On Monday night I was dreaming of an ad, the ad was the whole dream. It was like a web ad (something I see rarely thanks to ad blockers), with white space and strong colours and Helvetica script. It was an ad for a blender for carrots.
In the midst of the ad, I became aware of the Gentleman Friend trying to wake me. It took a few minutes to leave the ad and come to wakefulness, and find that hives were creeping across his body and constricting his throat.
I took him to the nearest hospital, where as expected he was pumped full of steroids. What was less expected was how easy it all was, and that within two hours of being woken up I was back at home. A welcome change from my usual hospital stays which can last six or eight hours at least. The benefit of an extremely expensive private hospital in KL; our usual hospital in Lahore, Fatima Memorial, is far more frenzied thanks to being a charity hospital and nursing school.
The next morning, Tuesday, he woke up around noon and immediately the hives spread and he started feeling his throat swelling up. We dashed back to the hospital, to be admitted. And here we still are on Wednesday late morning. Yesterday was quite bad, with some very strong rashes and two adrenaline shots, but the night was ok and the morning hasn’t seen a recurrence on that scale. I’m hoping a corner has been turned, though I freely admit that I am always unwontedly optimistic about things I want to come to an end.
It is certainly a very swish hospital. We have a large private room with a bathroom, wooden floor and a view of the city. Best of all there is good lighting and it’s reasonably free of hospital sounds and smells. There is a profoundly uncomfortable sofa bed for me to sleep on, and the usual repellent hospital meals. Yesterday I went on a small expedition and came back with his favourite prawn wontons, fruit and nuts, apple turnovers, and a rhubarb tart, so it was a festive sort of dinner.
My siblings have been rather lovely, very concerned and offering on the spot to fly over and help. So have the Gentleman Friend’s various networks. All of this is over whatsapp. It made me think of a startup idea of AI friend networks that would be highly supportive and encouraging in good times and bad.