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Oh what fun the last six days have been - I feel like I've aged 10 years! Bring on the howler monkeys and jerks, I'm ready - they're childs play compared to what I just had to deal with!
Left last Thurs. for Geneva to escort my daughter to stay with a family just across the border in France where she was to stay 5 weeks as part of a sister city exchange program. We arrived Friday morning, tired but ready for the adventure. My return flight was on Sunday, so I spent the rest of Friday exploring Geneva, and Saturday at Chamonix/Mt. Blanc in the French Alps.
Sunday morning I wake up & it's snowing in Geneva - no problem says hotel clerk, we never get more than 1-2 cm. I called the airline to make sure, then hopped the shuttle to the airport & proceeded to check in for my flight. At this point it's still snowing, over 6cm on the ground, visibility sucks & they start diverting incoming flights. Finally at 9am they close the airport - it's been 20 years since the last time this happened. By noon it's 12+cm & still snowing.
Our incoming flight is diverted to Zurich & the airline starts making tentative plans to bus us the 4+ hours to Zurich, as the Geneva airport is expected to remain closed the rest of the day. Next they get word the plane has a mechanical problem & everything gets put on hold. Finally at 3:30pm they decide it won't get fixed that day & decide to put us up at a local hotel.
I call my wife to let her know about the delay, only to find out my daughter has just called her - she has been experiencing severe abdominal pain in the lwr. rt. quadrant since early Friday afternoon, saw a local doc on Sat who diagnosed it as jet lag, but it was getting worse. So I first call my daughter to get the details first hand, then call the 24 hr emergency advice line at our HMO back in Portland to relay the information - they get ahold of her personal doc, who recommends bringing her home if at all possible to do so safely. After discussing it with my daughter, she decides that she is not comfortable with the medical treatment she experienced there & would prefer to come home for treatment. Her host family agrees to bring her to my hotel, while in the meantime I call the airline and rearrange her reservation for my flight out of Geneva on Monday on a medical need basis. Unfortunately we can't get reservations on the connecting flight home, as everything is overbooked due to the snow storm that hit the NE US on Sunday - rather than play reroute games with standby legs, I elect to go for the direct flight on Tues.
We get to Newark on Mon. & hit the hotel for some much needed rest, catch the direct flight home on Tues., then directly to the emergency care facility to get her evaluated. After 7+ hours and a whole battery of tests, they determine it's not appendicitis, which is what everyone was concerned about, but some type of abdominal lymphatic infection. We finally get out of there at 3:30 am this morning with some pain meds & are awaiting results of some additional tests due in this afternoon to determine how to best treat the infection.
I'm completely wiped out....glad I don't have games until Friday/Sat./Sun....but I'm ready, bring em on......
[Edited by TimTaylor on Jan 26th, 2005 at 07:13 PM]
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