Elly Rarg

I want to share today about this chair. It’s a giant chair. Anyone with a disabled kid would recognise it – it’s called a Ppod. We were given a grant to get one, because they’re expensive. This one is moulded especially for Kai, but even still…

The reason we got one is because Kai has three chairs. Two up/down position ones, and his wheelchair. They’re basically like sitting in a dining room table chair, with a little padding. Not very comfortable, and awkwardly, not very supportive because they need adjusting more often than we can get the reps out.

Kai’s getting older, and his body bigger. His spine is beginning to twist into scoliosis and his hips are migrating out of their sockets and his neck and top of his spine are rounding… these musculoskeletal congenital malformations are typical of NKH, but oh my DAYS does it break my heart when he’s in pain.

So we applied for a grant to get him a supportive armchair. Something comfy but still supportive. I think he likes it.

Ps – Thank you everyone for your donations for NKH Awarness Day. I feel like you’re all in our corner 💛🙏

May 2nd is NKH Awareness Day – we’re asking instead of your daily flat white, please swap your coffee today for a donation towards NKH Research so families won’t need to worry about NKH moving forward. Please. Please donate. £3. £5. £15. Whatever you are able. #linkInProfile⁠

Justgiving:
https://ift.tt/fi0gqe4

#medicallyfragile #nkhawareness #nkhcansuckit #disabilityLife #nonketoticHyperglycinemia #glycineencephalopathy #raredisease #seizures #teammikaere #nkhAwarnessDay2024 #someoneFundACure #nkh #ifhnkh #metabolicdisorder #glycineencephalopathy #cureNeeded #disabledKid #disabled #disability #complexmedicalneeds

This is our sixth NKH Awareness Day. When the first one came around I was in shock, still really grappling with our life, still, if I’m honest, in denial that my baby was even disabled (despite having just been discharged from hospice on end of life care… trauma coping mechanisms are wild).

This year, god I’m tired of asking. It feels hard to keep holding out my hand to ask, repeatedly. I’m skydiving, I’m selling books, and I’m asking people to donate, I’m asking people to run – I’m a never ending bucket shaker, shaking my little heart out in sheer desperation.

Because when I’m shaking my little ‘please god HELP ME’ bucket – what I’m not sharing is the seizures. The screaming, the pain. The days where my boy doesn’t wake up. The WEEKS he’s had off school. The panic when the sats monitor goes down to 80, and I’m yanking him out of bed to try get him to breathe. The cough that causes him to vomit his meds, retching until his stomach is empty, causing us both to be in tears. Him, because of discomfort, me, because I know I can’t give regive the meds and now he’s going to be in so much pain, he’s going to have more seizures and it’s going to be a shit time for everyone. This isn’t a phase. This is his life.

I’ve been trying really hard to give him his dignity, because people on the internet don’t need to know, in real time, the hard. But it IS hard. And the harder it gets, the more I start shaking little donation bucket because something has to CHANGE. And I can’t fix his genes, I can’t take away the seizures or the vomiting or the pain. But what I can do is ask for donations (again). Because here’s the thing, if I make £15 for NKH research, that’s not nothing. That is a tiny inch, in the right direction.

I also think this is going to be the last time I ask for donations on NKH Awareness day you guys. This is so hard. SO HARD. You guys have been in our corner, so wonderfully supportive, but I’m tapped out. This is an emotional week, remembering kids who we love, who are in pain, who have died. So, I guess, please donate? For the last #nkhawarenessday?

Facebook:
facebook.com/donate/320932097682656/

Justgiving:
justgiving.com/page/nkhawarenessday2024