On Wednesday morning I fetched Roxy and we picked Heidi up from Bell. Went to Heidi to finish off the last bit of painting that needed doing. Gerard and I started our Atkins diet today.
Lara was due to visit the Vogelpark in Schotten today with the kindergarten and Steven had a appointment at the Giesen hospital. We left home at 7.00am and dropped Lara at Roxy and Ryan. Ryan then took her to Kindergarten a bit later for us. Steven got booked in to the day ward. Of course the necessary obs were done and they wanted more of his blood. This doesn’t seem to come out of Steven easily, as every time we have been, they have had to prick his arm more than once and then try the other. This happened yet again!!! We were then told that he had to go to another department. This we found was down the road and situated in an old villa.
This is the sign outside
As you enter this villa, there is a panel of bulbs (some flashing) and switches. Makes one really wonder what you are entering. Steven then had some radio active substance injected intravenously into him. We were then told to come back 3 hours later. Gerard and I took and walk with Steven to the Hospital Café where we sat and had something to eat and drink. Poor Stevie was so hungry as he had been starved since midnight. Gerard decided to gap it back to work and left me to while away the hours with Steve. Stevie and I found a bench in the sun and we sat reading and watching people go by. Eventually we made our way back to the Villa where they dealt with Steven immediately. He was told to lie as still as possible and a scanning device was brought down over him as well as being scanned from underneath.
After all the info was shown on computer screens and reports done, we were asked to go into the room next door. Here Steven had to lie flat and as still as possible and this scan time was 25 minutes. It was quite a contraption. There were 3 sides to it and it rotated round Steven’s body, stopping for intervals and scan shots made. This is a 3 dimensional scan.
Here is a pic of Steven in the scanning device.
After this, we were sent to the waiting room. The radiologist came and called us for another take as the first lot were not good enough. Poor old Stevie had another 25 minutes of lying ever so still. After that, we were allowed to go. We had to report back to the Kinderstation where the doctor gave us the necessary prescription etc. They had also saved Stevie some lunch, so we could sit and relax for a while. Gerard picked us home and we got back home at about 4.30pm. We were told that the reports would be forwarded to our paediatrician here in town.
Lara had had a good day at the Vogelpark and was with her friend Sina so I collected her at about 4.00pm.
On the weekend Gerard and I went to Lauterbach on a shopping spree. Went to Herkules first as Gerard had seen a pair of shoes that he wanted and we also wanted to look at the big screen tv that was on special. We were disappointed to hear that both these items were available only at the Fulda branch. I still managed to find jeans for Lara and Steven.
We then went to Mega Company where Gerard just calmly bought a Samsung Plasma 50inch flatscreen tv, a stand which is remote controlled and will lift the tv screen to whatever height we like and a complete surround sound system to go with the whole set.
We woke up to some drizzling rain on Monday morning, breaking the pattern of nearly 4 weeks of absolutely stunning weather. After waking up to a rather miserable Monday morning, things did get a whole lot better.
Our big screen tv was delivered this morning. This I want to add is something that Gerard has dreamt of for many years. Since I met him 15 years ago, he has wanted a home movie / big screen system. Now he finally has it!!!
Before After
The day improved even more, when I visited the paediatrician this afternoon with Steven's report from the Giesen Klinik. The paediatrician informed me that even though Steven's right kidney (the much smaller) functions 24% and the left kidney functions 76% of the whole kidney function, that it is, in fact, functioning perfectly well in proportion to its size. He feels that this whole kidney issue may not be the cause of his High Blood Pressure after all, so we will have to look elsewhere. I will continue monitoring Steven's blood pressure twice a day and he has to go back to the doctor in the first week of June. What a relief to hear that his kidneys are fine!!!
Steven has been going to Heidi everyday after school for some help with his times tables that he has been battling with. What an improvement and his teacher has also made him feel great about doing extra work on his maths. My little boy is shining right now.
Lara’s 10 days of being in the forest (Waldwochen) were absolutely miserable days with lots of rain and quite cold weather.
The 18th of May is a public holiday here in Germany. It is Christi Himmelfahrt which is Ascension Day. We all had a nice lie in and then a late breakfast.
"In Germany, Father's Day is celebrated on Ascension Day. The fact that it has not been ranked as high as it should be as a day in honour of responsible and caring fathers is rather incomprehensible. Fathers too ¬ as well as mothers ¬ like to receive small presents, cards or letters as a token of gratitude.
This might be the reason why one can see so many groups of men, perhaps consisting of lonely fathers who are joined by non-fathers more and more often, hiking, biking or travelling by horse drawn carriages during this day.
Günter Garbrecht
Greeting Card Association of Germany"
Gerard took the boys off to a soccer tournament (in the rain). The men's team played first and a beer tent had been put up and things were well organised for the party thereafter.
Lara still wanted her outing. She had been going on and on about going bowling. I had been putting it off but now I had no excuse. We went off to the hotel in Alsfeld which sports 4 bowling alleys. These are situated in the basement of the hotel and they are airless and obviously used by people who smoke!!!! Rather unpleasant when you first arrive but then one gets used to it. It is nine pin bowling here in Germany so we had to get used to that. The bowling alleys are made of wooden floor running probably a length of 8 metres to the pins which are set in a diamond shape. The balls are smaller than the ten pin bowling balls and have no finger holes. A sloping wooden ramp along the side of the alley is used to return them to the players. The kids absolutely love bowling and Lara is now managing to throw/roll her bowls on her own now. Spent a couple of hours playing and having dinner there.
Gerard took some time off on Friday afternoon and we drove up to Kassel. I had wanted to visit Ikea, as I wanted to see their kids room section. (I am in the process of redoing Lara's and Steven's rooms). We couldn't believe the number of people visiting this shop. After booking the kids into the fun centre at the entrance to the shop, Gerard and I set off to see what we could see. You can drop the kids off at the IKEA supervised play area and ballroom, and shop in peace for an hour. This way, everyone's happy. We actually came away very disappointed and with nothing to show for our visit. The kids had a ball however!!!
We then headed for Kassel centre. Here we wandered through quite a few shops and found a book shop that we had bought English books in previously. Bought two great new books which I can't wait to start reading. James Patterson's Beach Road and Patrick Suskind's Perfume. We caught a tram, much to the kids delight, to the station where I could buy my English magazines and then back into town again.
Bought some ice creams for the kids, grabbed some Sushi and hit the road for home again.
Saturday was spent gardening and we watched the rugby in the afternoon. Larissa joined us for the rugby match.
It was an excellent game and both sides played so well. Well done to the Bulls!!!
We went off to Edmonds birthday in the evening which was great cos I didn’t have to cook supper.
Gerard played golf with Heinz on Sunday. They had a good time even though they didn’t play well.
