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Why I'm here

Hi! I'm Wendy. 

I am a wife to my wonderful husband Keith and an extremely proud mummy to our beautiful daughter Maisie. I am also a mummy to our furry baby too, our boxer dog Roxy.


The purpose of this blog is to hopefully create a very honest account of my journey through motherhood. When my husband and I decided to start a family we were aware that our days weren't always going to be filled with smiles, laughter and picture perfect moments. Oh no! We were preparing ourselves for sleepless nights, tears, tantrums, teething, and all the upheaval a newborn brings to the point I could have talked myself out of it a thousand times over. However, what we weren't prepared for were all the extra twists and turns that you never think will happen to you and your family.

I will start this journey with you by sharing the heartbreaking and unbelievable situation that is currently our reality. Our little girl, now 9 months old, has been very recently been diagnosed with a Wilms tumour on her left kidney. I am hoping that by writing about and sharing my brave girls cancer battle, it will help me process my thoughts and feelings about it and to also document little snippets for Maisie to one day read back on. I also hope that other parents who find themselves facing a similar situation can find something to which they can relate to, be inspired by or find comfort in knowing they are not alone in this.




Wendy

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Life after cancer. Part 1

Life after cancer! What do you imagine it is like? Second chances and happy hearts? New beginnings and grabbing life with both hands? Well, to some degree it absolutely is, I see that in Maisie almost on a daily basis. But there is another side to it, a side which isn't so bright and beautiful as the impact of the trauma begins to show. That's what I see in me. So I will write this chapter of our lives in two parts, of course beginning with our wonderful Maisie. Going into the New Year cancer free was an amazing feeling, and its almost as if Maisie knew and understood because her new words were 'happy, happy, happy,' which she repeated over and over. We noticed that as her energy levels began to build so did her smile, her laugh and her strength. Maisie was starting to be on her feet a lot more as the strength built in her little legs so we decided to make a day of it and take her shopping for her first pair of shoes, (crawlers). With the restrictions of treat...

The results are in!!!

Waiting.....  Nobody really likes it do they? Waiting for a bus, waiting in a queue, waiting for exam results, waiting for your husband to empty the dishwasher; they all suck right?  Well waiting for the biopsy results of your 8 month old baby's tumour is a whole different ball game. After 5 days of waiting, where one minute felt like an hour, an hour felt like a day, and a day felt like forever, my head was in overdrive heading to Belfast to hear what the consultant had to say. All that waiting had made every possible scenario and outcome to become blurred and overthought. I couldn't see past this. I couldn't see any light. I couldn't see a future. The word cancer does that to you. All that my eyes, my head and my heart could see and feel was pain, fear and uncertainty. The smile of being blissfully unaware of what was ahead. On the drive up I kept saying to myself please let it be benign. If its not, and it is cancer, please let it be a Wilms. Isn't tha...

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