Fever induced dreams are really odd. I kept dreaming about glass orbs and styrofoam . Each glass orb contained a project I was working on at work. These orbs would roll around on a bed of styrofoam while I tried to keep them from falling off the edge.
I woke from this hell at 5:30 am in a pool of sweat. The 101.5 fever broke! Exhausted, I slept another four hours before being the first to drag myself out of bed. We had a rented house waiting for us in Kissimmee and needed to get there!
We check every pharmacy along i95 in North Carolina. No one had Temaflu. Our only hope was to make it to the next state and hope they had some. The first flu symptoms dissipated and were replaced by other symptoms less amendable to travel and requiring frequent emergency restroom stops. I left a note for the maid about the flu along with a large tip. And with 11 hours of travel in front of us, we dragged ourselves into the van at noon, pointed in south, and hit the gas.
Our first pull off was in North Carolina for hydration and medicine. The flu effects everyone a little differently. My youngest's symptoms included gagging. While taking medicine in the McDonalds parking lot, this gagging reflex caused my youngest to barf all over himself. Like a scene from the exorcist, he barfed down his open jacket drenching it and his shirt and flooding his pants.
My wife and I just looked at each other in disbelief. The flu was causing us to hold into reality by a very thin string, and this event seemed too bizarre to be real. But it was real!
His clothes bag was buried in the back of the van. While suffering from illness, we completely unloaded the back of the van right there in the parking lot. We retrieved his clothes. It was then my job to parade my flu puke covered kid through McDonalds to the bathroom so he could change.
I think there is a special place in heaven for parents. After that trip through McDonalds, I believe I have earned my place!
Linda called every approaching town as we drove south on I95. We traditionally stop at South Of The Border, but everyone was too ill to even care about shopping for beach themed gifts.
Linda found a CVS in Florence South Carolina who just got a shipment of Temiflu! That was our destination. We turned off the highway and drove deep into the city until we found perhaps the last remaining stockpile of Temiflu in the south. After an hour, we had the precious medicine and got back on the road.
If Ebola ever goes unchecked in the country, it will spread quickly. We stopped at Manning South Carolina Wendy's where I received a coke instead of a diet coke. I tried drinking it, but after a quarter of the cup, I couldnt. I complained, so, the lady dumped out my cup a d then used by flu infested cup to scoop ice into the cup, thus contaminating the entire tub of ice! I was dumbfounded and didnt know what to say, so, I regrettably said nothing. Even more than Wendy's, I think of the hotel we stayed at and all the restaurants and gas stations we stopped at. In just two days we could have passed the flu to a hundred people across many states!
The flu didn't only travel south with us. It infected my elderly parents at home too! That left my adult daughter (who chose not to go the Florida with us) to arrange ambulances and spend 9 hours in the emergency room with them! My wife was in constant communication trying to understand what was going on. She is a bit if a control freak and even at one point called the ER nurse to tell her how to do her job!
Elderly parents in the emergency room, car full of flu patients, and the fear of my youngest barfing again. This was not turning out to be the beautiful stress free vacation we had imagined!
We needed to check into our house but by Alabama it was clear we couldn't make it. We pulled into a hotel. Even though we were exhausted, we still had to wash puke covered clothes in the guest laundry
We are hoping for a better day tomorrow - perhaps even get into the Magic Kingdom.
