Five. Cloaca Malformation.

I am going to tell you that at birth she was diagnosed with Cloaca Malformation. I often tell people a dumbed-down version of what this is but if you want to know more, google can advise.

Around 1 in every 50,000 babies are affected by it, it’s not genetic, it’s not anything. It’s a case of at conception, one cell miscommunicated with another, it was bad luck.

A lot happened in those days but Poppy needed surgery, urgently. Her little lungs weren’t very strong and we were told that the risk of her having surgery was huge. Poppy was on one of the highest forms of ventilation, I honestly don’t know what it was called, I took very limited information in but it made her physically move, jitter, and almost sounded like an actual washing machine.

If she didn’t have surgery, she would die, but surgery could kill her. What a decision eh?