Monday, October 16, 2017

Friday, October 6, Georgia USA

I made it to the Boston Airport with Athena and said Goodbye to her there.  My customs photo as we went through automated kiosks took such an unflattering photo of me after our 11 hour flight from Istanbul.  But it was a very accurate representation of how I felt at this point.  My diarreah was really taking a toll and when I hit the Atlanta Airport, it was really getting out of control.  I got my rental car. One of my first thoughts was, "Oh dear. Those are not leather seats."  But I made it to Mom and Dads. I only got lost once or twice and it did take longer than expected . I had poor Mom all worried.  I dropped my phone off my lap and was too stubborn to pull over, stop, and fish it out from under the seat. But I was mostly on the right track. I came in the back way because I was looking for "Perry Parkway" not "Thompson Road" . Oh well.

Arrived at 3 am. Slept fairly well till morning, but ended up having Mom take me to the Emergency room. The Diarreah was totally out of control and I'd had it for many days already.  Made several trips to potty while at the ER for those few hours.  One with disastrous results. I ended up wearing home paper hospital scrubs. Oh dear. What a day.  I had blood and stool testing done. No indication of infection. Just a virus that would need to run its course.  Ugh.

I didn't have TIME for it to "run it course." I needed to get home.  Rain was expected on Sunday, so Mom and Dad didn't attend Church. I did get to visit with Donna a bit. She came by on Saturday and Sunday. AND on Sunday when it was obvious that I wasn't going to be able to travel home that day, she was a sweetheart and her family took my rental car back to the airport in Atlanta for me . Otherwise, it would have cost me about $500 more. Yikes. I had to cancel my return flight, my shuttle in Las Vegas (or maybe I Had Mike do that...I don't remember). I just rested and slept and rested and slept Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. By Tuesday I was doing not too bad, so I booked my flight home for that evening and Mom drove me to a shuttle to get to the airport.  I was there plenty early, so I got some soup at a restaurant.  And some Sprite and some mashed potatoes. I didn't want to sit at a bar or tall table, so I waited for a regular table and felt bad for taking up so much space for just lil' ol me. But I could only eat part of my soup, a few sips of soda and a couple of bites of potaotes. I wanted to eat a lot more, but just didn't dare.

I made it to Las Vegas sitting next to a very chatty lady and a guitarist from "LA Guns" rock band--who travels with two Pekinese dogs. ha! Mike came to Vegas to pick me up at 10 pm and we were home by 1 am our time.  What a long day  .  But I was glad to make it home with no incidents.  I felt fairly good on Wednesday after sleeping in, but decided to rest up at home that day.  And I did. My sweet Relief Society President brought me some chicken soup for dinner and that was a lovely treat.

Now, almost a week later, I'm still kind of not quite back up to snuff, but I'm definitely on the mend. That was a long haul!  And then the little complications that we women frequently get when we take an antibiotic that kills good bacteria along with the bad...been treating that and a possible bladder infection/flare up . I've had a gallon (literally) of cranberry juice and that has helped a lot.

So, the worst of it is over. I'm home. I'm safe. I'm healthy. And I'm VERY happy--happy to be home in a relatively safe environment with good water to drink and nice co-workers who did a great job of holding down the fort in my absence.  My lawn, on the other hand, is another story.  I just need to hire a gardener when I leave next time, I suppose.

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