There's No Place Like Home

I scheduled a Michigan facility with two Ohio ones. This included one day for travel from Kalamazoo to Columbus in the middle of the week and required me to not get home until Friday night, but it got the visits in without messing up two weeks.



The week started out with me wrenching my back getting on the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the terminal as I tried to flip my bag onto it's side with a smart little wrist maneuver. The second I did it I knew I was in trouble. I made it to Kalamazoo by bracing my back with pillows and having excellent posture, but was in significant pain throughout. It was supposed to be a quick connection in Chicago, but wasn't (as usual). We changed gates a couple of times and ended up being over an hour late leaving. In addition, the flight was oversold and they were begging people to take a $250 voucher and coupons for a hotel and meals to take a flight in the AM. I'm not really sure if it was oversold, or if the weather was creating problems. It was stormy and VERY windy and they kept talking about weight restriction changes. The crowd didn't look that overweight to me, but maybe when the wind is blowing additional weight is a problem? Anyway, I wasn't giving up my seat...my back hurt! As always, there are people in the crowd making a scene. This time is was a woman who kept carrying on that, "They just don't care anything about us." (Yes, that is definitely the problem. The gate personnel just don't care.) I really felt sorry for her husband. He wanted to take the voucher and stay over, but she was so into making a scene he couldn't even get her to listen to the options. At some point, they finally disappeared. I had left to get a Frappuccino at Starbucks and when I got back they were gone. And they were still asking for volunteers to give up their seat.



They finally started announcing that the last four people who bought their ticket would be bumped. That caused a stir. I wondered where I was on the seniority ticket buying list. I had scheduled about three weeks prior and felt safe. When they announced the names to 'come to the counter' I was happily handing my boarding pass to the gate guy and heading down the walkway.



My night in Kalamazoo was terrible. I don't think I slept over 15 minutes at a time and repositioning was major effort. I had no medication other than Benadryl, Claritan, and Levaquin. I stopped at Walgreen's the next morning and bought some Ibuprofen. That helped some, but I was pretty miserable most of the day. I stood at the table part of the time to read charts rather that sit down, because it didn't hurt as bad. By the end of the day I decided I needed to go to Urgent Care and get stronger meds if I was going to survive the week. I only had to wait about two hours and got a prescription for Tylenol #3. It was snowing and blowing and I had boots with heels. Getting in the car was a production as I had to lift the left leg in and then try to reach the door to close it. I was afraid to take two pain pills as my plane left at 6 AM and I didn't want to oversleep, but I did sleep better and made it to the airport without incident. I had to change planes in Chicago and had time for breakfast. Did you know Macaroni Grill serves breakfast? I had an Italian omelet and it was quite good.

When I arrived in Columbus, it was snowing. I was headed to Canton, which is a two hour drive. As I headed north it kept snowing more and more and I really did not want to drive the whole way in a blizzard. I called Molly and asked her to check the weather on the internet. She said as I went north I would run out of the snow, and I did, until the last 30 miles into Canton, when it started up even heavier. I stopped at Wal-Mart for Diet Coke before checking in to the hotel and got a muffin at Panera. I really intended to check in, rest, and go somewhere for supper, but instead took two more Tylenol #3 and slept from 3 until 6:30. At that point, I ate the muffin and watched Law and Order reruns until I went back to sleep.

The drive back to Columbus on Thursday evening was without snow until about the last 10 minutes, but by morning the car was covered and it was snowing steadily. You guessed it. My flight on Friday evening was delayed leaving Columbus and I missed the Chicago connection by minutes. Flights out of O'Hare are always delayed 30 minutes to an hour, but not Friday. The one time I need for it to be late, it leaves within 15 minutes of when it is supposed to. I was rebooked on a 7:45 AM flight for Saturday morning. I got a room at a Renaissance Inn near the airport and made the best of it.

I was up at 5 AM, showered and got ready to leave the hotel on the 6 AM shuttle. As I started to leave the room my phone rang. It was American Airlines telling me the 7:45 flight was canceled and I was rebooked on a 9AM flight. So I ordered breakfast from room service and wrote reports.

Home looked wonderful!