Two Dads walk Coast to Coast for their daughters
 In March 2009 our 15-year-old daughter had a laparoscopy, the doctors suspected endometriosis. Up until September 2008 Ella played sports at school, regularly attended, belonged to our local athletics, netball and trampoline clubs and danced weekly. This had all stopped.
I’d kept a very brief diary. We’d met a registrar at hospital who had listened to us and thought that Ella had endometriosis so she put Ella on the pill. This seemed to make Ella feel nauseous daily and she was in constant pain. I asked her why Ella seemed worse in the morning and some days getting a little better but late afternoon but she had no answer. On 11th March, her consultant performed a laparoscopy, extensive endometriosis was diagnosed. No treatment was done during the operation due to the extent of the endometriosis. Her pill was changed and was now to be taken consecutively for six months. No out-patient appointment was given, nor was any written information on endometriosis.
Whilst it is a relief to know what it was, it was a devastating blow that nothing had been done to help her or her situation. We felt abandoned!
Over the past six months our GP had been supportive and provided us with excellent information from Endometriosis UK. We joined the charity immediately. I have spoken to lovely ladies who encouraged me and gave me hope that Ella would get better.
We wanted a second opinion on her condition. Our GP suggested the internet; we found that this was like looking for a needle in a hay stack and resorted to the old fashioned method. I asked all my friends to ask their girlfriends if they knew who to go and see. One weekend two girlfriends’ friends told us the same hospital and one gave us the names of two doctors.
Our GP arranged an appointment which was for two months time.
We were now seven months into this awful phase of our daughter’s life. Some days it felt as if we were living a nightmare. Ella was now spending more than 20 hours a day in bed, feeling constantly nauseous and in pain. Pain and nauseous tablets gave her very little relief. Watching your child suffer daily with no respite is very hard and my heart goes out to all parents who have a terminally ill child.
Andy (Ella’s dad) and I kept telling each other that this disease was not life threatening but life changing, at the moment. Things would improve and Ella would get better!
It was suggested that we keep a diary of Ella’s symptoms. This happened to coincide with the worst week for Ella. In the past where it says, how does this affect your life? Ella wrote, and I quote; “I don’t have a life”.
A couple of weeks after we had sent the diary off it came back, with an accompanying letter, telling us that Ella’s pain and constantly feeling nauseous wasn’t normal and to take her to a doctor immediately, with the letter.
We decided we couldn’t wait two months and decided to go private for her initial appointment. An invaluable decision! The doctor told us that he had seen other young girls suffering as Ella was. He told us he could help! The relief was immeasurable!! He wanted to do another laparoscopy and felt that operative surgery was the only way. Plus he felt that Ella’s hormones were not working properly and that there was a ‘link’. He stopped the pill and said things could get worse (I found that hard to imagine) and put her on a high protein diet.
He has since performed a successful operation. Ella is better, but some way off from being right. She still suffers pain and feeling nauseous daily and as yet has not been able to return to school. She has had further scans and a glucose test, which has shown she has an exaggerated reaction to glucose. We are waiting to go back to see the doctor wand see where we go from here.
Life is still far from normal for Ella, she isn’t a typical teenager but we have hope that her doctor can help her and that one day her life will resume to normality again. Up until March we knew very little about endometriosis. So to raise awareness and hopefully money for Endometriosis UK, Andy is going to walk coast to coast with a friend (another Andy who has a sick daughter). They are going to walk from St Bee’s Head to Robin Hood Bay – over 190 miles for Endometriosis UK. |
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To date we have raised nearly £2,000 for Endometriosis UK. If you would like to show your support then please sponsor Andy on JustGiving here or send a cheque to Endometriosis UK saying you are sponsoring Andy Knight.
Thank you,
Jan, Andy and Ella Knight
>> Read how Andy got on
>> Sponsor Andy here |
