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OH NO!  IT’S MY 1^ST BIRTHDAY ALREADY

Joshua would like to invite you to share in celebrating his very first birthday

2.00pm – 5.00pm   Monday 26^th January 2009

Birthday Cake at 3.30pm

“AfternoonTea in the Park” at the corner of Eastern Rd, Park St and Heather St

A very casual affair, we will provide drinks and afternoon tea, (melting moments, fairy cakes and fairy bread). You might like to bring along a fold up chair, picnic rug, bat and ball etc.

Please do not bring presents!

Joshua has more clothes than he will ever wear (thanks to his many overly generous aunties at Christmas time) and his toy needs are specially provided by the wonderful people at Noah’s Ark.

Joshua’s first birthday celebrations would not have been possible without the care of the wonderful staff and facilities at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

In lieu of a present we would much prefer you made a small donation in celebration of Joshua’s birthday either online at www.rch.org.au (click the DONATE NOW button top right hand side of screen - make sure you nominate the NEONATAL SUPPORT from the drop down box after nominating the donation amount) or via a donation form which we will have on the day.

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A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE AT RCH NNU

FROM

JOSHUA RIGBY (WATSON)

ON HIS 1^ST BIRTHDAY !

Melanie Watson and Peter Rigby would like to THANK YOU all for the wonderful care you all took of Joshua during his time at NICU : January  – mid June 08

Your kindness and professional care for not only Joshua but the both of us was spectacular and very much appreciated.

We continue to now be looked after by the equally wonderful team at Developmental Medicine (Dr. Margaret Rowell and team) and at home through Noah’s Ark, Vision Australia and Aurora School for the deaf, all of whom have continually increased our understanding of how many wonderfully caring and talented professionals there are in our little world.

Joshua is doing wonderfully at home, he rolls all over the floor, wriggling his way to anywhere he wants to be, not really crawling yet though. He can sit for long periods of time unsupported and loves to play with all of his toys on the rug outside under the trees.

Some recent photos of Joshua..

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Joshua's 2008 Christmas Update

Just a quick update for all of you that we haven't been able to catch up with recently (or at all!) - to THANK YOU for all of your wonderful messages of hope, support and encouragement we have received during the year. There hardly seemed to be a day in the first half of this year, where we did not arrive home from the hospital to find a mail package of beautiful gifts for Joshua, a casserole or just a message letting us know we were in your thoughts and prayers. It was very humbling to know we had so many thinking of us - thank you. We have been home from hospital since mid June, and have had to make a few desperate emergency dashes, not to mention almost weekly appointments, but on the whole, Joshua is doing very well. Joshua is now 10 months, 8+kgs and has learnt to roll all over the floor, his head control is getting there and sitting up is the next big thing. Smiles are few and far between, although seem to arrive on cue for Grandma. He has visited the beach at Kilcunda and been in the water (well dunked his legs in) as well as at Pearl Beach when he went to visit his new cousin Ty in Sydney. May grow up to be a surf lifesaver yet. Joshua's early intervention education is now looked after by the wonderful people at Noah's Ark, and we still see Vision Australia and Aurora School (for the deaf), all of whom, together with the staff at RCH, are responsible for the wonderful developments we have seen so far. Joshua will become a big brother to a little sister sometime around April 24th which is very exciting for us all. Very fittingly, Joshua's first Christmas will be quite Australian, at the beach (Kilcunda) celebrating with the whole Rigby clan. Don't forget to check out his latest photos on the website www.rigby-files.net.au
THANK YOU ALL - HAVE VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday 8th Aug 2008
Subject : Joshua update
Hi All,
Just a quick note to update you all, as you may not be able to get us on our mobiles or home phone over the next few days. Joshua is unfortunately back in RCH, in Paediatric Intensive Care attached to a ventilator. We have been at Falls Creek since Sunday, and Joshua got to see his first snow. Late yesterday we didn't like the look of his breathing and he continually lost colour so we contacted his wonderful paediatrician who advise us to get him down to Wangarratta Hospital NOW. We drove him ourselves down the mountain and made it to the Emergency department of Wangarratta Hospital, the staff of which were absolutely fantastic. Yes it really is just like on the TV, there were 5 people around him in seconds, they cut his clothes off in a few seconds (sorry Helen, that's one little Bonds suit of Joel's you won't be getting back) and were wonderfully professional in their approach. He wasn't in great shape by the time we got down there, and they immediately got to work getting some oxygen back into him and within a few minutes his colour was much better, even if his breathing wasn't.  Unfortunately at this point, as Peter was filling in all the paperwork at reception, Joshua arrested. It doesn't get much scarier than that. Thankfully they got him back online in probably less than a minute, but what seemed like ten for me. They stabilised him within an hour and got him onto a ventilator and moved him to critical care to wait for the air ambulance to take him to RCH. By 4am this morning he was stable in PICU at the RCH, where he is being fussed over by the wonderful nurses there, just the way he likes it. We caught up this morning with Joshua's doctors at the bedside and at the moment they are thinking this may have been brought on by an infection, as there seems to be something showing on the chest X-ray on his lungs. We will have to wait and see. Thank you all for your constant concern about Joshua, we hope to get him home again soon,
With Thanks
Peter and Melanie.
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16th July 2008
Hi everyone,
Just a quick email to let you all know that Joshua finally made it home on Monday 16th June - after 4.5 months in the Royal Children's Hospital.  
My apologies that it has taken so long to write, but as you can imagine it has been an action packed 4 weeks since we first arrived home.
What can I say? It is truly wonderful to finally have our beautiful little boy at home, every minute with him is an absolute joy - I can't believe this is what we have been missing out on since January.
Joshua is well, continuing to grow (5kg now!), and continuing to develop, all in his own timeframe and not really according to any normal charts or milestones.
We nonetheless delight in Joshua's every move, and are amazed at his development as I daresay every parent is.
We have come home with very much support, not just from our wonderful family and friends, but we are also receiving respite care. I have attached some photos,
Joshua may not have a footy jumper yet (as many of you have commented) but he has already got his Tour de France yellow jersey and has been watching the race with his Dad. Grandpa even gave him a ride on his bike - you can't start them too early these days.    Joshua @ Le tour de France 13th July 2008.
( click on thumbnail to open)
 
