One year on

Well we are now over a year on from the heartache in July last year of Robbie contracting Meningitis, Its been a very difficult year for Robbie and his family still trying to come to terms with what happened.

Robbie is an extremely happy little boy, we have all said that last year he fought to be here and now he is so pleased he did so. He is such a character, very cheeky and really loving towards his friends and family.

When Robbie left hospital in August last year he was heavily bandaged and was to be fed for 8 hours every night through a feeding tube, the feeding tube was taken out on Monday 22nd September, just 1 week after his 2nd birthday and his final bandages were taken off just 2 weeks after that.

Once Robbie had his bandages removed he seemed to get around very quickly, rather than crawling Robbie sits on his bottom with legs in front of him and uses his upper body strength to lift his body from the floor and swing back and forth on his arms. He can now climb up and down the stairs and can get around nearly as quick as we do, he is now in the process of trying to walk on his legs by standing on his left knee and the tiny stump he has on his right side without using hands at all.

Robbie received his new limbs from The Freeman Hospital on 25th November 2008, we had to leave them round the house for a couple of weeks for him to play with and get used to them, I would then put them on for a couple of hours each day. Robbie then started Physiotherapy with Linda from Chester-le-street children’s centre, which started with standing work and also group work with other children on all of their senses.

Robbie started wearing his limbs for full days from January 2009, from then Robbie was receiving intense physiotherapy, Linda was encouraging him to walk around the table for different items, then moving things to a table behind so he was learning to turn around and pick things up and bring them back. He also has regular sessions of hydrotherapy and wearing armbands he is very confident in swimming alone.

Robbie now uses a small walking frame to help him get around with his limbs on as he still hasn’t got the confidence to do anything alone yet, he is slowly getting used to the limbs but with them being so heavy and the right leg amputation above the knee he still struggles to carry them around.

Robbie has now been discharged from the scar clinic as his scarring is clearing up very well and the Plastic Surgeon has now put Robbie down as 6 monthly visits due to him recovering from all operations

Our Aim for Robbie this year was for him to walk down the aisle for his mum Jill and dad Wayne on their wedding day on Saturday 4th July this year. Robbie did an amazing job walking down the Aisle with his big sister Abbie to meet their dad, it was brilliant, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house and they both did everyone proud.

On the 11th June 2009 we took Robbie to meet Mark Ledger a consultant from Dorset Orthopaedics, this is a private company who deal with ‘life without limits’ Mark advised they would be able to provide Robbie with better limbs, much lighter and a lot easier for the family, and Robbie, to operate. We have just received the quotes for £9.000 for both limbs to go private so we are heading to Dorset on the 25th August to start the process and hopefully these will be better all round for Robbie to handle.

Many many thanks to everyone who has helped with the Fundraising for Robbie. In the first year there was an astonishing £95.000 raised and added to his Trust Fund which is an amazing amount and we cannot thank people enough, we hope we can keep it up and do as much as possible to keep the funding going as I’m sure you will all agree he deserves every penny .

Thank you