Until she was one year old, Jaye’s life was extremely limited. Now, after a small contribution from Satan’s Little Helper, she has started to put her unique stamp on life.
Born extremely prematurely, Jaye was on permanent oxygen for the first 12 months of her life.
“She was born at just 25 weeks and weighed about 700g,” says her mum Krychael.
“She spent 162 days in the hospital before she was allowed to come home with me.”
Fortunately, Jaye has avoided many of the serious health complications commonly associated with ‘micropreemies’.
“We were told when we left hospital that she’d be in and out with various illnesses,” explains Krychael. “Thankfully, that hasn’t been the case.”
Scary moments
However, Jaye’s life isn’t all sunshine and roses. She has battled chronic lung disease – an illness that her mum says was “pretty scary” to watch her go through.
“Jaye would constantly have bronchitis and similar conditions and, when her lungs got bad, it was very scary for me. She’s pretty tough, though, and her illness didn’t really seem to get to her!”
More recently, the two-year-old has undergone surgery to strengthen the muscles behind her eyeballs.
Krychael first noticed there was something wrong with Jaye’s vision when she started stumbling over objects while walking and had poor depth perception.
“She did really well on recovery,” says Krychael, “but I was a nervous wreck during her operation! Seeing her after the surgery was awful, as both her eyes looked like those jelly eyeball lollies you get at Halloween! They were big, swollen, and full of fluid – it was very unsettling but it didn’t take long for them to go back down to normal.”
Living her best life
Despite her rough start, Jaye has developed well and is loving attending kindy five times a week.
“She gets up every day and tells me that she wants to go to school,” laughs Krychael.
But that doesn’t mean Jaye’s struggles are forgotten. When Satan’s Little Helper heard her story, we wanted to send a few gifts to help put a smile on her face.
Jaye loves art, so she SLH sent a stamp set and drawing tablet!
“She really loves her gifts; especially the stamps. She’s been stamping everything, including our walls! She wants to play with them pretty regularly and enjoys her art, which is lovely to see. Plus, it’s great to know that someone else is thinking about us and our struggles.
“For the first 18 months, I feared for her constantly. For the first eight months, I was constantly worried. Now, you would not suspect she’d had such a rough start – and it’s just the biggest blessing.”
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