By Maia

One day in October I was at school in the yard playing with my friends when I bumped into a boy and banged my head on the ground. I had to go to the medical room and I was sick once in there.

My Mum was at the door to take me to hospital. One of the doctors said I had a heart murmur. He said it might be nothing because it might have just been that I was very nervous.

In January I went to the Freeman hospital to see if I really had a murmur and they found out that I did have a murmur.

First of all I had my ECG. The nurse put some sticky things on me and then these sticky things went into the ECG machine. After the ECG, the nurse gave me a certificate and a sticker and a print from it. Then I had a scan with pink jelly and a thing got pressed down on my tummy.

After that we met my consultant doctor Crosland who listened to my heart and pulse. He listened to my heart with the stethoscope, and then he listened to my pulse by putting his two fingers on my wrist. My consultant doctor Crosland said I had a hole in my heart. We went home after that.

In March I went back to the Freeman hospital to have a tube down my throat. There was this funny smell that smelled like nail varnish but it was actually gas. When I woke up I cried and felt extremely sleepy, but after a while I was back to normal. A week later I found out that I could have my operation because the child who was going to have their operation before me was on antibiotics. But it did mean that I was going to miss my friend Charlotte’s party if I had my operation then.

On the day I went back into hospital for my operation, I met two friends.

One was called Emily and the other one was called Chloe. I first played with Emily but she also had her sister staying, so I made friends with Chloe. In the play room, there was a play assistant called Joanne. She was really nice and helped any children who had nothing to do.

In the hospital, you get a free television. I watched it and I slept at my bed in the hospital. After two days I had my operation and I really was fixed. I had to have chest drains and when they took the chest drains out I had three stitches.

In the operation they cut my chest open and I have a big long scar because they stitched it back up. The next week I was out of hospital but it did mean that I had to be off school for four weeks.

When I got back to school all of my friends were really nice to me. And on Easter itself I had my three stitches pulled out.

I am fine and happy ever since.