Peter is working on Joshua's website, so I won't bore you with too many details here, everything will be revealed on the website.
Thank You all for your love and support over the last few months, we appreciate all the phone calls and messages and hopefully will get around to seeing you all sometime soon.
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30 May 2008 11:00 AM     
Subject   Joshua's pictures on the web

Hello all, Joshua is recovering from his operation quite well and last Tuesday he finally moved out of Neonatal ICU after 4 months, into a big kids ward upstairs, the medical staff would like to see us out of there and home as soon as possible. To this end they are training/equipping us with what is necessary to get him home over the next couple of weeks. Which is a very scary prospect to us both, but will be great to finally get him home. They are introducing us to the support network that out patients at the hospital runs to help us deal with any problems we may encounter over the coming months.

Josh still isn't swallowing yet, but we a dealing and managing the problem better since the op, he now weights 4.5kg and has just moved onto feeds every 4 hours and can be unplugged between feeds which gives us alot more freedom. The staff want us to start taking him out of the ward and move around the hospital, getting some pram action happening before going home!.
l have put together some of the better Joshua photos, and added them to our ISP web space. Pretty unprofessional but being my first go at building & uploading web pages, I'm pretty happy (can only get better from here) Will update as time goes on with latter pic's and maybe a better interface and move older stuff to the links below on the Photo page. We will try and add updates to the stories page, (when Mel has time!) http://people.aapt.net.au/~ribgypa/
cheers Pete
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02 May 2008 09:51 AM
Subject Joshua Update

Yes has been a while, I never realised how much time you lose/misplace when you add a baby to the equation.
The roller coaster ride is continuing, Joshua is still in ICU, yes it has been 13 weeks now!  And he is still keeping the doctors (Mum and dad as well) guessing what his condition is. He still isn't swallowing and has a feeding tube down his nose, throat by-passing his stomach and feeding him directly into his bowel, they have tried on a couple of occasions to pull the tube back to his stomach, but he end's up refluxing food which intern jeopardises his airway. Which frightens us now, as the 1st time they try this he ended up aspirating something into his lungs and needed to be put on a respirator for a few days to assist his breathing and help him recover.  He then needs the tube put back which has to be done by the radiologists under X-ray.  We have been told that he can't come home (let alone out of ICU) until he can be fed into his stomach, to this end he has been scheduled for surgery on the 7th May to get a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy - a feeding tube that goes into the stomach directly through the abdominal wall) and at the same time do a  fundoplication - surgery that tightens the upper stomach which reduces reflux. Hopefully all this helps manage his airway and enables us to get him home. After all this time they still haven't come up with an answer for the swallowing he has had every test possible come back negative and now they are talking about redoing all the tests again, they seem to be thinking it a neurological problem now and are going down that path, anyway at the moment he is just like any other baby sleeping, crying, filling nappies and wanting attention, so we are enjoying the time we spend with him daily and still not sure what the future holds. His porking on the weight 4.06kg (9 pounds) now. (see pic's taken yesterday attached)

