normally gets very sick. So now they have finally learnt that if I do my own thing we might just manage to get him to eat for us. Today Tony is well most of the time and he is off Oxygen since October! Tony is a happy child with a mum who is thankful to have such wonderful children that I have. Yet I do wonder if anyone else has a similar story to tell.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Written by: - Shirlie.Val.Doherty.                                      <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:shirlievaldoherty@eircom.net" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:shirlievaldoherty@eircom.net"><U><U>shirlievaldoherty@eircom.net</U></U></A></FONT>          </div> </td> </tr></table></body>