Stephen was a little perkier in the morning and made it out of bed to watch the final Rangers game of the season and the Monaco Grand Prix. He still had a bit of a gippy tummy but wasn’t looking too bad…until about 5pm when he began to throw up pretty violently. We put him back to bed but by about 9pm I was back on the phone to the emergency doctor and by 10:15pm we were back in Worcester Royal Hospital. The doctor on duty said that his Blood Pressure and temperature was low and was going to give him an injection for the nausea and send him home with instructions to call an ambulance if he wasn’t improved in 3 hours. Stephen pleaded to stay and the doctor phoned to see if he could be admitted. We were told to go to A&E and a porter got him into a wheelchair and pushed him up. As he felt worse if he sat up we had to stretch him out over a row of seats and wait for his name to be called. I amused myself with watching the antics and injuries – the girl with the cut head who’d had a run in with another woman, the bloke with the cut foot, the mad bloke who went nuts because they’d removed his shoes. He stormed out shouting, then stormed back in, stood in classic pugilist stance and tried to pick a fight with the security guard. Then he stormed out again, then back in with 4 police officers in tow.
It took about an hour before the triage nurse saw Stephen, took his BP, temperature and blood sugar then sent us back out to sit (or lie) again whilst we waited for a doctor. She was very apologetic that he couldn’t get a bed, but there was none to be had at that moment. After about 20 minutes she called us over and put Stephen on a bed in the Minors area which they’d had to open up to accommodate everyone. By the time the doctor rocked up Stephen could barely whisper, so I went through the symptoms and timescales with him. He prescribed another course of stronger antibiotics, to be taken in addition to the ones he’s already taking and an injection to combat the nausea as Stephen was puking up the anti-nausea tablets. Stephen was pretty out of it whilst the Doc was explaining to me that these tablets were what they gave to old ladies who get C-diff and will kill all bugs including typhoid….would you like to guess what word Stephen picked up and worried about all the following day?? Yup, he had typhoid for sure…! The Doctor also decided that running some saline solution into him might not be a bad idea if we weren’t in a rush to leave. We were left alone again for a bit before they returned with the necessary equipment. It was at this moment that Stephen chose to throw up into his handily placed “bowl in a plastic bag”. The doctor left us to it whilst Stephen chucked up, then came back and inserted the needle for his IV into Stephen’s hand and gave him an injection for the nausea. It was at this point that I felt hot and dizzy and had to be helped into a nearby chair by the nurse as “the last thing we need is you full length on the floor”.
He was about halfway through the IV when he began to shiver uncontrollably and I made my way over and piled his jumper and my jacket onto him. The saline solution was ice cold, but he was at least looking human again. It was 3am before he was discharged and about 3:30am when we got back after a slow and gentle drive home. I was up again about 8am to go to the pharmacy for his prescription, then back to bed for a couple of hours before I was woken by the sound of projectile vomiting from down the hall. I actually spent most of the day lying on the bed beside him so I could get him whatever he needed (and deploy the mirror to check he was still alive!). Even in his weakened state he was quite a demanding patient…he wanted drinking straws to that he didn’t have to sit up too much, he wanted water at a certain temperature, he didn’t want blackcurrant rehydration salts as they made him feel sick…but as he was actually pretty ill I was happy to oblige.
Mum arrived back from a weekend at my brothers and made me dinner – the first proper food I’d had since Friday as mealtimes usually coincided with some crisis in Stephen’s health.
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