cheers Pete
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07 April 2008 01:19 PM

Hello, had a meeting with his Doctor on Friday, went thru his plan,  "course of action over the coming weeks" and how they are managing his condition.
In simple terms nothing is going to change in the coming month, they have observe some improvements, so letting him grow is the best course at this stage! (he may still be there for another 8 weeks)
Best Regards
Peter Rigby
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Baby Joshua 3rd Update
27 March 2008

We have now been in the Royal Children's Hospital Neonatal ICU for almost 9 weeks, and cannot thank the staff of RCH enough, they are an amazingly wonderful group of specialists who have made this experience all the more bearable.
There is still no firm diagnosis, all we do know is that Joshua cannot swallow, and may have a general lack of strength or "tone" to his muscles - hence why he can't swallow.
Unfortunately just last week he had a fairly major seizure - this is leading the doctors to believe his condition is neurological rather than genetic (not a muscular dystrophy syndrome as first thought).
We are riding a roller coaster of emotions, as generally Joshua is relatively happy - sleeping most of the day and engaging when awake, able to be cuddled and bathed just like a normal baby - then there are occasional setbacks every so often that take us back to the reality of a baby in ICU with thousands of tubes and monitors coming off him.
Whilst it is now probably a few weeks away, we are still looking to how we might get Joshua home, and we are beginning to learn how to care for him. We don't know what the future holds, all we do know is that Joshua was sent to us as a very special little boy who will need lots of love and attention, and that for this reason - we were chosen to be his parents.
Thank you for all the phone calls, cards and presents, the outpouring of concern has really been very touching, Joshua is very lucky to be coming into such a wonderfully caring circle of family and friends.
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20 March 2008 10:45 AM
Subject Re: Joshua

G'day, Joshua took a few steps back on Tuesday aspirated something into his lungs and is now on a respirator until his lungs can recover (3 days??) he doesn't look good with lots of tubes and wires hanging out of him. But word this morning from the hospital is that he has improved overnight.
We are still none the wiser with a diagnosis and the one genetic test we were waiting on came back negative yesterday, much to our relief. So we are still in a holding pattern waiting for him to put on weight and grow.
Last week  was stinking hot for the F1, quite strange as Feb was quite cool and wet here and then to have a week of 30-40degree days in March was abit odd. Now Easter is going to be wet and cold, forecast is for mid 20's

Enjoy Easter  and cheers Pete
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Baby Joshua 2nd Update
13th March 2008

We have now been in the Royal Children's Hospital Neonatal ICU for 7 weeks, and cannot thank the staff of RCH enough, they are an amazingly wonderful group of specialists who have made this experience all the more bearable.
As you all know, there is still no firm diagnosis, all we do know is that Joshua cannot swallow, and may have a general lack of strength or "tone" to his muscles - hence why he can't swallow. This is leading the doctors to suspect some form of muscular dystrophy or atrophy type condition, but tests for some of the most common (and serious) forms of these diseases have come back negative, we are awaiting one more test result for myotonic dystrophy due back in the last week of March.
We tried to move his feeding tube up into his stomach this week, because we can't take him home with the tube in his lower stomach, but this failed dismally and he now is back to being fed via the NJ tube. We are just trying to focus on getting him home at the moment
We don't know what the future holds, all we do know is that Joshua was sent to us as a very special little boy who will need lots of love and attention, and that for this reason - we were chosen to be his parents.
Thank you for all the phone calls, cards and presents, the outpouring of concern has really been very touching, Joshua is very lucky to be coming into such a wonderfully caring circle of family and friends.
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11 March 2008 11:51 AM
Subject Re: Joshua

