Make my hero ill :D

Well, I need to give my poor, ever-suffering hero some sort of illness that will get him out of the way for a while, so my baddie can win over the heroine.

I want him to go to hospital for a good few days (4 or more?), and be off school for about a week. He's eighteen and very fit and healthy - an athlete. I want it to be something that comes fairly quickly, and that will be over when it's over, with no side affects to contend with when he's back and wooing my heroine. I'd like something serious too, so everything can be suitably worried. Nothing life-threatening, or that'll be with him for the rest of his life or anything, and preferably no surgery. He's got to be in pain (ooh, I'm evil). Nothing too obscure, but something unusual would be fine. I think that's all my criteria... But oh yeah, nothing like a drug overdose or too much alcohol, or something really self-inflicted please.

BUT, he must be able to think on the fourth day of his stay in hospital (i.e. conscious at one point) and be able to phone the heroine on the sixth day of his illness/the start of his recovery. At the moment, I've got a scene with him in his hospital bed with a nurse fussing round him, so maybe some illness with something exciting like a drip?

I'd love to pick your brains, because so far my google-fu has failed me, and I can't write a scene in hospital without knowing what's wrong with him.

So, shower me with illnesses and the gory details of what they are! (gory details optional, I can always look them up ) Cookies availiable too!!! Please specify your preferred flavour.

Thank you!!

Poppy

GeorgeK: Urosepsis sounds interesting. I haven't heard of that one before, so I'm going to do some research. It sounds like it could work though.

Priene: Atypical pneumonia sounds awful! Poor you!

smoothseas: Cat scratch fever WOw! I hadn't heard of that before! That would be funny, the big tough guy getting scratched by the little kitty and having to go to hospital I might give him a cat

Kitty Pryde: I like the idea of him needing his tonsils out Also it would be interesting to have him eating somethnig he shouldn't and getting poisoned

Jennontheisland: Flesh eating streptococci infections SOUNDS icky I hadn't though of an accident, I was just thinking about sicknesses. That sounds good; anyone can understand being bruised and battered

DeleyanLee: I hadn't even thought of something as simple as chicken Pox. I was too caught up in complicated things. I hadn't realised it was more dangerous in older children. I could definitely use that to my advantage.

Keyan: food poioning would be a nice idea. Make him vomit nicely

jkcates: I'd thought about a sportng injury like something to do with muscles or ligaments. As I do lots of track and field myself I've had quite a few of them. The thing is, you aren't often hospitalised from a muscle tear or something like that. I once did my quadriceps in really badly and I was off sport for a good six months, but I didn't spend any time in hospital.

ColoradoGuy: THose sound really cool!!! THe link isn't working so I'm going to do some research.

Fern: The thing is, I live, and the story is set in the UK. We don't do much swimming in lakes here. Much too cold. Good idea though.

Tish: Food poisoning does sound good. It's the sort of thing which everyone has heard of but isn't too common. I'm liking it.

MelancholyMan: Mono sounds good. It's called glandular fever where I am. One of my friend's relatives had that. Shingles could work as well. Ooh, I hadn't thought of blood poisoning either. A snake bite's out of the question, sorry. You don't get poisonous snakes in the UK (luckily). I've heard of anaphylactic reactions, some people at school get them sometimes. That's quite quick too, which would be good. My little brother has Asthma, so I could write quite well about that, but the problem is that he's an athlete, and I don't want his performance to be ruined by athsma :S. Yeh, Salmonella's definitely a possibilty too. That's like food poisoning.

DecemberQuinn: I hadn't thought of Appendicitus. That could be quite good. A simple little operation, but suitibly worrying - will they get to it before it bursts?

Redzilla: ROFL. Now that would be funny. The thing is, whoever threw it would get in a lot of trouble. Ah, you made me laugh Seriously, I suppose that actually would be possible.

Wildscribe: MRSA is that bug they keep getting in hospitals isn't it? I read the wikipedia article on it, and it sounds great. Nicely infectious to keep him away from school for a bit

Sandi: I didn't think of that! That's clever, go in with something, then catch something else. I might do that if whatever I give him doesn't keep him in for long enough.

Tsu: Appendicitus with complications might to the trick. that way I can keep it vague if the doctors don't know what's happening.

spike: Surgery with a bad reaction to the anaesthetic might be good. It would be suitably scary too. Just as they think he'll start to recover because of the surgery he gets worse.

Thank you to everyone for your help. I've now got so many wonderful things to choose from. Before I couldn't think of anything, now I can't choose! I'll have to go away and try to narrow it down