It feels surreal. I’m having dinner with Sam, Mikaeres asleep in the crib nearby and everything is just going onwards as if it’s just a normal day. We’re talking and discussing the weather. It feels surreal because I know, up in Manchester there’s a family feeling all the grief and pain and missing their sweet baby girl, as today they laid her to rest.
I’m devastated for them. I sobbed when I found out she’d passed. Which sounds weird, because I didn’t know the family well, only in the NKH circles online. But it hits home because this sweet girl was only two weeks younger than Kai. Because NKH is horrific and I feel like we’re all waiting for our turn. That one day, NKH will take Kai and it will be our turn to feel the grief and loss and pain. I sobbed because when we lose an NKH baby, the entire NKH community feels the loss. It reverberates around and we all grieve. She was one of ours, and one day it will be Mikaere.
We work so hard to keep Mikaere safe, to minimise the risk and give him the best possible shot. All NKH families are doing this. But the truth is that Nonketotic Hyperglycinema is terminal.
This is why we fundraise. The idea of a viable treatment is what gives us hope, that Mikaere won’t be taken from us and we’ll get to enjoy a future with him.
Please help us find a cure. Please help us fund research into NKH treatments. Please donate, or buy a book.
Please help us prevent our babies from dying too early. Because our kids are, genuinely, they’re dying.
Fly High Halle Mae. You were so loved and you’ll be sorely missed.