Charlies new normal
Donation protected
As a professional photographer for coming up 3 years now, I've put my heart and soul into that which has become Blackbulb Imagery. Whilst it has its high and lows, the glue that has kept it together has been my beautiful wife Charlie. And when the glue comes unstuck, the structure falls to bits.
Now for those of you that know Charlie, know she has had an ongoing run of health issues, and surgeries that have so far prolonged suffering, continued to decrease her value of life and of course, keep our pocket empty.
We've now recently found that we're up for another, fairly major surgery. Albeit a fairly lengthy recovery, this one is hopefully the beginning of the end of specialists, GP's and the frequent fliers we get from hospitals. However like many families out there, we don't have the money to just get the cash canon out and make it rain on doctors, so I'm trying something new.
As far as Charlie's health goes, it started way back before we even knew each other. With health issues ranging from glandular fever, chronic fatigue and the underlying ever present Endometriosis (Endo).
A generalised overlook.
-2007, minor Endo surgery to removed lesions from the bladder.
-2012 Diagnosed with general Epilepsy, now life long medication to control migraines, dizziness, and general nausea, and seizures.
-2012 First major surgery involving stage 4 Endo, scattering itself through Charlie's internals. Complications with fusions between her fallopian tube and ovary adjoined to her bowel. Fusions separated and 9 inches of Sigmoid colon removed all done through laparoscopic surgery.
-2014 The mind blowing miracle that is our Ollie is born. After advice from the surgeon as to the minimalistic chances of falling pregnant artificially, let alone naturally were beyond nonexistent.
-2014 Post pardon heart complications. Further stays in hospital with severe fluid retention, fluid on the lungs, seizures during labor, breathing difficulties. No known cause.
-2014 Surgery again, salpingo-oophorectomy this time for the removal of the left ovary and fallopian tube (those which worked for us to conceive off) It had managed to entangle itself amongst its own chaos and was again causing intense pain and discomfort. Review from gynecologist indicated a clear and potentially discontinued need for reviews.
-2014 (yes still in '14) Septoplasty to alter a deviated septum, remove adenoids, and make attempts to repair a persistent nasal drip. Didn't work.
-2014 We discover Charlie's allergies to the local anesthetic. Light bulbs go off (pun intended) highlighting to us the root cause of the complications during previous surgeries recovery.
-2017 Though managing the above-mentioned issues, still dealing with the pain, discomfort and debilitating cramping and many nights of tears. We readdressed the issue with the GP, who sent us straight to the specialist. His outcome wasn't as positive as we had anticipated which brings us to now.
These are all the major occurrences that we have been through. To be honest, Charlie suffers most days, if by chance she manages to have a day where she samples the hope of normality, it's beaten back down with the ongoing mental challenges to push herself not only through every day, but to continue to raise our adorable little boy, and the ever demanding inquisitiveness he has.
Charlie has now been diagnosed with the early stages of adenomyosis endometriosis, and endometriosis. Essentially this means that it is on its way back, with a vengeance, and it's working its way into the inner linings of her uterus. Seemingly leaving us with the one reluctant option of a hysterectomy. Left untreated it will slowly deteriorate and deform her otherwise healthy uterus, causing further pain, and potential damage.
Additionally, Charlie is also up for what some would see as a quick operation, where she goes in for a gastroscopy to investigate the quality of her GERD (the valve in her esophagus) which causes her constant asthma resembling cough.
My goal is to reach the 5k expense to get this surgery locked in and to try and make this the end of many many years pain and suffering, medical expenses, sleepless nights, late night runs to the ER and of course the countless puddles of tears. If I manage to get anything above this, I will donate to it Endometriosis research, to help us better understand, educate, and diagnose this disturbingly common and unknown disease.
Additionally, anyone that is kind enough to donate over $20 will go into the draw to win yourselves one of my prints. A 24x36 inch metal print of a central coast sunset, shot by me this year. I will post it anywhere to you, assuming you're in Australia, and it will be a small token of thanks for everyone that has taken the time to read our story and to contribute to our cause.
