Hospitals and Doctors

On Monday, I was supposed to take Steven to the Eye specialist and somehow, I managed to forget the appointment altogether. Is this old age or what???
Gerard was away and obviously with him having made the appointment and not being around to remind me, I just simply forgot.
After taking Lara to dancing lessons on Tuesday, I quickly went round to visit Heidi. She had got me a packet of plastic egss which Lara had to take to Kindergarten. I got to meet with Heidi's friend Helga. She is an elderly lady trying to learn English, so we landed up speaking more German so that she could understand us. Helga told me about Bad Wildungen and how beautifully decorated it is at Easter time.
On Wednesday morning I met Heidi in town and we went to the Marchen house which I have been wanting to visit for ages. It was quite disappointing - I probably expected too much. We had a cup of coffee out in the Markt platz and soaked up the sun. After leaving Heidi, I bumped in Danielle who insisted that I saw the Maths helper she had just bought for Denis. I went into her house for the first time and found it to be a beautiful place. She often has people stay over in her house, as a bed and breakfast. Gerard arrived home and he had brought me lots of goodies from England. What a treat it was.
On Thursday, we had to have Steven at the hospital by 11.00am. We got there in good time but once again, it was an endless waiting game. There were no beds available, so we were put at the table where the children eat their meals. After the usual question asking and normal stats being done, we were told to go down to XRay department where Professor Alzen wanted to speak to us. He explained the procedure in detail to us and we could ask him questions. He then accompanied us back up to the ward and advised the doctor on the ward that Steven would have to be put onto medication immediately to lower his blood pressure. He is going to try and do the procedure under local anaesthetic, but should it stress Steven too much, they will then do a full anaesthetic. Another doctor then asked us another set of questions and he then said that another colleague of his would be taking some blood samples from Steven. Well, poor old Steve went white. Three doctors battled to get a few little vials from him – another harrowing experience. They left the butterfly all in situ, in case he has general anaesthetic tomorrow. We then had to go to another section of the hospital, to fill out forms and see the anaesthetist. Another wait was in stall for us!!! Thankfully, the actual time spent with the doctor was very brief.
Eventually a bed became available at quarter to three and I could at long last, get Steven into his pyjamas, pack away his things and say goodbye. He seemed ok with this and is lucky enough to be sharing his room with a little girl, whose mother and I had been talking earlier in the day. She said that she would keep an eye on Stevie, should he need anything.
Gerard and I will be leaving home at 6.30am tomorrow to get there in time for the procedure. Gerard will wish him best of luck and leave me there for the day. Steven spent Thursday night in hospital on medication to lower his blood pressure. On Friday morning, he was sent to the X-ray department where Professor Alzen did an Angiogram. When Steven’s bed was pushed through the doors I was asked to leave. He was put under anaesthetic and the procedure began. I went back to his ward and read a mag, took a walk and then went back to X-Ray department. The procedure lasted an hour and eventually I was allowed in. Steven took one look at me and he became very tearful. At this point they were applying pressure to the wound and were “waking” him up. I was taken aside by Prof Alzen and given a run down of the situation. Everything went well and the kidney is not “dying” due to lack of blood or malfunctioning. What a relief to hear this.
He was sent back to the ward, where he was attached to a monitor for normal stats recording, and still had a drip. Steven’s reaction to the anaesthetic was first one of tears and much crying, then anger because everything was sore and he was hungy!!! The more the nurses told him he couldn’t eat, the angrier he became. Eventually, after a tasty lunch and about an hours sleep, my little boy was back to normal. He was not allowed to walk for 24 hours but he wasn’t too upset about that.
We went and fetched him at 2.00 o’clock on Saturday. He will be on medication for as long as his blood pressure remains high and we will have to keep it monitored on a daily basis.
I am just too grateful to have my little boy back home and know that he is on the mend.
Robert played a soccer match and on our return from Giessen hospital, we popped in there to fetch him. Gerard had an evening out in Eudorf with the tennis club. They had dinner and drinks and discussed various outtings etc. The tennis court will be ready for use soon. Looking forward to having another go at tennis this year.
We spent a very relaxing day on Sunday and had our first Braai of the year.
The school holidays were now officially started and the kids could sleep in etc. On Monday,after much telephoning to make an appointment with the paed in town, I drove there to find a letter on the door stating that they were closed due to holidays and should we need a doctor urgently, we should go to Mucke. I did however get Steven's script filled from the chemist. He is on Tenormin 25mg.
The Kindergarten was still open this week so Lara continued going as normal. I would just take her when I was ready and Gerard was leaving early each morning for the office.
Venetia had phoned me on the 1 April to say she was back in Germany and asked if they could come and spend 2 nights with us over the Easter weekend.
They arrived on Friday late afternoon, and it was lovely to see them again. Venetia looks well and has lost some of the weight that she gained after he op last year. We took them to Fulda for the day on Saturday, which they had never visited before. We had lunch at a pizzeria which was lovely. We had hoped to braai over the weekend but the weather turned out to be quite miserable. I made a dinner of chilly con carne instead.
Patrick and Venetia had brought Easter Eggs for the kids and they were horribly spoilt. I hid them all out in the garden and then the hunt was on. They will be overdosing on chocolate for the next month with the supplies they have got.
Patrick and Venetia left just as Ursi arrived with more easter eggs and presents for the kids. They each got a t-shirt with Milka easter eggs. It was nice to see her again. On Monday, we had decided to do a trip to Bad Wildungen and Edersee. It is about 80kms from Alsfeld. We stopped and had a walk around the town but was a bit disappointed not to see more easter decorations.
The Edersee was another story. Very interesting and full of history. I will post another blog after this all about the Edersee and with the photo's we took there.