You asked for my story - well here it
is.<br><br>My daughter, Lisa, was born with CDH but it was not
discovered until the age of three. The specialist said he
had never seen a child hide the condition so
well.<br><br>She went into hospital for the first operation when
she was 3yrs and 3 months old. She was in the full
plaster cast from chest to toes with her left leg stuck
out at right angles for 6 weeks. She then had her leg
broken at the thigh to straighten it and was in plaster
for a further 6 weeks. The 12 weeks of plaster was
right across the summer so she got extremely hot but
she never complained and just seemed to accept her
predicament.<br><br>I never had the problems with nappies that others
in the club experienced as Lisa was too old for them
but, obviously, her age brought other difficulties.
One, being the fact that I was pregnant with my second
child at the time and I was not allowed to lift Lisa
due to the weight of the plaster cast.<br><br>She did
manage to crawl around the floor after a few weeks but
that was not very good for the plaster. Washing her
was an absolute nightmare for all concerned and her
hair, which was usually blond, curly and lovely, looked
greasy and lank due to the sweat and lack of
washing!!<br><br>One of the hardest things to cope with for me
personally was not being able to give her a proper cuddle -
just at a time when we both needed cuddles the
most!<br><br>A year later she had the operation to have the
metal plate removed and was told she would only need
yearly check ups to make sure everything was growing as
it should be.<br><br>She is now ten years old and is
a great kid. She has no problems doing anything any
other ten year old does including swimming, running,
riding a bike, etc. She even goes horse riding every
week!!<br><br>My husband is in the process of sorting out some
photos of Lisa in plaster and I will scan them in and
post them on here as soon as possible.<br><br>I'm
sorry this message is rather long but I did try to
condense the story as much as possible and could probably
ramble on for pages and pages.<br><br>If anyone else is
going through this tramatic event I would be only too
pleased to give any help or advice I can.<br><br>Thank
you for "listening" to my story!<br><br>Jules<br>X