Now for those of you that know Charlie, know she has had an ongoing run of health issues, and surgeries that have so far prolonged suffering, continued to decrease her value of life and of course, keep our pocket empty.
We've now recently found that we're up for another, fairly major surgery. Albeit a fairly lengthy recovery, this one is hopefully the beginning of the end of specialists, GP's and the frequent fliers we get from hospitals. However like many families out there, we don't have the money to just get the cash canon out and make it rain on doctors, so I'm trying something new.
As far as Charlie's health goes, it started way back before we even knew each other. With health issues ranging from glandular fever, chronic fatigue and the underlying ever present Endometriosis (Endo).
A generalised overlook.
-2007, minor Endo surgery to removed lesions from the bladder.
-2012 Diagnosed with general Epilepsy, now life long medication to control migraines, dizziness, and general nausea, and seizures.
-2012 First major surgery involving stage 4 Endo, scattering itself through Charlie's internals. Complications with fusions between her fallopian tube and ovary adjoined to her bowel. Fusions separated and 9 inches of Sigmoid colon removed all done through laparoscopic surgery.
-2014 The mind blowing miracle that is our Ollie is born. After advice from the surgeon as to the minimalistic chances of falling pregnant artificially, let alone naturally were beyond nonexistent.
-2014 Post pardon heart complications. Further stays in hospital with severe fluid retention, fluid on the lungs, seizures during labor, breathing difficulties. No known cause.
-2014 Surgery again, salpingo-oophorectomy this time for the removal of the left ovary and fallopian tube (those which worked for us to conceive off) It had managed to entangle itself amongst its own chaos and was again causing intense pain and discomfort. Review from gynecologist indicated a clear and potentially discontinued need for reviews.
-2014 (yes still in '14) Septoplasty to alter a deviated septum, remove adenoids, and make attempts to repair a persistent nasal drip. Didn't work.
-2014 We discover Charlie's allergies to the local anesthetic. Light bulbs go off (pun intended) highlighting to us the root cause of the complications during previous surgeries recovery.
-2017 Though managing the above-mentioned issues, still dealing with the pain, discomfort and debilitating cramping and many nights of tears. We readdressed the issue with the GP, who sent us straight to the specialist. His outcome wasn't as positive as we had anticipated which brings us to now.
These are all the major occurrences that we have been through. To be honest, Charlie suffers most days, if by chance she manages to have a day where she samples the hope of normality, it's beaten back down with the ongoing mental challenges to push herself not only through every day, but to continue to raise our adorable little boy, and the ever demanding inquisitiveness he has.
Charlie has now been diagnosed with the early stages of adenomyosis endometriosis, and endometriosis. Essentially this means that it is on its way back, with a vengeance, and it's working its way into the inner linings of her uterus. Seemingly leaving us with the one reluctant option of a hysterectomy. Left untreated it will slowly deteriorate and deform her otherwise healthy uterus, causing further pain, and potential damage.
Additionally, Charlie is also up for what some would see as a quick operation, where she goes in for a gastroscopy to investigate the quality of her GERD (the valve in her esophagus) which causes her constant asthma resembling cough.
My goal is to reach the 5k expense to get this surgery locked in and to try and make this the end of many many years pain and suffering, medical expenses, sleepless nights, late night runs to the ER and of course the countless puddles of tears. If I manage to get anything above this, I will donate to it Endometriosis research, to help us better understand, educate, and diagnose this disturbingly common and unknown disease.
Additionally, anyone that is kind enough to donate over $20 will go into the draw to win yourselves one of my prints. A 24x36 inch metal print of a central coast sunset, shot by me this year. I will post it anywhere to you, assuming you're in Australia, and it will be a small token of thanks for everyone that has taken the time to read our story and to contribute to our cause.
Organizer
Kurt Reid
Organizer
Castle Hill NSW
