Welcome to Just Juniors

In September of 2008, my 7th daughter Samara was born 9 weeks early. 4 weeks later, she was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. My self-therapy in learning to fully embrace her diagnosis involved designing t-shirts that portrayed Down Syndrome in a positive light. It is from this that my business, designing disability awareness products, has grown.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

from my mobile, in the hospital....



We have been in hospital for a week and a half now. On Wednesday, we were transferred to the Mater Childrens Hospital in Brisbane. Samara wasn't terribly impressed with her first Flying Doctors experience, but I have to say, it may have been cramped, but it sure beat 6 hours driving!

Yesterday we got transferred to a private room (aka isolation) because in addition to her breathing problems, she had started getting the most foul sloppy nappies (diapers)! The nurses really bore the brunt of it when I was visiting a new friend upstairs! Glad I wasn't here for it!!

Anyway, while having our own room and bathroom is great, there is a significant disadvantage to not being able to play with the toys that are here! We couldn't bring any with us, because there was an 8kg limit on our luggage, which restricted us to 2 outfits in addition to what we were wearing. Here's a not very good picture of the inside of the plane. Max (Mahalia's doll) is waiting with me for the ambulance to get there with Samara.

And a not very happy girl strapped in, and really not feeling well. Normally, she would have fought being strapped into a position like this, but she just lay there for the whole trip. Needed oxygen for about an hour on the flight, but apart from that, just lay there giving the dr the evil eye!



So today, Mahalia and I went out to the shops. And Henry the Octopus (as seen below) was one of our op shop finds. Here, Samara has set him up to watch The Wiggles with her. Pity he's facing the wrong way, but hey, it was a nice try!

We should be out of here tomorrow, which I am in two minds about. Don't want to sit in the car for 6-7 hours tomorrow! But would be good to be out of hospital! Hopefully I'll get some more tshirt designs to you once I return home! Welcome to the start of the southern winter everyone xxx