Probably the most scariest day in my life!
Woke up this morning and went grocery shopping after having coffee with Elena at Mama's Cafè.
Had lunch and then Romano and I went for a nap.
As we were getting into bed for our nap he said he might not go to Tai Chi in the evening as he was feeling a bit under the weather… That was probably the understatement of the year.
I woke up at about 4 p.m. and came downstairs. Romano was still sleeping.
I made myself a coffee and settled down to watch some news on TV and get caught up since I had been in London.
At about 5 p.m. I heard a LOUD thud from upstairs. For a minute I thought it was the cat but then realized that she could not have made such a loud sound no matter what she knocked over.
I went upstairs calling out to Romano. I went into our bedroom but it was empty. I went towards the bathroom and kept calling out but got no answer.
The bathroom door was ajar so I knocked and called out. No answer.
I opened the bathroom door and there was Romano, on the floor, unconscious, with vomit all over the place and a large pool of blood under his head. I mean a LOT of blood!
I knelt down beside him but he was not responding so I put him in recovery position and ran to the phone to call an ambulance.
I ran back to Romano and he was sitting on the toilet but not focussing at all and just blubbering. I thought he had had a stroke or something!!
I tried to get him up and get him to lie down on the bed.
He was a mess. Blood and vomit all over him and he only had his underwear on.
I finally managed to carry/drag him onto the bed.
I managed to SOS Elena while driving like mad to the front gate to let the ambulance in.
When I got to the front gate I saw that Claudio was still in reception so I honked my horn and he came out and I told him what was happening and to accompany the ambulance up when it came.
I drove back up to the house like a mad woman and am pretty lucky that I did not hit a tree or three!
I ran back upstairs to Romano who was still on the bed and he smiled at me. I talked to him and he answered but looked like he was very confused.
Just then Elena came bursting in and right behind her were Claudio and the ambulance drivers. I say ambulance drivers because in Italy we do not have paramedics and I did ask for an ambulance with a doctor but I guess no doctors were free. The ambulance drivers are volunteers in Italy and usually have a minimum of first aid training but nothing to write home about.
These two, a man and a woman, were very nice and looked like they knew what they were doing…. They looked Romano over, asked him questions and took his blood pressure etc.
By this time Romano was his old self (almost) again and did not want to go to hospital saying that we would call our family doctor.
The ambulance drivers were not too sure about that and neither was I since he hit his head but he really did not want to go.
So, he signed some papers and they left.
I called Tommaso, our doctor and he said he would be right over.
In the meantime Elena, who has taken many first aid courses, patched him up the best she could. She even drove home to get those bandaids that act like stitches.
He was pretty badly banged up.
He also had a fever of 38.8.
Tommaso, the doc, came and looked him over and said it was OK to stay home although he could do with a few stitches.
Finally all seemed quiet…
Oh, and Vittoria.. she came home from guitar lessons to find the main gate open and an ambulance in our front yard. Thank goodness Elena stopped her at the front door and told her everything was ok. The poor thing was white as a ghost.
At midnight Romano decided to go pee and I told him to leave the door open and to call out if he felt even a little dizzy.
Sure enough he called me and I got in the bathroom just in time to catch him.
Once more he passed out and then started vomiting .
I put him on his side and called out to Vitti while making sure he did not choke on the vomit.
Vitti ran in but but this time I had it under control and he was coming to… He looked at me, smiled and asked what I was doing in the bathroom with him… Gotta love him...
I managed to get him up and turned around to find Vitti fully dressed and she asked me "Are we going?"
I asked here "Where?"
She said "Hospital sounds good to me!"
I told her no.. her dad was fine.. (Keep Calm and Carry On) and she just looked at me like I was nuts.
Finally got Romano cleaned up and into bed..
He was ok by then but I stayed up most of the night waking him up to see if he was ok…
I am thinking he has a bad case of the NORO virus which seems to be going around but has not hit Italy that bad yet.. I guess he got an early edition!
And that, my friends, is my WELCOME HOME story!
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