Taking a vacation and or preparing for one should be fulfilling, you’ve set time aside for those days, money has been saved and all seems well, or so it seems. So what happens when things don’t go as planned is a very good question. I’m going to share a story with you, perhaps one that we can all connect with, especially in these trying times.
On August 9th we began a journey that marked a new experience for myself and a repeat visit for the rest. I was invited to attend Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida and I was excited beyond words. We began to board our plane which was by Southwest Airlines, and even at the airport while we waited, people seemed to be sick and coughing, should I be concerned? I think I’ll be ok right? Now at this moment I hadn’t slept in almost 24 hours, I got out of work at 11:15pm and stayed awake for our flight at 5am, what can I say I was excited.
On the plane, there were a lot of people coughing with productive phlegm. On the shuttle to the resort, it was the same thing, but on the second day of being in Orlando Florida, I began to notice massive headaches, throbbing in my head, pressure in my eyes, dizziness, and nausea. For a moment I thought to myself maybe I’m dehydrated and I need more electrolytes and minerals and such, maybe allergies…nope.
The second day in the evening we were in line for the seven dwarfs ride and my body was so hot that I was trying to cool it off by pressing against the concrete walls, trying not to bring attention to myself. I began to grow impatient as I was beginning to hurt inside and I couldn’t see straight, what was going on? After getting on the ride, the cool air helped to alleviate many of my symptoms for that moment and I thought, ok, I’m ok, it was nothing to worry about.
The following day was worse, I began to feel chills, it was now the opposite, I was no longer hot but freezing and it wouldn’t stop. The following morning everyone decided to head out for the parks, while my partner and myself stayed behind, and I slept. That evening I made haste for going out as long as I had coffee with espresso, I knew the hardcore caffeine would spike my adrenaline and help to keep me going. My partner made me a cup of pure black coffee and I chugged most of it down, and after a few minutes, I was ready to go. We arrived at Epcot Center and I began to feel pretty bad, I could feel my body and vision slowing down if that makes any sense. So we stopped at Joffrey’s Coffee and I got an iced cappuccino with a double shot of espresso, and not even 2 minutes later, I was back in the game. Now at this moment, I’m still not sure what is going on but some ideas are running around.
My throat was a little itchy but manageable, when we tried the ride Cosmic Rewind, I think I made my throat worse from yelling, and later that night, it was horrible and infected with difficulty swallowing and I began to develop an earache, then came the sweats like an on and off switch, with chills, fever, and more green phlegm, what is happening? I awoke in the middle of the night with what sounded like Rales, if you are unsure of what this is, I suggest you look it up. My background experience was in the medical field, partly as a medic, triage, ER and more, so I’m familiar with common signs and symptoms of problems with the human body. I gently breathed out slowly, loosening it up and spit it up, I didn’t want to over exert my lungs just trying to force something my body was already trying to get rid of.
My experience with Disney was not great, mostly because of this issue. But some people exhibited signs of sickness with no regard for their fellow man, woman, or child while at the park, shuttle, airport, and more. I did wear a mask and towards the end, somehow I had this feeling that we had Covid.
There were a total of 6 of us, 5, who became infected and it hit us in less than 12 hours for from that moment we believed to have contracted it. It was fast, aggressive, and showed no mercy in any way, like a roller coaster ride of up and down chills, sweats, fever, coughing with green phlegm, and lower back pains. While back home and in quarantine I still felt horrible and exhausted, I had no strength or energy. We’ve tried to see about getting something for Covid but the clinics we called were unable to help, they seemed to only provide steroids and it was odd they couldn’t help with antibiotics.
disneyland, disney experience, covid, infection, florida, joffreys coffee, cappuccino, symptoms, rwtc media group, the whistling chronicle newspaper, vacations, vacationing
