Zahli
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As a mother of two, Dana knew something wasn’t quite right with her third child, Zahli. She cried a lot, she wasn’t feeding right, and her nappy changes weren’t as they should’ve been.
At one month Zahli was diagnosed by doctors at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane with cystic fibrosis (CF). Her parents were devastated. They, like most other parents of children with CF, had no idea they were carriers and they had to come to terms with the fact that there is no cure. |
What followed was a whirlwind. The family came to the Royal Children’s Hospital every day and the amazing staff trained Dana in how to care for her gorgeous baby - physiotherapy twice a day at home, administering the nebuliser twice a day, giving Zahli pancreatic enzymes to absorb her food and numerous vitamins and antibiotics to fight off infection.
Diagnoses now seems like a lifetime ago and Zahli is now three. She has had approximately five admissions (lasting 2 weeks each) and Dana’s pretty pleased with that. She managed to keep Zahli out of hospital for the first two years of her life.
It is a huge strain on family life - meeting the needs of four children and coping with CF. One minute Zahli can be fine, next minute she can be coming down with a chest infection. “We have our good days and our bad days,” said Dana.
Zahli is very much Mummy’s girl, loves fairies and butterflies, and playing tea party. At the moment Dana said she has been playing doctors every day. When Dana asked if she was going to be a doctor when she grows up so she can look after mummy, Zahli’s reply was “No, I’m going to become a doctor so I can look after myself.”
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