I am mostly writing this down so I don’t forget it. 

On Wednesday night, Gem was saying that Herb was acting like he was ill - and she was all “mums just know, ok?” about it. Dad and I went for a curry and told her to stop being weird. He woke up a few times in the night, which is unusual for him, but was otherwise fine. 

I went to York early on Thursday morning so didn’t see him. Gem told me he was crying and ‘weird’ in the morning when she dropped him off at nursery. ‘Teething’ we said to each other.

Nursery sent him home at about 11. They have a good sense of humour about temperatures, but once they hit 39 degrees they like to send them home. Gem left work and took him home. He slept for most of the rest of the day and was listless and not himself.

At dinner time, while sitting in his high chair and eating normally, Gem noticed that he was listing to starboard and the right side of his face was different to the left. He didn’t seem to be able to use the right side of his body. Rightly, in my opinion, she lost her shit and rushed him to hospital.

Dr Wonderful immediately got him on a worst-case-scenario cocktail of antibiotics and antivirals in case it was some rampant brain virus like meningitis. His temperature spiked to 40 but started to come down as he immediately started reacting to the drugs.

I got the phone call and started to travel back from York at this point. By the time I got to hospital at 10pm he’d cooled down and was pretty mellow in A&E. His right hand side was clearly weak. It was late so I didn’t see him try to crawl.

They took us to the ward at around midnight; after a dose each of the antibiotics and anti-virals. He’d started waving his right arm around a bit and could grip with it. His temperature started to go up again at around 2 and he seemed to have some kind of episode while we were changing him: his eyes went glassy and he shook a little. I’m not sure I can describe it but he was with us, then he went away for a minute, then he came back. 

For most of Friday he just lay there with a temperature while we fretted. When he was awake he was cheerful enough. He was using his right side intermittently - sometimes acting normally, other times appearing weak and/or injured. 

The doctors talked about giving him an MRI and Lumbar Puncture, but hours later told us they were too busy so they’d do it tomorrow. I went home at 11 that night - Gem stayed on the ward. 

On Saturday he appeared to actually notice his injury as his temperature normalised. He stopped using his right arm entirely for some reason - possibly through compensation, possibly because got worse - possibly because he genuinely doesn’t know how anymore. They sedated him and gave him a lumbar puncture - which showed no infection or weirdness - and continued giving him the worst case scenario set of antibiotics etc. 

So its Sunday morning and my boy can’t use his right arm and we’re really not sure why. He’s *acting* like a stroke victim, even down to how he’s holding his hand like a little claw. His temperature is gone, and he’s clearly not unwell anymore. We’re kind of trapped in a limbo after the need for emergency treatment but before the ‘how are we going to cope’ questions can be asked or answered.

There’s an MRI planned for tomorrow (because they dont’ do weekend MRI’s) which will rule out some other things that he might have had and reveal (hopefully) the extent of the neurological damage. 

While we’re on the subject, throughout all of this, Herb’s still the same old Herb. Apart from his gimpy little hand, he’s doesn’t seem changed at all and is taking this better than any of us. 

Similarly all the nurses and doctors at Wythenshawe have been *amazeballs*.Seriously, good people. The NHS is dreadful from every single angle except the point of delivery. We’ve had everything we need and are now safely ensconced in a private room. 

We’ve got a few more days in the hospital coming up and we’ll be floating somewhere around where boredom meets abject terror. Gem won’t go home and I doubt we’ll be allowed to take Herb until the MRI has been done. Please do send us all the spare love that you have knocking around.