The adventure begins

21^st August 2007 my husband and I welcomed our first beautiful daughter in to the world, such a lovely time, we were delighted a happy, healthy, gorgeous pink bundle.

3 weeks later and motherhood was going well, although I noticed that my tummy wasn’t going down any and I mean not a tiny bit, I have never been slim but I knew even my jelly bean cravings throughout pregnancy would not leave me with a belly this size.

I made an appointment with my Dr, whilst in the waiting room a lady was sitting with her granddaughter she smiled over and said "Oh when are you due?". At the time it didn’t bother me too much as I had just had my daughter so I replied "Oh no I had my little girl 3 weeks ago" the lady was mortified and as it turned out she was the first of thousands to utter those 4 words ‘When are you due?’ to me over the next 4 years.

My Dr asked me when my baby was due when I went in to see him, after setting him straight he then examined me and then thought my uterus had not contracted and sent me to the maternity ward at Wishaw General. The midwives there quickly assured me it was not my uterus and I was sent to a gastro ward. The Drs asked me if I had travelled abroad in the last 5 years which I had and since Gambia and Egypt were on my list they decided to not rule out hepatitis.

I had to stay in hospital 2 days so I could get a scan, this was really hard as I had to leave my 3 week old baby at home, my husband was more than capable but this is when you want to be bonding with you newborn.

I eventually got my scan and I was told "you have a Polycystic Liver" I said "What does that mean" and the sonographer then answered "ask you Dr", so rude I felt especially I had had to wait so long for the scan, away from my baby and having all sorts of things going through my mind such as cancer, hepatitis and other diseases unknown to me.

I was sent home and told I would receive a letter from the hospital in due course.

Incidentally When I was in hospital awaiting my scan my mum told me that she had had a dream about me in which I had lots of balloons in my tummy and we were trying to burst them. After my scan we laughed at how accurate my mum’s dream was and for me highlights perfectly a mother’s intuition.