"Robin House for my son is a magic place"

For a number of years my son was on dialysis maintained at home by me (mum) waiting for a transplant, we got the call in December a few years ago now it was a tuesday and at night, I had to get him to Yorkhill as soon as possible, it was Tuesday and it was all go when we arrived, 6 hours he was expected to be under, and sadly after 2 hours I got a call to come over to the ward. My son had not done well under anaesthetic and his heart stopped, they did what they did and he was taken and spent the night in ICU over night, Kidney Transplant failed, everything was checked and nothing could explain other than his body couldn’t handle the anesthetic.

He bounced back from this amazingly and we were heading home by Friday. The staff in the Renal unit we have known since my son was born at 30 weeks early, now moved over to the New Glasgow children's hospital thanks to Our special Renal nurses in the Renal unit introduced us to Robin House.

As my son would not be able to have a transplant chance again, he is maintained on his peritoneal dialysis, he has lots of disabilities and is in a wheelchair, but he is a very happy boy and just loves being on the Go. It was scary at first going to Robin House, and for me the not having the hands on what I was used to daily doing, the staff take over and at the beginning we stayed as he has older brothers it was their chance to do things with me and go into town or chill out at Robin House.

We had to work around the nurses able to do night shifts with his dialysis as they only had 2 when we came. Training up new nurses for dialysis then started, and we had been going as often as possible getting our son used to everything and everybody, he had them wrapped round his finger. Then one day I was asked to sit down as an opportunity for him as he had been nominated to go to Florida Disneyland with Dreamflight for 10 days, to me it was not the Florida aspect that hit me it was the 10 days. He was expected to go in 2015 but due to not having an extra Person to cover the “what if someone was ill” he had to have 3 so he couldn’t go, but he put through to 2016 and we hoped all would be good. So in october 2016 he went with his 2 lovely nurses and a special Doctor who he sees at clinic checks now and gets so excited when he sees him. He made new friends and an experience never to be forgotten by us all, he went on rides at Disneyland that he would never have got the chance to do. Due to his dialysis he is not to get his site wet, as it is his lifeline and no chances of infection can be risked, a wonderful lady Jen got a rush job done before he left to get a drysuit made for him to take to Florida so he could swim with Dolphins, it was so close to leaving that it was sent straight to the hotel before they left London.

Robin House for my son is a magic place not just for him but for us all, it is the only place I can now leave him and feel reassured that he is in safe hands and gives me special times with his brothers who never complain about not getting away themselves. I am able to take them to Edinburgh and stay away and explore and do things we can’t normally do. My son is happy and loves going to Robin House and loves walks around the garden and painting and even visits from the clown Doctors, with his drysuit he can get in the pool at Robin House, he loves the staff and the mischief and fun everyone has.

Thank you to them all.