Joshua has put on almost a kilo now (was 2.8 on Saturday) He is no longer "prem" his due date was last Sunday.
But no real change in his condition, we are waiting on some results which are due on the 18th March. Doctors have us in a holding pattern until these results are back.
He is now more like a real baby "has learnt how to cry" in the last couple of days.

all the best,  Pete
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Sent: Friday, 7 March 2008 1:28 PM
Subject: Joshua update

We have now been in the Royal Children's Hospital Neonatal ICU for 4 weeks, and cannot thank the staff of RCH enough, they are an amazingly wonderful group of specialists who have made this experience all the more bearable.
There is still no firm diagnosis, all we do know is that Joshua cannot swallow, and may have a general lack of strength or "tone" to his muscles - hence why he can't swallow. This is leading the doctors to suspect some form of muscular dystrophy or atrophy type condition, but tests for some of the most common (and serious) forms of these diseases have come back negative.
He is no longer in the humidicrib, doesn't have any drips or heart monitors attached and has only a tube into his stomach (to feed him) and a monitor on his foot (to check blood oxygen levels), making him a lot more comfortable, accessible and easier to cuddle daily. He is not in any pain, and spends most of his day sleeping peacefully, in fact probably more peaceful than a normal baby as he does not get hungry as he is being constantly fed via the tube.
Peter gave him his first bath last week, both father and son thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We are now looking to how we might get him home, which will involve teaching us how to care for him as he is currently cared for in the hospital. A daunting but nonetheless educational process for us both, we are becoming quite conversant with this small part of the medical world. We don't know what the future holds, all we do know is that Joshua was sent to us as a very special little boy who will need lots of love and attention, and that for this reason - we were chosen to be his parents.
Thank you for all the phone calls, cards and presents, the outpouring of concern has really been very touching, Joshua is very lucky to be coming into such a wonderfully caring circle of family and friends.
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05 Feb 2008 10:48 PM
Subject  Joshua Francis Rigby

G'day all, the little guy has a name now, Joshua Francis Rigby. Hasn't been plain sailing though, Joshua was having some problems breathing on day 2 and was transferred to Neonatal intensive care Unit @ Royal Children's hospital, Mum and I followed the next day. After a week of tests we still don't have a clear picture of what is wrong and when he would be able to come home. Very stressful times for the parents, will keep you posted..............when we know something.
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 27 Jan 2008 11:08 PM
Subject  Rigby Baby

Hello all, has been a long time between mail for some, but I have been busy (see picture) @ 4:35pm today (27th Jan 2008) we welcomed into the world our most beautiful baby boy 4lb (1.9kg) 6 weeks premature, nameless and without hair, both mother and baby are doing fine. Both are quite tired after a long day. Was due on the Labour Day long weekend in March, but he had other ideas, "why miss a good long weekend in January, (Australia Day)". The whole family will be enjoying tomorrows holiday together.

Cheers Pete & Melanie
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From:    Melanie Watson
Sent:    Friday, 25 January 2008 2:30 PM
To:    VIC STAFF
Subject:    Update - Melanie on Leave

Good Afternoon All,
It seems that this baby just can't wait any longer and looks like it is going arrive very very soon, in the interests of ensuring it arrives later rather than earlier (it's about 5 weeks undercooked at the moment) - I have been consigned to the couch.
Therefore the exit strategy is as follows:
I have already informed all my clients, subbies etc via email this morning that I will be on leave as of 5.00pm today
I will be setting my email to "out of office" at 5.00pm asking people to contact the relevant Project Co-ordinator........................................
In fact, I will be working next week until Thursday 31 Jan - tidying up loose ends with everyone etc. and dropping in once a day to finalise things.
I will be reading my emails and taking phone calls, still working but trying to ensure that subbies and clients get the message that I am not around.
Most importantly - A BIG THANK YOU - to you all for being so wonderfully kind and supportive over the last months, it has been really quite touching.
My team has been terrific in taking on board the extra work to make this transition so easy to do at short notice, thank you Adam and Bruce for all your hard work.
Tass, Andrew and Simon have gone above and beyond in their support for quite a while now - I don't know of many women in the workforce who can report as glowingly positively about their company and how it treated them during this time as I can. The special treatment, understanding and support I have received has been exceptional and is a credit to ISIS as a whole.
If I don't get a chance to see you in the next week …. THANK YOU ALL!
Regards
Melanie Watson | ISIS Projects - Project Manager
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