Day 7

Good evening :)

Back to school for all the kids and teachers today! You could tell because town was scarily quiet and the in Oldham Town Centre there is a man who sits outside Primark with a keyboard and sings songs from back in the day; well he was there today but all last week he must've done a runner to escape the grief he probably gets off kids! :') bless him.

Had a shop around today with my friend Chelsey. Took my wheelchair of course it’s funny the looks you get walking out of the car standing near the boot while Chelsey sets the chair up and the sitting in it. People look and stare as if you’re pulling some sort of prank. I particularly enjoy watching people stare as me and Chelsey (who is 20) pull up in a disabled bay, you can see them staring at you just waiting for two ‘youngsters’ to step out so they can inform them that you are parking in a disabled bay.
The look of disappointment as you pull out you’re blue badge makes me feel quite smug that I proved their prejudice opinion wrong!

It’s also quite funny how people’s reactions and thoughts change once you’re sat in a wheelchair. Once, when I get out of the wheelchair to walk around shops, people stare and some man once shook his head at me as if I was in the wrong for using a wheelchair whilst having fully functioning use of my legs. It saddens me to think that such narrow minded people can be so vocal and public with there thoughts maybe in future if they are too quick as to judge a book by its cover they should keep there thoughts or ‘tuts’ to themselves instead of giving me such a disgusted look as he did. I felt bad for using a wheelchair, something which aids me even though I do have fully functioning legs, my lungs are that of a different story.
On the other hand, some people look down at you and smile all sympathetically and it’s quite patronizing sometimes how people speak to you.
Funny isn’t it how people feel the need to treat others differently.

Day 6 – A Picture Of Something That Has Had The Biggest Impact On Your Life.



Todays picture is a scar from something that has had the biggest impact on my life. My Lobectomy.

In 2008, my health took a real bad turn for the worst. I was constantly coughing up loads and loads of thick, dark green junk from my lungs. Breathing was increasingly hard work and my chest just felt heavy and horrible.
Not many of you will ever be able to comprehend just what that feels like. It’s awful, you just feel so ill and so poorly and sick. Coughing up the gunk was making me heave with all the efforts from my stomach muscles but the taste and texture of what I was coughing up wasn’t helping with the nausea.

I went on holiday to Florida USA in May 2008 and was really struggling. I’d be up coughing most nights with my mum & dad rubbing my back. My appetite dwindled and my energy decreased too. As soon as we stepped off the plane back home I was taken to hospital were I was admitted and put straight on IV’s. Doctor Panicker who was my consultant in the children’s hospital performed a bronchoscopy.
This is where a bronchoscope (a telescope the width of a pencil) is placed down your throat either through the mouth or nose. It then enters your airways and allows whoever is performing the procedure to examine the state of your airways and also allows them to take some specimens. They also gave my lungs a wash out.
He was unable to access my top right lobe as it was blocked by thick sputum. He then made me have a CT scan on my lungs. This showed that his suspicions were correct and that my top right lobe was overpowered with a localized infection.

My options were as follows:
- Have a Lobectomy. This is a high-risk operation that involves the surgeon to take away the affected lobes, leaving the rest of the lungs alone.
- Allow the infection to spread and inevitably not survive to see my next birthday with the rate it would spread.

After a big discussion with my mum and dad I decided to go ahead with the procedure. My surgeon who would have my life in her hands was Miss Humphreys.
She performed the surgery on August 28th 2008. She removed my top right lobe and part of my middle right lobe. I had a blood transfusion and spent a few hours in ICU, spent a couple of days on HDU and then spent the rest of my time on normal ward. I walked out of Pendlebury hospital just 1 week after my op.
Although I did improve for a short while, the improvements weren’t as good as I’d hoped them to be and I am now waiting to be transferred to the transplant team. However, I still see this whole thing being the biggest impact on my life as if I hadn’t of had it.. who’s to say I’d be here now?
It proved to me just how strong and able to fight I am.

I shall forever be in debt to Miss Humphreys and her surgical team at Pendlebury Childrens Hospital.

Take Care, Soph xoxo

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