Yes, last night was pretty eventful.

We went to bed in the guestroom (upstairs) at about 11p.m. Bear just made it up the stairs and then collapsed on the bed, diagonally.

I got his trousers off and pushed him as best I could into a reasonable position. He complained of being uncomfortable but seemed to doze off.

At one o'clock the alarm went off.

"I need a wee" he muttered. But when he tried to sit up he keeled over and I had to rush to his aid. Somehow we got the the loo, which is fortunately next door to the bedroom, and he tried to sit down without lowering his pants. Once that little problem was sorted he could hardly keep upright. I imagined him falling off the loo. What would we do then?

Somehow, we struggled back to bed and he felt sick.

"Pleeese. Don't be sick" I begged silently. That's something I cannot cope with. I managed to deal with my own children when they were small and I have hardened myself to cleaning up after the cats, but vomit - just don't go there.

He started coughing and spitting and I handed him a large towel. Fortunately it wasn't a full scale throwing up.

He lay down again and started talking about animals walking across the ceiling.

"Did you do your blood sugar?" I asked.

"Yes, normal" he replied.

Eventually he slept fitfully until the 3a.m. alarm. This time he was much worse. He tried to sit up, completely lost control and just missed bumping his head on the (metal) foot of the bedstead. He was sick, dizzy and hallucinating. I fetched a bucket and more towels.

We spent the next hour with poor Bear alternating between being sick, wanting to pee and complaining that his head was spinning and he hurt all over.

At about four o'clock things calmed down and I set the alarm for six.

But it didn't have time to go off before things went from bad to worse. Just trying to lift his head brought on sickness and dizziness and he was seeing black slugs on the walls now.  He wanted to wee but couldn't perform in the beheaded mineral water bottle that I held in position.

As soon as this little crisis was over I showered to try to wake myself up and went downstairs to phone the doctor. Surgery opens at 7.30 and she was already there.

"Could you get him to casualty?" she asked when I'd explained the symptoms.

"Not really. I don't think we'd even get him out of bed, let alone down the stairs."

"I'd better come and see him."

Ten minutes later she arrived and went up to look at the invalid.

"Hospital for you," she decided after a quick examination.

She rang a few private ambulances but once she had described the problem -   a heavy invalid who needed carrying downstairs and was also liable to be sick -  they were unavailable.

So she called SAMU and three pompiers turned up in a huge red van with blue lights flashing. It took the three of them plus the doctor to carry Bear to the ambulance cocooned in an inflatable stretcher. I was not allowed to go with him so Jay took me to the hospital in the car.

We needn't have rushed because, once I'd done the paperwork, they made me wait for nearly an hour before allowing me through to see him.

There he was, all forlorn, on an uncomfortable looking bed with a drip and a kidney bowl. They had done bloodtests and an ECG but couldn't do a scan because the scanner was being repaired.

"We may not be able to do the scan till this afternoon." announced the doctor but he has a drip to prevent nausea and we'll give him something for the pain and to help him sleep.

I waited beside him, providing moral support and urine bottles until he dozed off, then took advanatage of the chance to escape to find a toilet (and a sandwich as I'd had nothing to eat or drink and it was nearly 11.30.)

When I got back his room was empty. They had taken him for the scan.

A few minutes later they wheeled him back.

"There's no haemorrhage." announced the doctor.

"Does that mean he can come home today? If so, I'll have to go home and make up a bed downstairs"

"We don't know yet, but it might be a good idea if you do that."

The young doctor gave me a direct number to ring casualty at 2 o'clock to see what was happening so I contacted Jay for a lift home. It was difficult to explain things to Bear as he was still very sleepy.

Once back home we tackled the  cleaning and furniture moving in the newly decorated bedroom and made the beds.

At two they said he had gone for more tests and to ring back in an hour.

I've just telephoned and they are admitting him.

Looks as though I'll be spending a few hours hospital visiting tomorrow and Bear probably won't be back to enjoy the curry evening we have planned for my birthday.