It was going to be such a great trip. My birthday surprise from my husband was a trip back home to Madison, Wisconsin to celebrate my leap year birthday. My real birthday only comes once every four years so I was really looking forward getting to see friends and family.
It had been a year since our last visit and our two young sons were ecstatic to be going. It would be my last flight before having our third baby. I was 6 months pregnant. A birthday party was scheduled. A spa day treat and dinner plans were made. We were packed (no easy task for a family of four) and ready to go.
Traveling with young kids, especially flying, is about as stressful as it gets. I hate walking down the isle to my seat and seeing the faces of people that are just praying that we aren’t sitting next to them. They see us coming, “Keep going, keep going…” I say as I carry my purse and three other carry on bags holding, snacks, toys, movies and our DVD player. No matter how many times they fly, our kids are fascinated with the seats, the windows, everything. This curiosity is distracting them from walking to our seats and we are holding everyone up.
Once we finally make it there, it is time for set up. We put the bags that we don’t need to get into in the overhead compartments and carefully put everything that we will need under the seats. Since we are a family of four, there are three of us in one row and one adult will be seating in a different row. My husband hands me a book and whispers in my ear that this is another birthday gift as he takes the seat with the kids and sends me to the single seat. “Oh, how I love him!” I think as I hear the beginning of the fight between our sons about who gets to sit by the window. I put on my headphones and turn on my IPOD. I smile as I think, “we are on our way.”
We were two days into our eleven day trip when I woke up with a sore throat. The germs took hold of my pregnant, defenseless body and I quickly became sicker than I ever had. Within a day of waking up with that sore throat, I was coughing uncontrollably and sick in bed with a fever. I called my doctor back home and was given a few safe, over the counter medicine options but I quickly realized that I was not going to get better anytime soon. I wanted to go back home but couldn’t even get out of bed, I couldn’t fly home. I was achy, weak, had lost my voice and was beginning to cough up bits of blood.
Once I was home, things did not get better quickly. I could not leave the house. My husband went to work late and came home early so I could try to rest. I was miserable. It became depressing to wake up in the morning because I felt so terrible everyday. And I was worried about my baby. I wasn’t eating much. And if I could barely function, I was worried about what was happening to the tiny baby that was living inside me.
Luckily, a pregnant woman’s body is designed to protect the baby it grows. I learned that I was so sick because my immune system had abandoned me and was on full defense for my baby. My baby was fine. He was kicking around, living on the stored nourishment in my body so even if I couldn’t eat, he wasn’t suffering. It was comforting to know.
After more than three weeks of being sick, I was able to go to the doctor and given an antibiotic. It took more than a month to feel back to normal. I remember the day that I woke up and didn’t feel like crying or crawling back into bed. I felt like MYSELF again. I opened the window to let the sunshine in. I wanted to shout, “IT’S GREAT TO BE ALIVE!”
I will always remember this. I will never visit a pregnant friend if I am sick or my kids are sick. I will try to be considerate to strangers when I am not feeling well and not go into public places if I don’t need to. Sadly, I will always remember the year that I received unwanted germs on my birthday.