Not the post featuring bedding I thought I would be writing today....

Today I was going to finish writing up a post about some lovely bedding I'm reviewing but life very much got in the way of Blogging.

Instead of writing I spent 2 hours at the Walk In Medical Centre and then another 5 at the hospital. My eldest 3 have been absolute gems and looked after the youngest 2 beautifully the whole time. My first ever visit to the Walk In Centre and it was my partner who I took.

2 days ago he had a bit of a temperature, a cold and a headache, it was nothing special. By last night he was writhing in pain, but sleeping fitfully and he had a pretty bad night. He couldn't go to work this morning at all, but held it together to ring in sick. I went out at 8.30am on the school run and then to toddler group and came back at 10.30am to find him still roasting hot and vomiting. I gave him paracetamol and ibuprofen and expected him to feel a bit better. He didn't.

He was adamant he didn't want to go anywhere, but when I got back from fetching boy no.3 from nursery he was clearly still as bad and his thighs were really hurting him, with cramp style pains he couldn't ignore, so I did that Mum thing and took charge. I made him get dressed and took him to the Walk In Centre. He looked like a woman in advanced labour, writhing and moaning and couldn't sit still. His temperature was 38.6. I've been reliably informed this evening that above 38.4 an adult can fit from the heat alone. They gave him more Paracetamol and he just got hotter.

He really was so ill. He started to lose track of what was going on, he couldn't answer questions and his face would go vacant mid sentence. He drifted between writhing and shaking uncontrollably, to looking like he was sleeping.

We went straight to A&E, straight through triage and out the back door into a cubicle where they asked him to undress and put on a gown. We couldn't have been quicker if we'd arrived in an ambulance, I really can't fault them at all, but you do know its serious when you arrive in A&E and 5 minutes later you're wearing a nightie which ties up the back.

Within half an hour he had a cannula in his arm and had donated several tubes of blood for testing. He had a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia and urine tests which were all clear. He had his ears, nose and throat checked. His head, thighs and back were agony and he couldn't touch his chin to his chest and I know how serious that can be. Eventually the Doctor did say the word we were all thinking, but no-one wanted to say out loud - meningitis.

He was given 2 huge syringes full of antibiotics and put on a saline drip. 2 hours later and it was like I was with a different person. The fluids made him perkier and he could hold a conversation. He started to fret that he was wasting everyone's time and should probably go home. No chance, the Doctor told him at this point that he was staying and although he wasn't happy, he had no argument.

He'd stopped being sick and had drunk some water which had stayed put. He had a cup of tea and I took a picture because I felt he was getting so much better....I'm not going to post it because clearly now I can see that is a man who is still not well, and the photo doesn't even show the uncontrollable shaking.

Another couple of hours later and we were up on the ward, I was getting really twitchy by this time and worrying about the little boys, who would be going to bed soon as long as my eldest was following the normal routine.

Then he was hungry. He ate a sandwich and I waited 15 minutes and he wasn't sick. This is an excellent result. Visiting hours were almost over and he needed to sleep, so I really had to leave him. I took a photo because I wanted to show the kids he was much better. It didn't even occur to me at the time that they hadn't seen him at his worst.

I rang at 11.30pm because I would never have slept without it, and was told he'd been asleep since 8.30pm.

No lumbar puncture thank goodness, and so far a good response to the medicines, and that is where we are now. By the time you read this I'll hopefully have had a few hours sleep, got my family up for school and gone back to hospital, and hopefully they'll have found out what type of infection he has. Hopefully he'll be cooler and more comfortable.

Hopefully he hasn't got anything as exciting as Meningitis and his symptoms are all from a far less scary infection. I guess the bedding review post will have to wait a bit longer....