Getting Ryan into nursery was really hard. He was born with Truncus Arteriosus, and had to have two valves put in his heart. We all got over it alright – of course we were upset to start with, but once he’d had his second operation to put a valve in to replace the leaking one we thought all the fuss was over. He has to have warfarin every day to stop blood clots on his valve, so he tends to look a bit battered – he’s a busy little boy, given to jumping off chairs, falling down steps and rolling about with his big brother, so he gets bruises.
When I took him down to the nursery to sign him up, they said they didn’t have a place for him, which was a bit odd as they knew I wanted him to go with his brother. So I went to see the head, and she said that he would need special watching, and she didn’t have the extra staff. What would she do if he suddenly had a heart attack.
Well, what would you do if any of the kids had a heart attack? I asked, and anyway it was very unlikely that Ryan would have a heart problem as he is seen every six months and checked out.  She said it wasn’t just his heart, but that he might bleed. Fair enough, but since all children bleed at school, and they have plasters and everything, I couldn’t see the point of that.  Eventually, I had to get the nurse from the hospital to talk to the school, and then they agreed to take him.