unixwiz

Last week could have been the best week for me yet this year. But like everything else that has happened this year, it was probably one of the worst. First off I was overseas for the last week. It was a trip I had been looking forward to for a while and it finally came. But the problem started last Saturday night. I started getting that feeling that I was getting a sinus infection. True enough Sunday morning, it had come. Off to the doctor since I was to leave at noon. Went there and got some medication and went back home and waited for my ride to the airport. They showed up and I tossed up in the air whether I should even go or not. But I decided to go since usually these infections are gone in a couple of days, well before my meetings were to start. This turns out to be a pretty bad decision on my part, one that I won’t make again. After almost 14 hours of travel, by the time I got to the destination, I was getting extremely hot and dizzy. By the time we got to the hotel, I was feeling like a freight train had ran over me.

I went and got a shower and then fell on the bed and slept for about 8 hours or so. I got up and ordered some room service and only ate one slice of the kids mini pizza I ordered. I then felt even worse both physically and mentally. (and monetarily since the meal I ordered was almost $40.00). I then went back to bed and fell a sleep again.

The next morning my traveling companions came to see me and I was even worse now. They went to our local office and talked to the people there and had the medical people call me. After talking to a nurse for a while she asked that I come to the office so they could have a look at me. I made the 5 minute walk in the 35degree temp, and by the time I got there my body temp was already up to 101.5 degrees. (So I wonder what it was before I left the hotel.) They did the normal exams and thought that I may have caught the flu on the way over. Their only suggestion was to get plenty of rest and liquids.

Needless to say I spent nearly the whole week laid up in bed with a high temp trying to keep it down. I ate next to nothing the whole week because I just couldn’t do it so I lost about 8 to 10 pounds. Once Thursday came around I started feeling better by the night. Friday morning I was feeling pretty good and once again it was time to get on a plane back to the US. Everything seemed to be going good until we started the decent in to our first stop. This is where everything to a turn for the worse again. My ears never popped, no matter what I did, I could not get them to pop (in fact it is two days later now and my left ear has still not popped). Got my bags and transfered them through customs and immigration and got them rerouted to a different airport than the original one they were supposed to do. Off to the gate for the next flight.

The final flight home was delayed for almost 2 hours because of apparently maintenance problems on the SAAB 340 we were to take and the fact that United ground workers lost their contract and a bunch of them walked off the job. We were finally on our way a little after 11PM and the ride was for the most part smooth (it was my first time on a small turbo prop plane), until we were about 30 miles away from my home airport. That is when I just wished the plane would land. We were being thrown around like dust on the ground. My temp and blood pressure and heart rate just skyrocketed and my ears were still killing me. Once we finally landed I was so glad to be back in my home town and on the ground. I had a friend pick me up at the airport since my car was at my house. Finally got home around 15 after midnight. So I had been up for almost 28 hours straight by now. I never realized how much I appreciate the Sleep Number bed I have until I fell on it that night. I slept so good till I broke out in a high temp fever again.

It seems like everything has started all over again. Almost like groundhog day. So now I am going to go back to the doctors tomorrow to see what else they can do to try and fix me up. I was so upset that I made such a long trip and got sick. I hope there will be another trip there soon and I won’t be sick to go on it.