This past week, I sat OPR (On Premise Reserve) and got a call for an easy 2-day. One leg to ATL (Atlanta), long overnight, then work one leg back the next day. I’ll take it!! I love fewer legs and long layovers! On our final descent into ATL, I began to feel motion sick. I can usually combat this by keeping my head and eyes looking upward, focusing on the light, and fanning myself keeping cool. This time was different…
Upon landing, I suddenly broke out into a cold sweat and ran to the forward lav (lavatory/bathroom) then vomited profusely. The lav seemed to be spinning, and I began to feel as if I’m blacking out. My crew sat me in 1C (seat #), and I swear I saw the bulkhead wall spin to my right, slow, stop, then spin to the left! I was shaking, freezing, dizzy, nauseous, and trying to not pass out! Basically, the paramedics were called and they took me to the ER to run blood and urine tests ensuring I didn’t have any strange infection or anything of the sort. Everything came back negative, and I felt good enough to leave.
I made it back to my hotel, and my company wanted to make sure I got better, so they let me stay at my hotel as long as I needed. They were kind of enough to send me straight home, too. With one sick call, I can take off the rest of my duty days. Then, I’ll have my off days, and I can extend the call through another set of duty days. One sick call can let me stay home for about 3 weeks without a doctor’s note, but I have plenty of documentation. When flight crew are infectious or sick enough, we need to stay home for longer periods of time. We are in a tube at 35,000 feet, and flying can be hard on the body and not sympathetic to those not feeling well.
I believe I’ve grown a natural immunity overall to general sickness as I’m not sick very often. Currently, I’m awaiting my doctor’s appointment to see if I have vertigo and take the steps to getting better. I’m wanting to fly for Christmas as the good trips are usually open! I want to go to HNL (Honolulu, Hawaii) as we got it out of Charlotte for the month of December!! We’ll see… I have to get rid of this dizziness…
Meanwhile, back at home… I’m having to take it easy as I’m still not 100%. I can ride in the car a little bit but not for long. I’m trying to get my appetite back, so I’m making yummy stuff to eat such as my favorite chocolate cookie recipe! I got this online:
Hershey’s Chewy Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey’s cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Directions:
Cream butter & sugar in large bowl. Add eggs & vanilla, blend well. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt. Blend into creamed mixture. Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Do not over bake, cookies will be soft. They will puff during baking and will flatten upon cooling. Cool on cookie sheet about 1 minute, then move to wire rack to cool.
Yields: 4.5 dozen
Crew Chew note: I make a dozen at a time. I refrigerate the cookie dough in an airtight container. Lasts about a week in the fridge, so you can have a fresh batch each time! 🙂
Crew Chew 