Annual Southampton trip

When my second son Matthew was six weeks old, they discovered a hole in his heart. When he was 10 they operated to close the hole and tighten up the aortic valve which had been pulled towards the hole and had become saggy. The surgery went well, they almost closed the hole completely and they said they would see him for check up's every year. It's a pain, but it's for a good reason.

So, the school was notified that Matt wouldn't be in today and we headed off for the ferry in the car. Mel came with us and we were going to go to the new Ikea in Southampton. Because of this, we decided to take the car over ~ usually Matt and I go over on the passenger ferry and catch the bus.

The ferry was delayed leaving the island due to an elderly gentleman being taken ill, there was a half hour wait for the ambulance to turn up and get him off the ferry then we were underway.

By the time we arrived in Southampton, we were all starving so a quick stop in KFC and then up to the hospital.

It was heaving!

In the end, I gave the car keys to Mel and told her to go hunting for a parking space and rushed in with Matt. We burst through the door at children's outpatients and announced our arrival.

They hunted for our papers, but couldn't find them or any record of our appointment. I pulled out my appointment card and handed it to her; she looked at it and then informed me that the appointment is actually scheduled for the 12^th! We always go over on a Monday; we NEVER go over on a Thursday! Fancy sending us on a Thursday, what a ridiculous idea!

Thankfully, Dr Roman agreed to squeeze us in. He had his ECG, echo, height and weight (which haven't changed from the 55kgs and 173cm since last year) then went in to see Dr Roman.

He said everything looks good, the residual leak is tiny and the floppy valve is holding up well ~ they made it quite clear after his surgery that he'll probably need a valve replacement, but it wouldn't be until he's an adult. Today he said that that surgery is a long way off due to the fact that Matt is never ill because of his heart and has had no adverse effect. He did say that next time we go, he'll probably have a cardiac MRI which will be repeated every 3 to 4 years because his heart has pretty much stopped growing now.

Then we left and headed towards Ikea. Thankfully, that wasn't too busy but it's bloody HUGE!

As soon as I got in there, my phone rang. It was Alex who had had an argument with Kyle. Kyle had given him a bloody lip, been yelled at by Jess and my mother, had thrown a sheet of MDF at Jess which then landed on Isis and then he had stormed off. Alex was upstairs in a right state yelling down the phone at me that he was bleeding and feeling quite picked on. Everyone yelled at everyone else and hung up on each other.

I found a few bits I wanted to buy and while I agree that Ikea appears fabulous, it's just simply too big! There's too much there and walking for any length of time causes me back spasms. After all the telephony arguing, I really wasn't in the mood so I got what I needed and headed home.

I've had a calm and reasonable discussion with the kids, told them that they're not to use the computer (which is how it all started) if I'm not at home, informed Kyle he will not get pocket money for the next two weeks and everyone is now calm and either watching TV, playing the X-Box or gone to bed.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe I can do some knitting now………………………………