May 8th 2009
It had been a fairly typical day, Walter had gone to work, while I stayed at home watching the kids. It was also our anniversary, we'd been together for 5 years, though in all honesty, I didn't expect him to remember it. Little did I know, that we would never forget our anniversary again. He arrived home from work around tea time, and surprised me with a bunch of pink roses, and a big bottle of wine. We got the kids to bed, then ordered a Chinese. While we waited for the food to arrive, we each went to our computers and went onto facebook, him in the kitchen on the desktop, and me in the living room with my laptop. We'd both got addicted to a game on facebook called Farm town, and so we were taking turns to harvest each others crops when the food finally arrived. We sat down together to eat, although Walt said that he wasn't over keen on his and left half of it and went back to his computer, while I finished eating mine.
A few minutes later I heard him mumbling from the kitchen, which wasn't out of the ordinary, he has a tendency to talk into the computer screen or whisper when he's standing next to the washing machine, or kettle or any other noisy utility, or he'll talk as he's walking away and I only catch the odd word. And so I asked him what he was saying (to get an idea, the kitchen door is in the living room and I could see the computer desk from the sofa), and he mumbled again. Of course, not having any idea what was going on I shouted at him. I can't understand you when you mumble, if you want to talk to me you'll have to come in here! Followed by more incoherent mumbling. I slammed my laptop down on the sofa and stormed into the kitchen and shouted "WHAT??!!" And that's when I saw it. He wasn't mumbling. He COULDN'T talk. His hands were tingling, and he couldn't use the left side of his face. I immediately ran back to the living room for the phone and called an ambulance. Of course, being a man who won't go to the Dr unless he's already dead, he didn't want me going to the trouble. I'll be OK, it's getting better already. Yeah really.
It's funny, in a strange way, because while I was on the phone to the ambulance service, they were asking me to ask him questions, and he couldn't speak, it seemed like forever that I was trying to explain to them that it would have to be yes or no answers because he can't talk. The paramedics arrived and asked all the standard questions, and took his blood pressure which was slightly high, but not through the roof. They eventually decided that it was a severe food allergy. To clarify, we HAD used this Chinese before, but he hadn't had that meal before, so it made sense that it could have been an allergy. The paramedics advised him to get checked over, but he said that he felt a bit better, and would take some antihistamines and see what happens. So he signed the PRF (patient refusal form) and on the way out they told me that if he got any worse to call them straight back and they'd come out again.
They hadn't even been gone for 10 minutes when I saw him rubbing his arm again, but he was careful not to talk to me, because then his game would be up. Not that he could anyway. I went into the kitchen to talk to him and noticed that his speech was starting to slur again and told him I was going to call them back, he said not to because it was only the ripples of the allergy, not as bad as before etc.... I wasn't convinced and told him he was on his last warning, one more episode and they were getting called back. within a few minutes he was off again, so I called them back.
The same two paramedics came back and told him he needed to go in (which he already knew because I had TOLD him he was going in whether he liked it or not). I had to help him get dressed because he couldn't use his arm. I think in my heart of hearts I KNEW it wasn't an allergy right from the beginning, but an allergy seems much nicer than what the alternatives are. The paramedics took him away, while I sat and stewed. Of course I'd have liked to go with him, but we have three young kids, it was 1am and we have no family near us. And as he said "they'll give me a shot, keep me in over night, then you can get me in the morning. Yeah.
So after he went I sat back down and logged into facebook and messenger to keep my mind busy while I waited for a call from the hospital or a text from him, just anything really. At 3am the text finally came. It simply said "not food allergy. TIA - Mini stroke". To be honest I didn't have a clue what to say or reply back, and eventually I just sent one back saying "bugger". After a few more texts I didn't hear anything else, all I knew was that he needed to have a CT scan the next morning and an ultrasound. Of course I couldn't sleep after that, and ended up talking to some wonderful friends online, who I met through a forum for a pregnancy related illness I had, and they kept me busy. I also spoke to a very dear friend of mine in Canada on the phone, the one time I was glad of the time difference. I had decided not to call anyone until daylight, since there really wasn't much to tell until we knew anything definite from the tests.
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