Our first travel day was an intense day for me. Not because we woke up at 2am to start the day, but because I ended the day having a convulsion at terminal B8 in the Nashville Airport. Here was the timeline of my day in full detail.
– 1:00: Talking with a friend in the gym at the hotel
– 1:30: Took a cold shower
– 2:00: Packed up all my stuff
– 2:30: Met up with the whole squad
– 3:00: Took the hotel bus to the Atlanta Airport
– 5:00: Finally got on the Marta to a bus stop
– 6:00: Got on the bus to go all the way to Nashville
– 8:00: Started my period when we stopped in Chattanooga (sorry just being real)
– 11:30: Got off the bus in Nashville
– 11:40: Called an Uber for the whole squad
– 11:45: Thought I was dying
– 12:30: Arrived at the Nashville Airport
From 12:30 to around 6:00 we laid on the airport floor. During this time I realized I was feeling REALLY SICK. I was feeling nauseous, delirious, exhausted, light headed, and miserable. Then my nose started running, I gained a cough, I had a migraine, and I had sinus pressure. It was completely and utterly miserable.
– 6:30: Got boarding passes and went thru security
– 7:15: Threw up A LOT
– 7:30: Got on the plane
– 7:31: Got kicked off the plane by the flight nurse
– 8:20: Had a convulsion
– 8:40: Got in an ambulance
– 9:15: Finally arrived at the ER
– Stayed for a LONG TIME
– Doctor gave me weird medicine that knocked me out FOREVER
– Took an Uber to the hotel (thanks AIM)
– 2:30: Finally got to sleep
– Woke up confused
So if you did not notice, I was up over 24 hours. I did not sleep the night before, and I only took tiny naps on the bus and at the airport because I felt SO sick. Not only was I on my period, but I also was dealing with a cold and AWFUL symptoms from the wonderful malaria medication. I was nauseous, delirious, and completely miserable. I don’t recommend doing all that at once if you can help it.
For anyone who doesn’t know what a convolution is, it is a type of seizure. It is caused either by illness, medical conditions, blood sugar dropping, or having a reaction to medication. I have never had a seizure in my life, but after running some test they told me to stay away from malaria medication so I should be good for the rest of the race (;
I don’t remember much from September 9th, but I do remember being miserable, throwing up, and falling down. This was not the scariest moment of my life, but not being able to talk or move after regaining consciousness did freak me out a bit. I ended up being able to evangelize to this grumpy old man sitting beside me in the emergency room. They rolled him beside me because there wasn’t enough rooms, and right when I looked up he immediately started complaining. He was cussing up a storm, and telling me how this lady ran a red light while he was driving through a green light and ran into him. He was hoping she was hurt because she was lots of words I’m not going to type. My first thought was, “WOW that sucks maybe she was drinking”, but then I felt some grace for her. He didn’t even have a scratch on him, and yet he was hoping she was hurt. As I let him ramble on I keep thinking maybe it was a freak accident just like mine night. He finally asked me why I was here. I began to explain what happened, and he asked me why I was still smiling. I told him about the new covenant, and about Jesus’s love. They rolled him away pretty quickly. I only got to share around three sentences with him, but now he was smiling. He said, “I’m glad I met you”.
After what felt like forever, my test results finally came back. They then proceeded to give me this medication that knocked me out FOREVER. I felt so bad for Emma (my team leader) and Cal (one of the squad leaders) because I literally was out cold for two hours.
Emma and I woke up the next morning, and walked to waffle house for breakfast.I don’t remember the walk, but I did eat tones of hash browns and drank loads of orange juice. We got a late check out, and relaxed all day. When we finally got to the airport we soon found out our flight had been canceled and that we were stuck in Nashville another day. Thankfully the airline took responsibility and bought us a hotel rooms, tickets for transportation, and passes for meals at the airport. So we were still living in the the same clothes, but at least we didn’t have to pay for all that. The next day was finally the day. September 11th we finally got to fly out of terminal B8. We proceeded to 3 days of traveling and got to Thailand on the the 14th! So much has happened to me in such a short amount of time, and I can’t wait to share it with you all.
