Blog

 

It had been nearly three weeks since Harriet had her Gastrostomy operation at the Queen`s Medical Centre Hospital in Nottingham. The scars were starting to heal and Harriet looked alot better, now that her nasal gastric tube was no longer on her face.

A few days ago things looked as though they may take a turn for the worse, we noticed dark fluids, which looked like blood coming back through the Gastrostomy tube from Harriet`s stomach. We phoned the kite team at the Royal Derby Hospital and asked if they would come out and have a look at the feeding tube. A member of the kite team arrived an hour later, she had a look at the new Gastrostomy tube and told us that it was still healing, but assured us that it looked alright, although she was not familiar with the tube the surgeon had fitted in Nottingham.

The blood continued to back up the new feeding tube and on Sunday, we were concerned for Harriet`s well being and decided that Harriet really needed to see someone at hospital. We took Harriet to children`s Accident and Emergency at the Royal Derby Hospital. We explained that we were concerned about blood in feeding tube, but were told by a nurse that the doctors would not know how to deal with this. To our dismay, the nurse then told us to wait in a room full of children with chicken pox and we therefore decided that this was simply too dangerous for Harriet and had to take her home.

 

On Friday May 18th, Blend Salon in Sadler Gate held a family fun day in order to Help Raise funds and awareness for Harriet Gregory.

Stylists from the salon offered free haircuts to members of the public, in return for donations that would go to the Help Harriet Trust fund.

Fund raising activities included a fancy dress competition, cake stall, face painting, hair art, nail painting a magician and raffle.

 

 

Over the course of the last few months Harriet had been in and out of hospital with breathing problems, that were related to her Nasal Gastric tube moving and causing infections on her chest.

Harriet has developed a very strong sneeze, which we think is a new reflex and that the tube may be causing her some discomfort. The problem with Harriet now having a strong sneeze is that it could be very detrimental to her health; the Nasal Gastric tube has been blown out of position and could potentially pump milk or medicine directly into her lungs.

We always take an aspirate to make sure the tube is located in Harriet`s stomach before any medicine or feed is pumped directly down the feeding tube. If the nasal gastric tube was moved during a feed, then this is something that we would not be able to monitor easily.

On Saturday night we were struggling to get a good aspirate, the nasal gastric tube looked as though it had moved from Harriet`s stomach and therefore the tube would need to be pulled out and threaded back down. We spent a good couple of hours trying to get the tube in place, but the aspirate readings were dangerous and there was no way Harriet could have had her feed or medicines until we were sure everything was safe.

The only option was to take Harriet to accident and emergency at the Royal Derby Hospital, it was now very cold and a few minutes passed midnight.

As we arrived at the hospital, we signed Harriet in and within a few minutes the nurse asked us to take Harriet through into one of the bays. The nurse asked us what seemed to be the problem and we explained the problems we had been experiencing with the nasal gastric tube.

 We would like to say a very Big Thank you to all those at the Eze Fitness gym in Derby for taking time out to raise £125.00 during the Easter period, for the HELP HARRIET TRUST.The Eze Fitness team have told us that they are just getting started and are looking...

Harriet had been extremely poorly over the last few months, no sooner had she got over one cold or virus, would she then come down with something else that would have a devastating effect on her respiratory system.

The consultants at the Derby Royal Hospital were unable to explain why Harriet was experiencing so many episodes of respiratory distress and could only manage the problem, rather than treat the cause.

We needed a respiratory specialist and decided to contact professor Vyas, at the Queen`s Medical centre in Nottingham. After speaking with professor Vyas, he said that he would be happy to see Harriet, but we would need to get a referral from Harriet`s GP.

The referral was sent the hospital and we were fortunate enough to get an appointment to see professor Vyas the following week.

We arrived at the Queen`s Medical Centre in Nottingham with Harriet on Thursday and went straight up to E Floor, to see Professor Vyas. Within a few short minutes, we were called into the room with Harriet and sat down while Harriet`s the notes were read.

Harriet had been experiencing episodes of erratic breathing during the day and had to be given a special ventolin nebulizer, to open up her airways and help stabilize her breathing. The nebulizers only seemed to give Harriet relief from her symptoms for short periods of time and her respiratory condition seemed to be getting worse as the day progressed.

In the early hours of last Tuesday morning, Harriet was rushed to the Derby Royal hospital in respiratory distress, her condition had become dangerous and she was now fighting for her life.

The hospital’s emergency team were on hand very quickly and spent several hours getting Harriet`s breathing stabilized, before she was transferred onto the dolphin intensive care unit.

Harriet was still in respiratory distress all day Tuesday, but then showed some signs of improvement and was released from the ward Wednesday night.