Yes, sadly this will most likely be my final posting to this blog.
It’s been a very special privilege for me to provide this channel for just some of the folk whose lives have been touched by especially the infant form of pyloric stenosis. That’s a tiny part of the population, we all realise. Nevertheless, hundreds of us have interacted and learnt from our shared experiences and feedback. Countless many more have read the material for their own benefit or to help them and others understand what was happening to them – or sometimes one or more of their family additions.
Some years ago I realised that I had largely covered the subject matter for my intended readership, and the weekly posting slowed and then stopped. At about the same time I realised that the blog as an information dissemination format was to a significant extent giving way to newer technologies, including the podcast and mini-videos such as those carried by YouTube, which I felt too daunting to master adequately.
More personally, just over two years ago I picked up the first signs that the disease which took my father from us in 1992 had begun to affect me. A year later I was formally diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, also know as ALS and Lou Gehrig’s disease. This is now affecting me with growing effect. So . . . time to type final full stop.
In doing so I want to thank all my readers, and particularly those who responded to my posts. Truly, you have meant so much to this blogger!
In particular, my thanks are to –
“Justin”, who wrote an invitation to anyone reading his piece to interact with him about his somewhat strange and unsettling reaction to aspects of his having had surgery for his infant pyloric stenosis.
Links to the work of most of the people mentioned here
have been included in recent blogposts.
Wendy P Williams, started the very first blog on this subject. I picked it up only minutes after she’s posted it. It started a friendship and online collaboration very much in line with what had developed with Justin. Wendy has had access to the North American market and unlike me has gone far beyond her keyboard in seeking out a variety of experts in the field, including understanding PTSD, healing therapies, and promotion. We blogged in tandem for many years, and her autobiography was published early in 2023.
Roey Shmool has applied his movie-making skills to an hour long video on the effects of infant surgery without anesthesia, and continues to make this available on YouTube.
Prof. Dr Ian M Munro, developed a coherent understanding of the cause of infant pyloric stenosis and has tirelessly advocated for this work, an often thankless task in the highly structured world of medical science.
The late Dr Louis Tinnin recognised the emotional effects of infant trauma including surgery without anesthesia, and established one of the several available counselling services for those affected.
Thank you to the above people and the many readers who have given me so much encouragement, feedback, and added the depth of their personal insights and journeys.
I pray that God will bless you and keep you . . . in fact, all of us!
Fred Vanderbom – December 2023
Note to my Readers . . .
At some time perhaps not far away, I must expect to be no longer able to post material or respond to your always valued Comments.
I expect that over time, interest in at least some of the material in Surviving Infant Surgery will continue to fade, as the cohort of those affected by earlier infant surgery (those born before the 1980s) pass through the normal lifespan. However, several readers have encouraged me to keep this blog available, and thanks to WordPress this should be possible.
Those of you who have already had Comments accepted here will continue to have open and direct access to this blog. And I have given my partner-in-blogging, Wendy Williams, “the keys” to this blog, so that other readers’ Comments can also continue to be accepted. Please contact Wendy ( https://www.wendywilliamsauthor.org/ ) if necessary.
Stories from the Survivors of early Surgery 