Here is what happened...

It all started on Saturday night, 21 February 2010. Lan started to have a fever when he went to bed. It got really bad at dawn, he woke me up at 5 a.m. asking for cold towel, hoping to tame the fever, which was around 38.6.
Morning came, he was out of strength and breath. It took so much effort for him to go to the bathroom, which is less than 5 meters away from his bed. He took some Ibuprofen and I continued putting cold towel on him. I made some porridge for him, but he did not eat much due to lack of appetite. I put some ointment oil on his feet, back and stomach to keep them warm and hoping it was just cold air causing problems. The fever went down to 37.6. So I was less worried at this point. I made sure he drink water often and glad that he did.
Dinner was much better. I fed him porridge and boiled egg, he ate much more than lunch. He said that he is feeling better, but mostly he just stayed on bed, resting. BUT, the stupid fever decided to return to him around 11 p.m., time where we decided to go to bed, only this time is HIGHER! 39.1... and he asked to go to hospital.

So, I got ready right away and called a taxi. We went to A&E (Accident and Emergency) right away. He was losing his strength again and kept running out of breath. His joints were painful and there was this awful headache... We waited quite long, until we finally were seen by the doctor. She was suspecting meningitis or malaria. So, she took some blood to be tested and an x-ray of his chest. At that point, they found some infection (but don't know where specifically) because his white blood cells percentage was higher than normal. As a precaution, the doctor gave Lan antibiotics and some fluid because he did not eat much.

He was moved to Acute Medical Assessment Unit on an emergency bed (because it was FULL!) for further investigation by senior doctors. That was 4 a.m. and I was asked to leave. I got home flat out.

(From Lan's story)
No doctors came to him until morning (though they kept saying that a doctor is going to see him soon!). He did not sleep a wink that night, waiting for the doctor. When a doctor actually came, she drew more blood out of him for more tests. At this point, they have more suspects: meningitis, malaria, viral infection or brain infection.
Then nothing... until I came at 2 p.m., Lan told me that they were moving him to a ward. At this point, we were sure that he got to stay for at least a few days. Good thing I brought him some fresh clothes, tooth brush, tooth paste and some other essential things.
He was moved around 3 p.m. to a ward of 6 beds. It is nicer, quieter and the nurses are more available to his needs. A doctor came right away to talk to us. She wants to do lumbar puncture to take some of his brain fluid sample, to test whether he really has brain infection. At first, Lan did not want to. I could understand... even I was terrified, is that really needed? But, even so, I still convinced him to do it. So he did. He said around 5.30 p.m. they came to do it and, afterward, he was to lay flat on the bed for the next 5 hours.
When I came around again at 6 p.m., he gave me this painful face. Oh... it broke my heart. A nurse then came again to take some blood sample (for who knows the how many times!), he said this is for the meningitis test.
At that time, he was feeling much better and having more strength than Sunday. Oh but oh... the fever came back again around 7.30 p.m.!!! They gave him 2 paracetamols and he was getting sleepy. That was good. He had not had much sleep, so I told him to sleep... while I tried so hard holding my tears!

Visiting hour ended at 8 p.m., I walked home crying to myself. That is it so far...
Let's see what the test results bring today.