Defying the odds?

On 7th May 2016, Leicester City played their final home game of the season against Everton. After that game they received the English Premier League trophy in a season which they defied almost uncertain odds. In the stadium that day there were 32,140 people. Picture in your head the football stadium pictured above packed to the rafters. The harsh reality today is that almost the same amount of people in the stadium that day have now lost their lives in the UK to Coronavirus. Alarmingly, a percentage of people in the UK continued to ignore the Government’s advice this weekend whilst celebrating VE Day and still think they can defy the odds that Coronavirus won’t affect themselves or their families. I’ve seen clips online of large mass gatherings dancing the conga and as I’m writing this a whole street doing Oops Up Side Your Head! In 2 weeks or so those people may pay the consequences and unfortunately so might many other innocent people.

Close to home

For us personally, it’s getting very close to home as an elderly couple who live just 3 doors down on our street have both had Coronavirus, thankfully they have both made a full recovery. 10 weeks on from the first reported death in the UK, it’s still here and it’s not going to go away anytime soon. If the way people have ignored the lockdown this weekend then in another 10 weeks we maybe looking at a death toll that would fill Old Trafford (approx 75,000).

In this period of time, the entire world has had a glimpse of what it feels like to be a patient and parent with a terminal diagnosis—to be told potentially there are no tests, no treatments, and no answers. The Coronavirus response shows how much more we can do to change the system and fight against terminal illnesses. Now perhaps people will understand a little what having a child with Duchenne feels like. c/o Raising Reed Facebook post

Frustration

I have to say this week has been the toughest of all the weeks we’ve been in self isolation. It now feels as if there is no escape. In fact there isn’t. You personally maybe self isolating but you have the option of leaving your property to go out and do a bit of exercise or call at the supermarket. I can imagine it’s quite literally a breath of fresh air to get away from your partner or a break from the kids constantly screaming at you for a snack! We all need that space! Unfortunately we don’t have that kind of luxury and the frustration of this has definitely crept in this week. Self isolation has pushed many of us to spend more time with our families than ever before. We’ve had to find the solution as to how we work, parent, home school and simply get on as we move through the same rooms all day long. This would quickly deteriorate even the most stable of relationships! A simple fix to this problem today was quite simply the warm weather and a hosepipe sprinkler! It’s not always that simple!

Choose your battles wisely

On Tuesday evening, we endured another of Alfie’s night time behavioural meltdowns and it went on for almost 3 hours. A small trigger of simply not wanting to get into bed at 7.30pm resulted in him only going to sleep at 10pm that evening thus leaving us both physically and mentally exhausted. So much so I retired to bed as I literally had no energy left.

Problematic behaviours are quite common in all preschool children, and boys with DMD are no different. However, young boys with DMD may have more difficulty with impulsivity and emotional control than other children their age. They are also more likely to be rigid and inflexible in their thinking, which can result in noncompliance or arguing. They may have difficulty making transitions. They may also be taking steroid medication with side effects that can impact their behaviour, such as making them more emotional and active than normal. c/o Parent Project MD

Unfortunately, it continued into the next morning for over an hour as I took a stand against his behaviour and took away the TV remote control. A battle I was never really going to win. This prompted Louise to speak to an educational expert (whose son also has Duchenne) a couple days after this latest incident and he stated that in this scenario you have to choose your battles wisely. His advice for the future is to take Alfie out of the situation, maybe downstairs for a while to calm him down then once he’s settled down take him back up to bed. Wise words when you’re not in ‘the moment’ but when you’re physically and mentally challenged after a long exhausting day it’s difficult to know what to do for the best. For us as parents these are all learning curves and almost the same as having a newborn baby, everyday is different and we’ll come up against a new challenge daily.

New logo

I decided to give the blog a bit of a spring clean this week along with a new logo. The ‘d’ on the left representing Alfie and the ‘D’ on the right representing myself. I’ve also set up a dedicated Facebook page to the blog so please click the link and give it a thumbs up. Thank you.

BBC Radio Manchester interview

On Tuesday 12th May at approx 8.15am, I’ll be doing a ‘live’ interview with Becky Want on BBC Radio Manchester Breakfast Show discussing my recent Action4Alfie social media campaign. I’m not quite sure what to expect as I’ve never done a live radio interview before! Wish me luck!

Well that’s almost 7 weeks isolation completed and we’ll just have to wait and see what Boris announces in regards to lockdown later today.

Stay Home. Stay Safe. Stay Distant.

Kieron

#DuchDad