The Next Step:Jiley's story

Rock and a hard place

Two Weeks Later

It had been two weeks since Josh had been rushed into hospital and still there was now answer to why he was in so much pain. It hadn't gotten better since he came in and he is in a constant state of pain but the worst thing was it was making headline news.

"Mystery illness puts 1 year old in extreme pain"

"The mystery illness is still undiagnosed"

These were just some of the many headlines that had been wrote about Josh, James and I were constantly being asked for interviews but we only did a few because life was pretty hectic as it was, trying to manage seven kids at home as well as the studio and repeated hospital trips was hard enough without constant questions being asked about Josh.

We were at the hospital, all nine of us. The kids were all playing around whilst James and I spoke to Josh about how much pain he was in, we do this every time we come to see if its improved since last time, but it never does.

"Josh, baby how much does it hurt?" I ask him whilst stroking his head, almost instantly he holds up his hands and spreads them as far apart as he can get them to illustrate to us just how much it hurt and that's with the extreme pain killers. I looked across at James to see the same face I see every time Josh shows me how much it hurts, concern and fear. Although his life isn't at risk because of the pain, his freedom appears to be because he cant even sit up let alone walk and dance and just be an average one nearly two year old. I know that right now doctors are beginning to up the pain killers but this puts his organs at risk of failure because of how young he is, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Amelia, please don't try and push Josh's bed." I say after noticing that Amelia had an obsession with the fact that Josh's bed had wheels on the bottom. She looks up at me with puppy dog eyes that are so hard to say but I can't have her trying to push Josh out of his room so I root about in my bag trying to find a toy that will stop her from playing with the bed. Eventually I find it and hand it down to her, she smiles at me completely forgetting about the wheels

"Thank youuuuu, Mommy." she says making me smile I just ruffle her hair and then turn my attention back to Josh, he looks up at me and I can see the pain in his eyes, I know he's trying so hard not to scream but struggling so hard, I can't imagine how he's lived for two weeks in so much pain. I look at my watch to see that we have to be back at the studio in 30 minutes for an A-troupe rehearsal, I know we need to leave but it's hard dragging myself away from tiny Josh but I know I have to

"Josh, Mommy and Daddy are going to have to leave now, if you need anything just press the red button," I tell him, he knows how to get help because he spends hours here by himself, much to my dislike, so he just nods and then shuts his eyes. I leave his side and start rounding up the others so we can leave and be at the studio in time.