UPDATE (Monday Oct 6th): turned out it was Flu A (not Covid – phew!) and after that first scare on Friday his temp went down to normal. Today he still tested positive for flu but with a very faint line showing, so hopefully he’ll be all better soon.

Well, not your usual Friday evening at Casa Azahar. Last night I woke up a few times to hear Peter coughing away in his room. He’d been out on a tapas tour and got home after I’d gone to bed. But he hadn’t been coughing before he left. Anyhow, I had a sherry tasting today and when I headed out around noon, Peter was still asleep so I didn’t disturb him. But when I got home late afternoon he was still in bed. So I made him some noodles in chicken broth and put it on his bedside table with a glass of lemonade. A few minutes later I heard a THUD… he’d fallen out of bed trying to sit up, and couldn’t get up off the floor.

In moments of pure panic like this I go stone cold, stop feeling. I tried several times to help lift him up but there was no strength there at all. I’m thinking STROKE and trying not to go there, trying to keep Peter calm (he was so scared) and trying to think of what to do next. And so I called the emergency 112 number on my fridge door, talked to a woman who asked me all kinds of questions, so many I said “aren’t we wasting time here??” and she said “no, the team is already on its way, I’m just getting extra information”. Phew.

The EMT team got here in about 10 minutes, three of them came crowding into Peter’s room with all their equipment, managed to lift him up into his chair and then started in on all the various tests. First of all they wanted to rule out a stroke, he had a portable ekg done, he was given IV paracetamol… I’d say they were here for about 30-40 minutes (though by then I was really losing track of time) doing this and that test. Turned out he had a fever of 38ºC. I think just having the team there helped Peter feel better, less afraid. Honestly they were so good, even having fun with trying to speak English to him and making him laugh. So he relaxed.

They gave Peter the option of going to the hospital with them for observation or staying at home, and he wanted to stay home. So now I’ve got to monitor his temperature and, if it doesn’t improve or gets worse, I was told to call the other emergency number 061 and they’d be back. And that’s where we are.