DAY 8: THE DAY THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN...

We were supposed to fly out on Day 7. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was feeling sick on Day 7. Took lots of different meds.. started with tums during our daily shuffle board game, then moved to prevacid, then maalox and finally zofran and a pain med of my father-in-law's. Nothing seemed to help. My stomach was really hurting and I felt like crap as we went to the airport. Todd pushed on my belly and got concerned because I had some tenderness on my right side (appendics?). I was completely out of it as we checked in at the airport. We made it to our gate, not knowing if I was really going to be able to make the flight and if I actually should be on a 5 hour flight with no possibility of diverting. Todd had given me a blessing and I just prayed that Heavenly Father would make it clear to us what we should do. Todd was very concerned about me and I was just trying to survive, not helping him much. He asked an official looking airport lady if there was a place I could lay down while we were waiting for the flight. She immediately started asking questions and then informed Todd that I really shouldn't get on the plane and that she was going to let the stewardess on our flight know that I was sick. We boarded the plane and I tried to act like I felt fine. A few minutes after we were settled, some mean stewardess lady came back and started questioning us. She was not showing any empathy for my sickness, just like.. "you don't feel well? then you need to get off this plane!" She said, "you really shouldn't be on the plane and I am going to go talk to the captain!" BEOTCH!! sorry, mom. So, she ratted me out to the captain and Todd tried to talk them into us staying on the plane. NO!! The entire plane is loaded and the tell us to get off the plane. No "We are sorry" or "I hope you feel better". Just get your stinkin sick stomach off this plane, we have places to be!" I freakin' hate UNITED now. So Todd and I get up, get our carryon's out of the freakin' overhead bin and exit the plane in shame. I am sure all the passengers were like.. "look at the drunk girl getting kicked off the plane.." or maybe they were thinking "look at the white Al Qaeda girl and her hispanic lover who obviously is a terrorist". I hated everybody. I was sick enough however that I had no fight in me or it could have been bad.. I could have taken that united stewardess loser. So after an hour or so making arrangements for our next flight (24 hours later) and getting them to put us up in a hotel and renting a car to get us to the ER and then the hotel.. we were off. Off to one more day in paradise...

We went straight to the ER. Kind of funny because I had actually mapquested the ER location in Kona as part of my pre-trip preparations (I was thinking more for my husband's sake than my own). We got right back and went right to cat scan, which I don't remember at all. Turns out that I did have some ovarian cysts and could have possibly picked up a nasty bacteria in that orange water we swam in a few days before. I was started on antibiotics in case it was the later and I am going to follow up with my ob/gyn for a FABULOUS vaggie ultrasound. I can't wait for that spectacular event.

Anywho.. went to the hotel.. actually was expecting a dump, but it was very nice. All I know actually is that it had a very comfortable, clean bed and that the air conditioning worked well. We went right to sleep and woke up to another beautiful Hawaiian morning. We decided that if we HAD to be stuck in Hawaii that we would do the one thing that I felt up to. We would do another road trip to the top of the biggest volcano-Mauna Kea-on the island. We had a pimp daddy car.. all leathery and old persony. Basically a big ole' Buick, but the front seat felt like a lazy boy chair, so I was good to go. I was still a bit sick, but not near us uncomfortable. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get to the top of the volcano. It is crazy to drive from sea level to over 13,000 feet. You actually have to stop at the visitor's center which is at approximately 9,000 feet to acclimate. We did so.. went to the bathroom and walked around the gift shop for the recommended time and then continued in our sweet ride to the top of the volcano. I enjoyed the ride and the company of my sweet love very much. We were out of the car at the top for about 3 minutes (it was cold!!), enough time to take a few pictures and then head down. I did feel a bit more headachey and sick when we were at the top, but as soon as we were back down to the visitor's center, I felt a bit better.

We got down in time to get some dinner and drive back to the airport to turn in our buick and report to the gate with our medical clearance paperwork (stupid stupid people).

It actually was glorious flight. I slept the entire way. In fact, I don't remember much of our layover in Denver.. so that must have been fantastic also.

We arrived Sunday morning to a house that was still standing and children who were all alive and happy. So, all's well that end's well, right?

The top of Mauna Kea is dotted with these fantastical buildings that are actually telescopes and other astronomy type paraphernalia. There were Canadian and Japanese telescopes and different university's represented. I read that it is pretty incredible if you get to gaze at the stars from Mauna Kea, even without the aid of a 3 story telescope.

This is the actual summit of Mauna Kea, but I was still not feeling well enough to make that short little trek. I think I may have sat down at the trailhead and passed out.

Farewell, Sweet Hawaii.

I will miss you, Crown Royal Buicky ride.

You will always be a fond memory.