Whatever it was, it has certainly affected the muscles in the face and neck, affecting the speech and swallow. Consequently, Colin has not been able to take his usual meds, has been on a syringe driver containing just something to dry mucous secretions and, up until yesterday, Midazelam purportedly to prevent fits, although I am rather dubious about that. The specialist nurse at St Richard's Hospice has visited and based on advice from the consultant there (who only saw Colin last week) made small tweaks to the meds to monitor over a 24 hour period. She will review this today. By the way, the really high temperature had returned to normal with no intervention!
The trouble with all of this is that not only has Colin not been able to take his usual meds but also he has not been taking on board any fluids. No one truly expected him to come round from Friday and indeed the on-call doctor told us he was unlikely to last to the end of Sunday. Here we are the following Thursday and it's deja vu - remember what happened when Colin was in Malvern Hospital last year.
So I await advice from St Richard's staff on where we go from here. None of us wants Colin to suffer any more but he is too awake not to take all options into consideration.
Jane.