Aara is 1 year old and what a year it has been! We have had some challenges – the constant colds, major reflux, the constipation, a right aortic arch and news of a potential genetic disorder (RTS was not confirmed at this point). But as we have said in previous posts this does not define Aara, it’s her constant smiling, laughing and cheeky personality that does. However, the biggest drama so far was yet to come….
Aara’s birthday was on Monday 30th October 2017 and we were planning a family celebration over the weekend. My husband and I discussed the idea of a birthday party, but with Aara so young we felt it would be best to have a celebration with our immediate family. However, that weekend Aara started to have a temperature and was hysterically crying all day on Sunday. The constant illnesses are a trait of the low immune system with RTS and a year in we had had our fair share of flus and colds but this was different.
The temperature was not reducing with Paracetamol or Ibuprofen and the cry had been constant all day. At around 10ish that Sunday my wife and I headed to the Accident & Emergency ward at our local hospital. They performed checks and kept us in overnight and it turned out that Aara had Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. We were told to use Difflam spray to help with the sore throat and on Monday afternoon we were sent home. The spray helped with Aara’s throat pain and she luckily slept most of the day and we managed to celebrate in the evening with some cake.

So it was not the birthday we had planned, but we still managed to celebrate at home. The plans for the next year revolved around trying to get Aara to be more mobile, ideally crawling before her 2nd birthday and hopefully no hospital visits!…..