Aiya has not been well the past few weeks, she had a fever for 8 days due to an infection, which she has now thankfully got over with the help of antibiotics. When healthy children are ill, as a parent you worry and stress, because your little bundle of joy is hurting and there is nothing you can actually do to fix it, you just have to wait for them to get better. As a parent of a child with underlying health issues and immunology problems, the worry and stress are compounded by the little voice in the back of my head (that I try to push away), saying is this it? Will she recover?
Due to Aiya’s compromised immunology we have to be extra careful as to who and what Aiya is exposed to. Close family and friends have an awareness of her allergies and know that if they have a cold or are feeling unwell they should keep away from Aiya. We do go to supermarkets and shopping centres but Aiya is enclosed within her push chair and I always look at people suspiciously if I hear them coughing or sneezing. My biggest challenge is blocking the random strangers (adults and children) who insist on trying to have a look in the pushchair, despite my efforts to keep Aiya as tucked away as possible. If I spot one of these well-meaning individuals making a bee line for the push chair, I find myself quickly turning away. People want to have a look at the baby that looks like a ‘little doll’ and say ‘ooh, hasn’t she got lots of hair?’ and then try to touch her! I always carry antibacterial wipes with me just in case someone does manage to make contact and quickly wipe her down afterwards. This may sound a little paranoid but I don’t think I can ever be too cautious with Aiya. I could stay cooped up all day in fear of coming into contact with people who have a nasty bugs but this would not fair on Aiya or me.
We spent the day in A&E last week and tests revealed that Aiya had a UTI. Despite all my precautions she’s picked something up from herself! No matter how hard I try to prevent it, she is going to get ill. All I can do is try to minimise the risk and exposure to any contagions and hope that she has a strong enough immune system at the time to cope with the bugs she does catch.
Project Aiya 