I hadn't planned anything fancy for my birthday, because we had decided to continue our tradition of going to Chicago to spend Chinese New Year with our very dear friends, the Luz family... and flight day was my birthday. I was just really excited to be spending time with one of my best friends, so I really had no problem spending my 50th on a plane.
Well a couple of days before we were leaving, Rach was AGAIN diagnosed with Strep... 2nd time in less than 30 days. She was put on an antibiotic, so I knew she wasn't contagious, but I started feeling a little icky myself, so I called my Dr and asked him to phone in an antibiotic for me as well. So on the way to the airport, we made the quick pit stop at CVS so I could pick up my script. Before we left the parking lot, I took my first dose, and then I proceeded to start driving to the Airport Parking lot. Just as I was driving over the bridge, I started feeling really odd... my throat got tight, I was sweating, & started getting very nauseous. I pulled over to get sick. REALLY sick... after about 10 minutes, I thought I was well enough to start driving again. Another 10 minutes, and it was time to pull over again. More getting sick, feeling worse & worse. This time I told Tommy to take over the driving. He asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, but I said no. It had to get better, and I just HAD to get on that plane! I wasn't going to disappoint the baby. She was talking for over a week about going to Chinatown in Chicago!
We reached the car lot & after 20 minutes of being in their rest room, I came out and was practically convulsing, feeling like I was FREEZING cold! The nice lady behind the counter called 911 and the ambulance arrived to take me away. Apparently they thought I was having some kind of seizure. When all was said and done, I apparently had an Anaphylactic reaction to the antibiotic (Avalox, for those wondering) and came a little too close to making my 50th birthday my LAST birthday!!! Needless to say, it scared the you-know-what out of me!
Rach was absolutely awesome all day, poor thing... having to just hang around the Emergency room, when all she wanted was to go on an airplane! By the evening, I was feeling a little better (having informed the ER Dr that there was NO WAY I was going to be admitted, because we couldn't afford it) so I got on the phone to see if I could re-arrange our flight somehow for the next day. I got a woman on the phone who I'm pretty sure was not talking to me from the U.S., and she informed me that because I didn't call prior to the flight to cancel, we would not be entitled to change the flight. I explained that prior to the flight leaving I was in an ambulance and hardly knew my own name. She did not care at all. When I asked for her supervisor, she put me on hold for over 20 minutes. The supervisor sounded surprisingly similar to the woman I was originally talking to, and she basically said the same thing. I was FURIOUS. I was finally allowed to leave the hospital around 7:30pm. I told Tommy to head straight to the airport, so I could argue our case in person. When we arrived, I went in & started telling my tale to the woman behind the counter. She stopped me mid way and said "Honey, are you telling me all this because you want to change your ticket?" I said yes, and told her how upset I was after talking to her representative on the phone. She then said, "Forget about that phone call... we have a flight available tonight. Do you want to be on it?" I couldn't believe it!
She took care of everything! We drove back to the car lot, and they got us back to the airport in plenty of time to make the new flight! And to make it even better, the flight arrived 45 minutes earlier than scheduled!!! So it was a pretty miserable birthday, but ended on a great note! And instead of the big sushi dinner we had originally planned on for our first night in Chicago, we feasted on White Castle burgers!!! YUM!!
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