It has been said that how you handle difficult situations speaks to your character. If this is true, then I must have one heck of a good one, character that is. The test of my mettle came when I had to travel for a business divisional alignment meeting to Knoxville, Tennessee. I was actually looking forward to the trip to see peers from other facilities and to share information and best practices.
My trip started at 3:30 am on a Sunday morning as I have to travel to the airport from a small rural town in Northern California to the Sacramento airport. A 90 minute trip at best. Unfortunately I woke up with vertigo – my version of a migraine. It was not a horrible bout but nonetheless I knew it would be 3 days of being lightheaded, unfocused and loopy before it would go away. And it always wipes me out and I have no energy.
Once at the airport and aboard the plane, I tried to relax and just keep my eyes closed. I usually do not sleep but in this case I figured I was not going to be able to do much else while my head was spinning. If you have ever had vertigo and flown, it is quite a unique experience. The little alterations in altitude, pitch, and of course turbulence are magnified. I was not looking forward to the extra sensations but just dealt with it.
The flights were fine and I made it to the Knoxville airport unscathed. I grabbed a cab and headed to the hotel. My cabbie was great and told me about the area around where my hotel was and what to see and do in my spare time. I took advantage of having Monday afternoon to myself after coordinating with a coworker that morning to put the finishing touches on our presentation. I was able to get some needed rest before taking on the activities that were about to begin.
The conference started Monday evening with a meet and greet – food and beverages available. I was able to connect with some of my peers I had not seen since the previous meeting the prior year. It was a good evening but with over 100 people in an enclosed room all talking, the din was a little hard to take. The vertigo was a little better but I was tired and my body was not used to the 3 hour time change. Going to bed at 10 pm Eastern time my body thought it was still dinner time - not ready for sleep!
The conference was going well but Wednesday was the day I had to present my best practice for my site. I had to present each time a new person walked up and asked about it. It would not have been so bad if I could have done this in larger groups, but I ended up having to pitch this over 50 times. I noticed that I was experiencing some discomfort in my sinus area but just blew it off to the vertigo subsiding. That evening was another group dinner but the restaurant we went to had no interior seating. We ended up in the “smoking area” on the back portion of the restaurant. I am seriously allergic to smoke, so this was not too thrilling for me. Again there was a lot of talking and we all had to raise our voices to be heard over each other. My throat was sore from all the talking and after the meal was done I headed back to my room to pack.
The next morning I discovered that I had a full blown sinus infection (likely the cause of the vertigo) and that I had effectively lost my voice. The conference only went half a day so I figured I could lie low at the airport and relax as I had on the way in. I did not have anything for the sinus infection (usually need antibiotics) but I did realize this one was raging as my head was pounding and my teeth ultra-cold sensitive. I got to the airport and was having lunch when I got a text from the airline. My flight was delayed and the time I would be getting into Dulles would make me miss my connecting flight. I headed to the desk and got my flight booked through another connecting airport albeit 4 hours later.
I flew into Chicago with what I thought would be a minimal layover but received a message that the connecting flight was delayed until 8 pm. I was feeling the effects of the sinus infection and laryngitis and my right eye was causing me discomfort. I kept having to wipe away some goop that kept forming. I went into the restroom and washed my face, trying to flush my eye. I noticed was it was quite swollen and looking rather irritated and red. Oh, no! Really? Pink eye? How did I get that?
Well a little daunted with feeling physically terrible and with a tremendous desire to go home, I proceeded to my gate. I received another text message that the flight was delayed again until 8:30 pm. Then another stating delayed until 9:05 pm. Then came the text message that the gate had been changed. So I hiked over to the new gate (from one end of C terminal to the other) thinking I would soon be on this flight home.
Then came the next text that said the gate had been changed to terminal B. I asked in my deformed, soft and gravelly voice the gate attendant how far it was and his comment was, “You might be able to make it.” Not wanting to miss my flight I hoofed it over to the other terminal walking with some very serious intent to get there in time. Well I could have taken my time as when I got there, the flight was delayed until 9:30 pm.
Each time there was a delay I had to call my husband and tell him the time to pick me up at the airport was changed. With an hour and a half drive, it was important he had a good idea when we were going to arrive. Having to continually call was causing me to have less and less of a voice. While at this gate, we were told that aircraft was on the ground but it was blocked by the current aircraft at the gate. Final time change for boarding was 10 pm with arrival in California (two hours’ time change) by 12:25 am.
Boarding commenced and all the frustrated passengers got on board with minimal difficulty. Since I had to change flights earlier due to the delay, the only seats left were middle seats at the back of the aircraft. Wonderful. Feeling crappy, my head pounding, some goopy stuff leaking from my eye, my ears completely stopped up, I got to my seat and hoped that my seatmates would be good ones. At least there was plenty of room to put my carry-on bag.
The pilot announced his apologies for the delays and said we would soon be departing. Several minutes later, his disembodied voice came back over the speakers telling us that there was a minor maintenance repair needed and the accompanying paperwork required. He indicated 10 minutes tops. Hah, 60 minutes later we were still sitting on the tarmac waiting to leave. My left side seatmate made a comment about the delay and I indicated in what was left of my voice that I had none to speak with. He made a funny comment, “Probably from screaming about all these delays.” We both laughed. It was all too true.
By this time I gave up calling my husband and just texted him the new arrival time. Thankfully the flight had no further delays or problems and once we were starting to descend into Sacramento, I discovered I could not depressurize my left ear. As we descended the pain began building and no matter what efforts I tried, could not get it to clear. The pain was excruciating and I was relieved when we finally landed. Mother Nature did her thing and once we were on the ground my ear popped. It was a terrible sound, however with much crunching and grinding. I hope I had not ruptured my eardrum.
Once I got off the plane and headed to the baggage area, I retrieved my luggage and called my husband with what was left of my voice. Fortunately our timing was good and I did not have to wait long for him to pick me up. By now it is 1:30 am. Only an hour and a half drive to get home. We poured ourselves into bed at 3 am with a wake-up call set for 8 am. My husband had made me an appointment for my sinus infection when we thought my plane was going to arrive at 8:30 pm. Sleep is so overrated.
We rolled out of bed and fortified ourselves with coffee and headed to the clinic. This was an interesting experience as the clinic did not have a doctor or PA on site but instead we had a telepresence with a PA elsewhere. The nurse that was on site was able to use the video and telemetry to have my vitals transmitted, the otoscope real time video was displayed on our monitor and the PA’s monitor concurrently as were the camera pictures of my throat and sinus area. Yep all that goopy green stuff in the back of my throat (which I had never seen before) indicated I had a severe sinus infection. My eardrum was not perforated however there was a good deal of blood behind the eardrum indicating the trauma I had experienced in the descent.
I have to admit, I am proud of myself for not crying, getting hysterical or verbally voicing my frustrations over this experience. I did take it in stride, although I did grumble in my head and express to my husband how much I wanted to go home and just feel better. I guess it is true, God only gives you as much as you can handle.
