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As i hit my 200th follower, i though i& #39;d share a little of my story, & why research is so important to me, most of this is going to focus on my birth, & i& #39;m not hear to show-off, just that it will provide a context to some of my posts, but i am also proud my achievements...
i was born in Southmead, Bristol, 1978 @ 26 weeks 2lb2oz, being extremely premature I had a lot of complications. (RDS, PDA, Pulm Haem, CHF, Apnea, Sclerema to name a few, at at 6 week i was baptised, at 8 weeks i developed Systemic Candidiasis (meningitis)..
..I was the first preemie in the UK to receive pioneering treatment for this (Amphotericin & Flurocytosine) and v proud of that....but i was in good hands! my Consultants were Brian Speidel & Peter Dunn my Sen Reg. was Peter Fleming. (obvs not the only baby they& #39;ve ever treated)
but I& #39;ve also been very privileged to get back in touch with them & many other staff members to thank them personally for my care. - It& #39;s very humbling to realise so many recall treating me and understand the lengths they went to save such a tiny baby.
Growing up i was aware of my treatments - my mum kept a diary & was followed up until I was 10, but it wasn& #39;t until recently i could add a lot more context, having books, papers, letters, - a gov reports certainly helps! yet it was only a few years ago that i stumbled upon this.
To find that my treatment had been written up as a case study in the BMJ https://adc.bmj.com/content/57/11/884
enabled">https://adc.bmj.com/content/5... me to see the impact my own treatment has had over the years, it is why research matters, & i know that tiny babies are still changing the lives of future generations today.
enabled">https://adc.bmj.com/content/5... me to see the impact my own treatment has had over the years, it is why research matters, & i know that tiny babies are still changing the lives of future generations today.
but i also found something else, i found other adult preemies, & when I started to talk to them, familiar issues start to show. They get what it was like at school, at work, to be just that little bit different, & just a little different from each other too, i had found my clan.
