Not the post about bedding ~ day 2

I was so positive when I left the hospital last night and I imagined how delighted my partner would be to see me this morning after the school run, sitting up in his bed and smiling....

Actually when I arrived at hospital he looked really ill, the shaking was back and he was as hot as he's ever been and visibly in a lot of pain. The Consultant came over soon after I arrived and explained that "we need to know what type of meningitis you have in order that we can treat it correctly, so we need to do a lumbar puncture". It wasn't the gentlest of announcements, but at least now we could stop dancing round the subject and admit he does have Meningitis.

Sitting with someone while they have a lumbar puncture is horrific. I made the stupid mistake of considering all of the parents who have to go through it with small children and that image won't leave my mind because I cannot begin to contemplate how awful that must be. It takes such a long time to get all of the fluid that they need and the pain gets worse with each ridiculously slow drip. There's also something so wrong about watching such a precious fluid being taken out of someone. And that's before you even consider the dangers associated with the procedure.

We got the first lumbar puncture results really quickly, only a few hours, but they weren't exactly as we'd hoped. Bacterial Meningitis is the really dangerous one that we all panic about and Viral Meningitis is actually a lot more common than you'd think and often doesn't even require hospital treatment, and if that's what he has and his temperature stays down he might even be able to come home. His results were very high for virus, but also showed bacteria, so, at 2.30pm today he started on his 3rd lot of IV antibiotics, plus antivirals and steroids...we'll get the remaining results tomorrow and they should tell us without any doubt. Keep your fingers crossed....

Because he may have Bacterial Meningitis he had to move from the lovely ward into a room by himself. I left him and went home to see to the kids for 2 hours. When I came back he had been moved and was alone. He had no phone signal in his new room, he'd been given the tea ordered by his bed's previous occupant and no anti-emetic. He'd hated his tea which he'd then hated again as it made it's way back out. He'd had nothing to read, nothing to look at and was confined to his room. No-one had brought him any water despite him having to drink to prevent headaches from the lumbar puncture and he's had the headache from hell for 2 days. He'd decided he'd had enough and was going home.

As soon as he saw me he started dressing and had his pyjamas off and a t-shirt and pants on in moments. Pretty impressive considering the cannula in his arm, the Lumbar Puncture and the fact he still can't bend his head down or lean forward. He can be stubborn, and obviously his judgement is still impaired, but 2 Nurses and I managed to convince him it was probably best to stay...well, okay it was mainly me and I used emotional blackmail. I don't want that responsibility and he didn't really want to go home, he was just really fed up and who can blame him? I know I get tetchy after a couple of hours with a headache, 2 days with blinding agony and I would think it's probably fair he vents a bit. I've got to say too that it's a measure of how much better he was this afternoon that he was able to try to abscond, I can't help but smile really.

So tonight's 2nd tea was what they had left in the WRVS shop - which happened to be a bacon and egg butty and a packet of fruit pastilles - and he was delighted with it. I'm hoping I've programmed him and I can use it in the future as a special treat.

By the time I left he felt a fairly normal temperature, he hadn't been sick and he was really chatty. He was ready for a sleep and his results tomorrow, however still struggling with the ridiculously Victorian visiting hours in his new ward of 3-4 and 6.30-8. I just hope he doesn't turn up home at lunchtime tomorrow with his drip stand....

As for me, it'll be hard to sit at home until 3pm knowing he's there alone and waiting for results, but I have loads to catch up on....I might even get that bedding review done....