Now I can see, It wasn't all about me.... Call the Midwife and the Cleft palate

Nanna and Me

Now I can really see my birth defect was NOT all about me. I was not the only one suffering!

This is the earliest photo of me I can find. It is of me and my Nanna who, I was told, had a special spot in her heart for me, as I was 'special'. This photo must have been taken just a few months after my skin graft when my lip was stitched up. (The bone would be grafted to close the hole in the roof of my mouth when I was older)

I was a baby born in the 1960's with a Cleft Palate and recently watched 'Call the Midwife.' (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0c1x6qn/call-the-midwife-series-8-episode-3)

The program had a huge effect on me from start to finish. The sense of admiration and sadness for my parents, especially my Mother flowed over me like a Tsunami. I have only really considered how I coped and was affected by my cleft. I was always appreciative to my parents for their love and support with all my issues eating, the operations, dental work, speech therapy, illness etc. But not how they could have felt, how frightening, exhausting and saddened and all the other feelings parents go through when their baby has a defect. And as I couldn't suck, I was fed with a tea spoon every hour. With my Dad in the Navy, Mum disabled  and 3 other siblings how did she ever get any sleep!! The many operations and visits to various dental and speech departments etc. that had to be organised,  must have taken it's toll on my whole family in one way or another. We must also remember there was no internet for them to google reassurance from, and how my Dad got me one of only 5 prototype 'Train Track' Dental Braces back in 1975 I will sadly never know.

Dbee Lou Who?

I am still undergoing major surgery and dental work for my cleft palate but I'm pleased to say I still have the love and support of my family and especially my Husband. However after my 3rd bone graft 2 years ago he kept calling me Dbee Lou Woo. 

"Don't look in the mirror!" He said. So of course I did, and yes with my mouth all swollen I looked like someone from Whooville. The more I looked in the mirror, the more I laughed, which hurt, and weirdly made me laugh even more.

This episode was certainly an eyeopener for me, well done to the BBC who, yet again excel bringing such raw history and real life drama to their programs. 

Me now

Well i'm off to watch the grinch, and if you haven't seen Call the Midwife, then give it a go it's certainly worth watching, its not all screaming mothers in child birth and babies! ha ha.

Have you watched anything that is, in a way about you or how your were raised, and has actually changed your point of view?

X Love and Light Peeps X

Dbee x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bread in my Thermomix and my new Ninja Foodi Smart lid

Image
  I have found it quite difficult to find recipes for this new machine, even the recipe book is a bit confusing so thought I would have a Julie moment and post a recipe a day on my blog.  What is a Julie moment? It is from that fabulous film ' Julie & Julia ' where Julie recreates recipes from Julia's cookbook and blogs about it. It's a great film and if you haven't seen it already give it a look-see. However please note Julie Powell is a great writer and to be completely honest I am not really a great blog writer, more bog writer, but I will do my best for you all. First I had to clean all the parts as requested in the instructions. Oh my, what a pain that was and I was starting to regret my purchase before I had even cooked anything! After cleaning the seal in the lid I couldn't get it back in its place.  It was like wrestling a mini boa constrictor through chicken wire while looking up under a car.  It took me 15 minutes and a grazed knuckle, due to a sha
Read more

Good bye and Thank you Mr Pepper

Image
Mr Pepper - Headmaster of Hayling School Paid my respects today to the best Head Master I knew. He never made me feel I was just going to school, he made me feel like I was part of the school, part of something special and he always made me laugh. He was firm and fair but more importantly, he put children first, raising funds and spirits with school plays and the infamous Halloween Fair where we sold all the things we made throughout the year whether Mum and Dad wanted them or not. (I loved my Salt and Pepper holder!) Today I saw, and also thanked Mr Robinson my Maths teacher for having faith i n me when numbers just jumped around on the page. Mr Stretch for his kindness and Miss Edney for inspiring my art. Mr Hepworth Taylor for helping me get my Human biology O'level so I could become a nurse, (however I later found out I pass out if I see  blood so that never happened) Miss Drew who luckily forgot (or kindly did not mention) I used to find any excuse not to do cro
Read more

Bamboo, Chocolate cake and Ninja review

Image
Having had my Ninja Foodi MAX 15-in-1 SmartLid Multi-Cooker with Smart Cook System 7.5L for a week or so now and feel I am able to to give it some sort of review.  I have cooked a few meals, cakes and bread in it and pretty much pleased. The Steam Bake function makes my cake and bread fluffy and, dare I say the word, moist. I have also tried to cook crispy kale and to be perfectly honest i’m not so sure it’s worth the effort, as it took quite some time to pick out all the crispy kale from the fan in the lid.  The steam function was interesting too, as the vegetables were eventually cooked taking twice the time started in the manual, and the veg was charred. Not sure if that was meant to happen, but certainly not what I expected steam meal to be. But I may have used the wrong setting.  I must also add I have used my Ninja to reheat meals by heating them fast in the pot using the sauté function and then switching to slow cook. I checked with a cooking probe that the meal was above 80 deg
Read more