The Prince Family

At 8 days William Prince began vomiting green fluid, was lethargic, sweating and had difficulty breathing.
He was admitted to Bolton Hospital, UK were he had tubes and wires hooked up to him.
He had a hole drilled into his right shinbone.
When he was stabilised he was then transferred to Alder Hey Hospital.
This was when it was confirmed William had suffered a Heart Attack.
He was diagnosed with Neonatal Enteroviral Myocarditis.
William was discharged from hospital in December but in January he was hospitalised again due to a life threatening infection.
William is back at home again with his loving parents Rachel and Edd and his beautiful sister Isabelle.
Since William's illness his family have been fundraising for Ventilation and ECMO Training at Alder Hey Hospital by baking cakes and hosting Ladies' Nights.

The family also have a fundraising page via justgiving.com/Rachel-Prince1?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=20160406_70371

This blog was written to raise aware of William's heart attack however there is also a mention of Rachel's health conditions Polycystic Ovaries and Endometriosis.
There is also the mention of Isabelle's milk allergy too.

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An Interview With Rachel Prince:

What is your name and age?
Rachel Prince, 29

What are the names and ages of your son and daughter?
Son, William Prince, 8 months
Daughter, Isabelle Ann Prince, 2years

When were you diagnosed with Polycystic Ovaries and Endometriosis?
What treatment did you receive?
What symptoms did you have?
I was diagnosed 3 years ago.
I had tablets to try and jump start periods that wouldnt start again after the pill injection (used to control painful periods for years) tabs didn't really work.
But then I just fell pregnant - I must have got caught after taking the 2nd lot of tablets but didn't actually see my first period.
My symptoms were heavy bleeds, sore legs and agonising cramps either side.

How long was your labour?
I was in labour for 14minutes.
There wasn't much warning!

Were there any complications during your pregnancy?
I had a bleed on my womb a few weeks into the pregnancy.
I bled and went for an emergency scan but thankfully the bleed/bruising on my womb wasn't near to the pregnancy sack so with bed rest all was fine.
The rest of the pregnancy was a dream. No sickness AND I had a bump.
With Izzy I was tiny, she was full term and weighed 5lb 15oz.

Please tell me about William's feeding? William just fed A LOT  (via breast) to the point where within 3 days my nipples were bleeding & crusty.
I decided to put him on a bottle because I thought he wasn't getting enough (he could be on the breast for hours)
Once on a bottle he fed a lot, 2oz 2-3 hourly then up to 3oz.

Isabelle is allergic to milk, please explain?
Her milk allergy was noticed by myself & Edd (my husband) because she was refluxing, arching a lot and failed to gain much weight at all so after trialling specially hydrolysed milk and her reflux getting better and her gaining weight that's how she was diagnosed.
She had "Neocate" milk prescribed and now has "Oatly" milk.

Why did William have a hole drilled into his shinbone when he was hospitalised?
William had a hole drilled into his shin bone because they couldn't get any fluids into him via IV.

What is NEM?
Neonatal Enteroviral Myicarditis is a rare virus in newborns, 24 to date till William, where only 8 survived (hence the 3.4% survival chances given).

What treatment/medication did William receive?
William was supported by several IV heart medications Adrenaline, Noradrenaline, Dopamine to name a couple.
He was intubated to take over his breathing and he was heavily sedated.

What is ECMO?
ECMO is an out of the body heart & lung bypass machine (I will google exactly what it is & the risks etc we had no choice than to decide this option for him at the time as he had nowhere to go from how much support he ended up on by that stage - Oscillated, medications etc there was nothing else they could do)

Information quoted from Google...
"In intensive care medicine, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) or extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is an extracorporeal technique of providing both cardiac and respiratory support to persons whose heart and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange to sustain life. This intervention has mostly been used on children, but it is seeing more use in adults with cardiac and respiratory failure.
ECMO works by removing blood from the person's body and artificially removing the carbon dioxide and oxygenating red blood cells.
Generally it is only used in the later treatment of a person with heart or lung failure as it is solely a life-sustaining intervention.
Cardiopulmonary bypass is generally used for shorter-term treatment"

Additional Information via
"Risks/Benefits"
http://www.leicestershospitals.nhs.uk/aboutus/departments-services/heart-services/ecmo/risks-and-benefits/

In December William was discharged from hospital but in January he was hospitalised again, this time due to a life threatening infection.
What happened?
How was this treated?
William was discharged with a gastrostomy peg & a double lumin broviac line.
The broviac line had an infection in it called Klebsiella Pneumoniae that was treated by a weeks worth of strong IV antibiotics.

William now has regular heart scans, medication to stabilise his blood pressure and nystadmus.
Can you please explain the process of these?
William has an ECG then an Echocardiogram, they take around 30 minutes to get what the cardiologist needs.
He has blood pressure medication, heart support drugs and reflux medication.
Nystagmus is where the eyes move involuntarily to try and focus because they find it hard to see, this is due to lack of oxygen I think in William's case I believe.

Please tell me about your fundraising?
I bake cakes as a hobby and I just post on my facebook page that I'm selling my cakes cheap and all funds will go to justgiving "Alder Hey".
The ladies night im hosting is at my local conservative club.

What advice would you give to other parents/guardians in the same situation?
The advice I would give to anyone caring for a child is to trust your instincts, stay strong & try to be positive.
We believed although William was heavily sedated that he could hear us, he knew we were there so we wanted him to know that life was worth fighting for so we laughed, we sang, we read to him and we always let Izzy (Isabelle) come to see him.
He needed to know we were there fighting with him and we all love him so much.

If you could give a message of "thanks" to Alder Hey Hospital, what would you say?
Our message to Alder Hey would be....
"Thank you so much for believing in Prince Wills, you were all incredible.
You ended up being our friends, family, agony aunts, and most importantly our heros!
We will be forever be grateful"

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HELP & SUPPORT:

Heart Problems
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartFailure/AboutHeartFailure/Heart-Failure-in-Children-and-Adolescents_UCM_311919_Article.jsp#mainContent

Milk Allergy
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/milk-allergy/basics/definition/con-20032147

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
http://www.m.webmd.com/women/tc/polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos-topic-overview

Endometriosis
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/mobileart.asp?articlekey=356