Thursday 21 February 2019

A Few Words from my Wife

The piece below is written by my wife who works on Ward 5. It's just a short piece to show the work of the Ward


                                 
 Many years ago, when I was training to be a Nursery Nurse I had a placement in a Maternity Hospital and it was here I decided this was the area I wanted to work. One of my jobs was to escort mothers to visit their babies on the Special Care Baby Unit. Here mother's looked through a window at their own infants, in some cases being bottle fed by a nurse, their baby having been born as little as five weeks early. This felt so wrong and I knew it was wrong. 

Fast forward 15 years and I started work on Transitional Care at the Women's Hospital. The primary purpose of the ward is to keep the mother's and babies together. Here if babies are well enough, even though they still have additional needs, they can be where they belong, with their own mothers, with staff to support them and provide the extra care. Some will be babies born prematurely or of low birth weight, if they are 34 weeks or over but well they can come straight from delivery suite and we can monitor their blood sugars and other observations, keep them warm in heated cots and tube feed them until gradually they are able to feed from the breast or bottle. Babies born very prematurely can progress from NICU  and here their parents, who have spent several months visiting their baby in a highly medicalised environment, can slowly gain the confidence to take their baby home, learning the ordinary skills of parenthood alongside how to give the list of medication their baby may be on. Other's too may have been born with Cleft Lip and Palate and parents will need to learn to feed their baby with a specialist feeding bottle, other's may be withdrawing from the medication that their mother had no choice but to take throughout pregnancy, often a process that requires several weeks in the hospital. Then there are some babies who have already gone home but need to be readmitted because they need treatment for jaundice or weight loss. Many of the babies need intravenous antibiotics, some of whom have been born with congenital pneumonia. All of those things we can do here on Ward Five, keeping mum's and babies together. 







Thanks for taking the time to read it and please consider a donation however small at:
fundraising for Ward 5 (www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ward5bangerrally)

Wednesday 6 February 2019

The Eagle Has Landed

Things start to get pretty real now as the eagle in question is the car we are planning to use.

First things first and a HUGE, if not HUGER, thank you to our ex-boss Geoff Brown.

In the build-up to Christmas we had chatted together about the impending adventure and it was in one of these conversations that he asked about the car we would be using and when I said "Errr I don't know" his response was that as he was looking to change his car in the new year then his would be available.

Christmas comes and Christmas goes and Mr. Brown heads off to pastures new. Fast forward to New Year and an e-mail informing me that the car is available from the weekend! A shock, where can we store it as we don't need it this early; but equally who can look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially when this gift we are informed is to cost nothing and to treat it as his donation; as I said at the opening of this entry - a huge thanks to Geoff Brown.

So, The Fun police are now the owner of a pretty good Vauxhall Zafira, 55 plate, 7 seats and to be honest not too much work really required or so it seems at the minute.






Delivered, parked up and for now looking resplendent in its natural dark plumage until we decide how we will dress it up ready for the adventure... expect this to change somewhat.

Inside and outside are in good condition hopefully the elastic band powering the engine is sound but we are hoping a friendly mechanic will help us out with this.

Have car will travel, hopefully there and back, and all I hope is that the cd player works.

Thanks for visiting and taking the time to check out the blog, if you have the time please visit the Just Giving page at Birmingham Women's Hospital Ward 5

See you next time





Monday 14 January 2019

The journey begins

So sitting in a hotel before work I look at this blank page trying to start my first ever blog entry. First off this isn't my blog it's also for the two other brave souls, braver than me as they will have to put up with me during this journey to Prague. Thanks in advance for your patience and not leaving me at the side of the road in September go to Karen and John; work colleagues and friends.

As I say this is my first attempt, not sure about the other two's experiences in blogging so please be gentle.

How did it start?

Well, in the beginning, it began with a conversation with someone who was about to embark on this rally a couple of years ago and thinking "sounds good, should give it a go". Then like many good ideas they get put onto the back burner to simmer, sometimes to just sit and boil themselves dry.

Maybe it was a midlife crisis moment - at 53 I am due one. Actually midlife crisis could be good, you often hear "oh he's found a younger girlfriend" or " the sports car is his midlife crisis present to himself". Well if it is a midlife crisis I seem to have got none of those and my car will turn out to be a banger worth less than 500 pounds - not exactly a Maserati, but those who know me will think that's a good thing as I'm not known for looking after cars.

Anyway, a couple of e-mails throughout the office later and we are a team of 3 and heading for the adventure in support of Ward 5 at the Birmingham Women's Hospital. This Ward is where my wife works and looks after premature babies.

So what will this blog be? - who knows? It is intended to be a journal of the misadventures and journey from the germ of an idea to the return home to fanfares and cheering crowds... or maybe just my tea in the oven.

So come September 7th we shall be in St Omer, France and starting out on our epic voyage of discovery to Prague on the Motoscape "Road Trip to Prague" https://www.motoscape-rally.co.uk/ A journey that will take 7 days and cross 12 countries.

Before I forget should anyone peep in here, here is a link to the Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ward5bangerrally

Karl




A Few Words from my Wife

The piece below is written by my wife who works on Ward 5. It's just a short piece to show the work of the Ward                     ...