The weekend before last, I came home from walking the dog at about noon to find Caroline asleep in bed. This was surprising for three reasons. She’d been up and about when I left the house. She’s not one for taking naps. And her mother was coming to lunch. ‘Are you all right?’ I asked, prodding her awake. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I felt a headache coming on, took some Nurofen and suddenly started feeling incredibly dizzy. So I decided to lie down for a few minutes and then fell asleep.’
I wasn’t too worried because she does occasionally suffer from dizziness, usually accompanied by a migraine. So I made lunch while her mother went to a chemist and bought Caroline some travel sickness pills that she thought would help. They didn’t, but I did some googling and discovered that a large portion of McDonald’s fries accompanied by a 16oz beaker of Coca-Cola is a good migraine cure, thanks to the high doses of salt and caffeine. That was a step too far for Caroline, so I bought her a large packet of ready salted crisps and made her a strong cup of coffee. They did make her feel slightly better and the following day she was up and about again.
Fast forward to this Saturday, and almost exactly the same thing happened, only this time the patient was my 17-year-old son Freddie. I returned from a dog-walk to find him crashed out on the garden furniture. I woke him to ask if he was OK and he said he’d suddenly come over with an urge to lie down and now felt a bit delirious.
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