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After three visits to the Emergency Room, David was in worse shape than before. He was the sickest I have seen in just about anybody that was not in a hospital room.
When I left for work this morning, I told David that I would check on him periodically throughout the day. And, when I came home for lunch, we would make the decision on whether he was leaving or going to the doctor for admittance to the hospital.
On each call I made home, David sounded about the same -- NOT GOOD. I had even gone so far as trying to get him into the doctor, but it seems that everybody was sick with the flu and there were not even any "work in" appointments available, so the ER was the only remaining choice, if necessary.
I closed down my office as I knew either way, that I would not be returning that day. When I got home, I found David packed and ready to go. He looked and sounded much better. He assured me he WAS in fact feeling better. However, I didn't really believe him and figured it was a facade he was putting on to get me to take him to the airport so he could be on his way home. It worked, at least for the moment.
We left on schedule, to get David to the airport about 90 minutes before departure. I didn't want him to have to sit around any longer than necessary. At ticketing, his luggage was "selected" again to be opened and inspected. He had two very tightly packed suitcases and a backpack. We figured they would never get everything back in, but the somehow managed and were very pleasant about the whole process.
By the time I said my goodbye's to David and he entered the security area, I could tell he was not feeling all that good. I reminded him that if he wanted to get home quickly, he had better keep up the facade and not let any of the flight attendents or gate agents figure out he was as sick as he really was. He told me he thought he could keep "the face" at least until he was in the air at each stopover. He had to board at Little Rock, change at Atlanta and Amsterdam before landing in Munich for the two-hour car ride home to Kempten.
June 25, 2002
David is home
Somewhere over the Atlantic, David started to feel really bad and ask for assistance from the stewardess. He made it to Amsterdam and apparently suffered a lot before finally boarding his flight to Munich. How he got past the ticket agents and on board, I don't know, but he did. Once in Munich, his parents met him at the airport where he almost collasped.
The next morning, he was once again seeing a doctor, only this time in Kempten, Germany. For the next couple of weeks, he was pretty much bed-ridden and lost many pounds, which he really could not afford to lose. He missed the big parties that were going on to celebrate the end of their school and his return home.
It took David a couple of months to really shake the flu bug and start on the road to a full recovery.