Cystic Fibrosis Fighter Joshua

joshuas story

JOSHUA’S STORY

We are parents to 2 gorgeous boys but sadly our youngest Joshua who is 4 months old has cystic fibrosis and a ileostomy. For all of youse who don’t know what Cystic Fibrosis is, In Australia 1 in 2500 babies are born with CF. Those who have CF develop an abnormal amount of excessive thick and sticky mucus within the lungs, airways and the digestive system. The mucus causes impairment of the digestive functions of the pancreas and catches bacteria in the lungs resulting in recurring infections which lead to untreatable damage to most organs in the body, this means not only frequent hospital stays, but also life long expensive medical bills and physiotherapy for joshua. At the moment there is no cure for CF but everyday we pray for one. We didn’t find out about josh having CF until he was born. my pregnancy was normal, had absolutely no complications until labour came along, after 15 hours of active labour josh wasn’t coming they tried the vacuum but unfortunately that didn’t work so I was rushed in to have a emergency c section, after 30 mins he was brought into this world I couldn’t forgot the little cry he let out to let me know he was here 2 mins later I had a lady come up to me saying josh needed to go to the Nicu only to be monitored as the vacuum left him with a bleed on the right side of his head as they promise he finished being monitored and was back with me in the ward everything was going fine until later that night I started to notice something wasnt right, he was yellow, sleepy, wasn’t keeping down his bottle, he didn’t do his first poo (meconium) and his belly was so hard. The midwife agreed josh was taken back to Nicu he was monitored constantly. a new day went by and he wasn’t getting any better the drs tried bowel washouts and he was given laxatives and had countless ultrasounds but nothing helped that meconium come out day 4 came around to think I should of been at home enjoying our lives with our new addition we were still in Nicu drs told us that Joshua needed surgery any parents worst nightmare

At 4 days old my tiny 8 pound baby boy was having surgery as a parent I have never felt this helpless turns out Joshua had meconium ileus which is sometimes caused because of CF he had the blockage removed and was fitted for a bag. he went through countless tests, had heaps of drips, needles and feeding tubes spent his whole first month in hospital even Christmas we spent everyday in hospital but josh fought everything that was thrown at him and prove a lot of people wrong even us. As we learnt a lot of things we didnt know josh thrived.

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