Planes....Trains....and Hospitals?

First blog post from outside Canada! Woot!

Tonight’s entry comes to you via a 48-hour famished, sleep deprived gal. Why, may you ask? Well, I (Kenna) had quite the ordeal yesterday.

I woke up Monday morning at about 7:30 to the most painful gut problems I had ever experienced. Now, I’ve had the stomach flu many, many times in my life (at least once per year) and this was nothing I had ever dealt with before. I spent approximately 5 hours feeling like I was about to die when mom, being concerned, felt it imperative to take me to the hospital once I started to pass blood. Serious? Yep.

So, off I go in the car (24 hours before my flight) to the Grey Nun’s hospital. Expecting to wait in a long line at the hospital emergency room (it was packed!) in my pyjamas, I was not impressed. We got up to the triage nurse who took my vitals. Blood pressure: 92/45; heart rate: 150. The nurse says “your vitals are not good…we’re admitting you immediately.” Uh oh. So, I skip the queue and end up in a quarantine room, pretty much naked, with white lights shining at me. After 2 terrible attempts to get blood (finding a vein from someone with low a low BP is downright impossible) and 2 terrible attempts to IV me, and about four examinations of my stomach, heart and lungs, we are told to wait. Mom keeps saying to the hospital staff “she’s supposed to get on a plane tomorrow – is she ok??” – to the response of grim looks. Things aren’t looking up. Meanwhile, Scott is running around taking care of both his and MY to-do lists the day before leaving the Country.

So, thinking that my heard earned dream of pursuing this ridiculous trip might be shattered (or, at least delayed), I lay and wait for the diagnosis. After 6 hours of laying in the most uncomfortable bed ever, looking like a pin cushion, the doctor finally tells me that I just have a stomach flu, but that I’m “unfit to fly” (because of the whole blood issue). A stool sample will provide the final result, but it will take a few days to process. I’m sure I will never know the result since the telephone numbers they have on file are disconnected. Awesome.

Me, being the stubborn individual that I am, looks at mom and says “I’m damn well getting on that plane tomorrow unless I’m puking and soiling myself.” Mom is not impressed with this and thinks I should delay the trip for one week. Today was rough, I won’t lie. I had many instances of “why am I doing this? I don’t want to go.”

Anyway, I managed to get on the plane today with a half a piece of toast and a quarter of a bowl of soup in my system (still no appetite) and have made it to LA. Flying over LA at night was amazing – in all directions that you can see, there are lights. Traffic is crazy and the airport is downright chaotic. Upon landing, we asked where to go to our Qantas flight. Inquiring along with us was a nice young Kiwi fellow, returning home for his first visit after a 2 ½ stint in Banff. He was told to pick up his luggage – we were told it would go through to Auckland. So we go to baggage claim, and lo-and-behold – Scott’s bag is there. Kiwi dude and myself were not so fortunate. Thinking that Air Canada had lost our damn bags, we proceeded to the baggage claim area. The guy says “your bags are tagged to Auckland. His (Scott’s) bag was a mistake.” So, our random chance of meeting a guy who had been told the wrong information ended up saving Scott’s bag from an overnight vacation in LA. How random is that? We then continued the trek (literally) through the shitshow that is called LAX: we went to one terminal (i.e., building) for Qantas, made it to the front, and were told we actually had to go to another terminal entirely for our flight. It made no sense – we had asked for directions twice!!

Anyway, here I sit waiting to board the Auckland flight, actually feeling pretty decent for having no food to speak of…hopefully I can get some rest on the 12 hour flight that awaits us. Goodbye Canada…goodbye winter…goodbye soft beds…goodbye straight hair…hello world! My life is now organized and compartmentalized into one small backpack with about 10 different kits, sacks and compression sacks (thanks Dave and Steph!). Six months of freedom and adventure await.

~K