Dr Lisa Chimes from the Bondi Vet team had four caesareans and multiple complications.
Gold Coast model and entrepreneur Alexis Bree’s son has severe eczema and anaphylaxis.
Both incredible women talk about their parenting experiences on LiSTNR’s Dr Golly and the Experts….
Listen here: Dr Golly and the Experts – LiSTNR Podcasts
Dr Lisa Chimes is no stranger to a surgical procedures, having performed many on pets featured on Bondi Vet. But after four children via four caesareans, she found herself on the other end of the scalpel and in talking to Dr Golly she has shared her experiences with post birth complications, the intense procedures that followed and her long road to recovery.
16:23 – Lisa only realised how ‘out of it’ she was after her surgery when she looked down and saw she had wounds on her nipples from breastfeeding her newborn baby.
19:25 – Before going into major surgery, Lisa was the one having to calm her family down even though she was also ‘freaking out’ as she knew what can go wrong when performing surgery on animals.
43:48 – After all of that, she would do it all again.
Alexis Bree is an international marketing entrepreneur, a model and founder of the content creation and marketing studio brand fluff. But above all that, she is a mum to her son Diesel. And when Diesel was one, he was diagnosed with severe atopic dermatitis and anaphylaxis. Atopic dermatitis is more commonly known as eczema, and it can vary from mild dry skin to such a severity that it’s treated using the same medicine that is used in chemotherapy. And anaphylaxis is the extreme version of allergy, where even the slightest exposure to an offending allergen can be life threatening in an instant. The conditions have taught Alexis many things, but mostly how important it is to have courage to stand up for yourself as a parent and in advocating for your child.
12.06 – Alexis remembers bathing Diesel in a well-known brand of eczema specific bath wash which only set his skin on fire.
42.19 – When traveling to Japan with Diesel, the flight attendants didn’t know what was in the available snacks. They also didn’t have nutrition panels so they couldn’t tell if there were peanuts.
46:33 – At six years old, Diesel is responsible for his own EpiPen and making sure he doesn’t play with kids who haven’t washed their hands and mouths.
Alexis: I just didn’t get the advice that I needed. I just didn’t feel armed with knowledge. I kind of get kept getting told the same thing, you know, wet wraps, steroids, ointments and condy’s crystals, baths. And that was the same thing every year. It wasn’t working. What else could I do? And I was told, you know, it has nothing to do with food. And I was like, but the gut is like so central in everything else in your system. So basically that was the conversation. And then I kind of educated myself and it’s so vast. Everyone’s solutions for eczema, which is just so overwhelming because as a parent, you’re like, well, I don’t know what to pick. And I spent so much money on so many products.
ABOUT DR GOLLY AND THE EXPERTS
In Dr Golly and the Experts, Dr Golshevsky (Dr Golly) talks with ‘experts’ – patients and parents who have, through necessity, become a specialist in their specific health journey, from diagnosis to day-to-day treatment and beyond. The stories are sometimes painful, often heart-warming and always inspiring and told through the voices and hearts of high-profile Australians as they talk to Dr Golly, a Melbourne-based paediatrician and father of three.
Given his unique position as former Chief Resident Medical Officer at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Dr Golly has treated many high-profile Australian families as they deal with medical conditions ranging from epilepsy, autism, eczema, sleep deprivation, croup and ADHD, and he has a rare talent as an expert, and as an expert translator. He’s a pleasure to listen to. In talking to patients and parents, Dr Golly shares their challenges confronting a diagnosis, managing their own struggles, and finding solutions and treatment for their children, and themselves.
“It’s one thing to study and practice medicine for decades, and be able to talk about different conditions when it comes to both children’s and adult health and development, but it’s another thing entirely to live through the experience as a patient and most often, a parent,” said Dr Golly.
He’s spoken with sports broadcaster Hamish McLachlan about West syndrome, Em Rusciano about the way kids on the spectrum are treated, Dr Norman Swan about traumatic brain injuries, Johanna Scully and Georgia Barnes about the incredible experience of surrogacy; former AFL players Jordan Lewis and Jarryd Roughead on cancer and concussions, and he’s even shared his own experience with his daughter Olympia being born with Craniosynostosis; so there’s no mistaking that Dr Daniel Golshevsky’s LiSTNR original podcast, Dr Golly and the Experts is making a difference for listeners, and interviewees alike. The episode covering post-natal depression with MAFS’ couple Martha Kalifatidis and Michael Brunelli and can be heard here
