Charlie R's quilt    (Quilt Completed)

Thank you

Thank you so much to each and everyone of the love quilt team whether you stitched for either Caitlin or Charlies quilts, they arrived yesterday and the work and love that goes into them as Caitlin said is "awesome"!! It was my dads birthday yesterday so it was a bit chaotic when they opened them but they absolutely love them! Caitlin wouldn't get out from under hers and curled up of the settee with her papa and Charlie who is non verbal burrowed in under his too!! Such sheer pleasure to see them so happy and grateful. Everyone of my family was totally in awe of how much work has gone into creating them for both Caitlin and Charlie. I will send you photos but Charlie isn't very well at the moment and we are hoping the antibiotics and nebs will keep him out of hospital?!

Finished photos

Individual squares

Fabric

Card

Stitched by: Elaine Ainsworth

Biography

Charlie is my third child to be born with an unbalanced translocation of chromosomes. My first child, Shaun, was stillborn at 39 weeks. Charlie has an older sister, Caitlin, who also has the same rearrangement with both physical and mental disabilities, although not as severe as Charlie. Her original prognosis was might not walk, might not talk! She has surpassed this and surprised us all.
Charlie has undergone many operations since he was just 2 days old! He has had X-rays, ultrasounds, DMSA scans, CT scans, MRIs. He's had ops on his boy bits, Inguinal hernia repair, gastrostomy inserted, cleft palate repair three times, not long after the first repair Charlie got pneumonia and needed to be intubated which broke the repair but thankfully saved his life! The second repair he suffered a serious infection so had to go back for his third repair! Charlie has had his spinal cord detethered with as much as was safe to remove of the sacral lipoma. However he was unable to urinate so he had a SPC inserted. This has since been removed! He has had a run of ambulance admissions from mucus plugs and absences and since had epilepsy diagnosed. He is extremely susceptible to chest infections which also results in frequent stays in hospital. He has also recently suffered a serious water infection which resulted in him being admitted to hospital for a week and was discharged last weekend.
Despite all of the above he is a happy little boy, full of smiles and brings a lot of love to us all.