by Lynne Mcgee

Created on: June 27, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

As my family celebrated the New Year, my youngest child jumped into our swimming pool. It was cool for an Aussie night but when she got out she was shivering. None of us joined her and as I stood and watched her cheerful little face I also shivered, but not because of the cold. I felt as if someone had walked over my grave. I turned to my husband and I said "Our daughter is ill, very, very ill, and I have a feeling that no-one will believe me until it is too late." They were grave words at any time but on a celebratory night they were chilling.

Over the next six months our daughter became ill a lot. Up until that year she had been our healthiest child but now she seemed to be fading before our eyes. We went from doctor to doctor trying to find a reason for her increasing illness but the diagnosis was always the same. "Your child has a virus, nothing to worry about." A mother's instinct is strong however and I knew better. I began to have odd and unsettling dreams where she or I were constantly drowning or being hit by a giant ship, an ocean liner. Her illnesses became more frequent, she went to school less and less and for shorter periods of time. I continued to see doctors with her, to question, to convey my worry and concern. To no avail. Slowly her eyes began to sink into her head, her muscles seemed to weaken. A once healthy ten year old could no longer ride a bike with her dad on weekends or run in the garden with her two dogs. Yet at the same time her smile remained fixed to her face, her cheerfulness rarely flagged, she simply sat more, ate less, and began to not sleep as well as she had. Her little tummy began to grow rounder where it once had been flat and when I mentioned this to her doctor he said she was simply losing her toning from sitting down so much while unwell and once again spoke the words 'there is nothing to worry about'.

Then her heart began to race erratically. I demanded that she see a Heart Specialist and for two days she wore a heart monitor. Like all children it was difficult for her to ignore the bulky apparatus and in her easily tiring state she moved very little while wearing it so the
results were within normal limits. We went off to the appointment with the Specialist armed with a report that showed nothing. He told us that there was nothing abnormal about our daughter's heart function, then he gave her a physical examination and announced that she was healthy but that she was constipated. She was ten years old, nearly ten and

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>