The Plane Ride From Hell

15

OK, since you asked Glenn……. we are stepping back in time here to our journey across the ocean. I held back on this one and was undecided as to whether or not I would tell this part of the story. But after several days out and no further issues I’m comfortable in saying that I’m OK and we now believe the flight attendant on the plane from Vancouver to London.

When we got to the airport in Vancouver we were checked through immediately. So we went to the restaurant and had some wine and I had a chicken Alfredo pasta. Then eventually we went through security, stopped to watch a bit of the hockey game, have another glass of wine, then on the plane.

We chose to take two seats across from each other on the aisle. Both of us hate being stuck in the middle of a three seat row, and I hate being trapped at the window and having to crawl over two people to get out if I have to….. and I would have had to…

So all seemed good. Off to a good start. Except that I was lucky enough to have a very strange man next to me. As soon as the lights dimmed I turned on my reading lamp and was reading. He was furiously checking and pushing his buttons, then the buttons of the poor young girl sitting on the other side of him. He seemed incensed that there was a light that was shining across him. Finally, I gave in and shut my light off.

A late dinner came around, kinda not so great. But edible.

Lights out. Trying to get a bit of rest. Now the guy next to me starts gassing out the plane. I am hiding my face in my pillow. Nice!

He gets up and the girl at the window escapes and doesn’t come back to her seat for over an hour.

I start to feel a bit queasy. Not really bad, just not great. I have my period and it’s on its way out and I usually feel like crap at this point so I ignore it. But then I start to feel a bit light headed. I’ve never fainted, but I’ve come close….vertigo, lurching stomach, fuzzy vision. I do know that when that happens I need to get my head down or the world becomes a very unhappy place. Not really cool to put your head between your legs while you’re sitting on a plane so I opted to go sit in the washroom and get my head and stomach back under control.

I lurched down the aisle a bit and got to the back of the plane. I tried the first door, locked, started to open the second door…. the next thing I remember is a Flight Attendant leaning over me saying “Miss, Miss, are you OK?!” Apparently I was out cold for a few minutes.

Answered all the questions…no, I’m not epileptic, no I have not been to Mexico recently, no, I am not pregnant….etc.

On goes the oxygen. Uh, now I’m going to be sick though. Into the washroom I go. And there I stay for pretty much the next three hours with pretty much all of the Flight Attendants checking in on me. I ask them to get Kirk and he comes to hang out and enjoy the fun.

They ask Kirk all the medical questions..seeing as I am rather proccupied….. “”were you in Mexico, are you pregnant, does she have a history of this, how is her health, is she on any medication, does she have diabetes….” “no, no, no, good, no, no…..” “How about you…how do you feel…do you have the same thing?” Tired, but no, otherwise fine. Kirk filled in all of our contact information.

The flight attendant says to Kirk that this is actually relatively common and she has had the same thing happen. The 747 is the worst plane of all of them for air quality. Only 7% of the air is fresh, 93% is recirculated and it is very oxygen depleted. So we are sea level residents used to “heavy oxygen rich air” traveling in an oxygen poor environment at extremely high altitude. And I ate something that disagreed with me and apparently that probably just taxed my system and shut me down.

Kirk tells me that when they brought out the medical kit a guy turned around and made some comment to the effect of “I hope they weren’t in Mexico” The flight attendant snapped at him and told him to turn around and mind his own business.

They give me a little pill that they say will stop me throwing up…..it makes me throw up…so much for that.

Eventually I get my stomach under me just before landing and get back to my seat as we start to descend. When we land, as usual, everyone leaps to their feet to stand and wait. I don’t move, the girl at the window doesn’t move. Gassy Jack next to me is standing and huffing and says excuse me. I snap back at him “Where exactly do you plan to go?” and stay sitting. The people next to Kirk vacate and I slip across the aisle to join him and Gassy Jack can happily stand in the middle of the aisle for the next 5 minutes. We wait until the plane is empty and then make our way off. As we leave the attendants all ask how I am feeling…one says I look much better.

I imagine any passenger looks better standing up than lying on the floor 😉

And so we slowly made our way through security, through customs (actually the other way around), and then to customer service to see if there is a hotel somewhere. Yes, outside, you just need to go out with one of our security people and then go through Customs….oh great, another long lineup. I’m ready to cry.

Eventually we clear, find the hotel, and fall into a brief sleep in the most wonderful bed ever! A quick shower, and then back to the checkin. But feeling better this time.

Two more flights ahead and the memory of this last one leaves us both a bit nervous. So off to Athens…without much of a problem. One more hop to Corfu ahead. Looking forward to getting to the boat though….