On our way home from NY last Tuesday on the plane there was this woman coughing. I swear she didn't stop for the entire hour we were in flight! Because I'm a bit of a wise ass dubbed her
hacking woman. Hacking woman might have given her fellow plane mates the courtesy of putting on a mask but I guess some people just don't think. I tried not to think about which one of us was going to get sick breathing in all that dry recirculating air filled with her grems but it really is hard to think with all that coughing going on in your ear.
Don't you think that the airlines should give masks to people who fly sick?
Like clockwork, on Friday morning Mom called me ( she lives next door) saying her sinus were bothering her. Saturday she started coughing, by Sunday night she was in distress and having trouble breathing. It is remarkable and rather surprising how quickly an elderly person can progress into illness. The three of us headed off to the hospital so Mom could some medical treatment. Mom was admitted with an infection and fluid in her lungs, complicated by the fragility usual health problems of an 84 year old person. Needless to say emergency rooms haven't changed and they take
forever and a day which in Mom's case was six hours. They finally got her into her room at 2:30 a.m. deciding on breathing treatments and 02 to help he breathe, meds to help remove the fluid from her lung, anti-biotics for the infection. When we were satisfied she was in good hands and comfortable as anyone can be when sick and tired (both literally and figuratively) we headed home.
Have you ever seen someone driving so recklessly that you called the police?
We live a good half hour's drive on the interstate from the hospital. We were about half way home when Bill said to me,"do you see that car ahead of us?" It was 3:00 a.m so there was only a few of us on the long two lane road which is unlit. A small dark colored compact car was weaving from one lane to the shoulder to the other shoulder to the lane and back again. Truly it was hard to miss! A large tanker truck attempted to pass it on the left and the car almost crashed into it, gosh it was a close one!! After watching this driver for a number of miles weave in the most dangerous manner it was clear he or she was either going to kill themselves or someone else. I have never! I dialed the State Police and they said they'd get a car out to look for the car answering to the description I gave. But they instructed us not to get close enough to get the plate number since that would be endangering ourselves and we just weren't going to do that. At this point the car's driver decided to pull off into a rest area and we followed. The driver who was a woman put her head down on the steering wheel to rest and we were able to get the tag numbers and call the State Police back with that info. Maybe she was drunk or maybe she was having a medical emergency whatever the case she was a danger to herself and other needed taken off the road.
Is there is lesson to be learned here?
Drink on a plane not in a car, seriously! And if you're sick get your ass in the car go get treatment, don't get in a plane.
Just sayin!
The woman coughing may not have been sick, she might be like me. If I'm exposed to perfume, laundry detergent, hair products... the list goes on and on, I cough like crazy, not to mention the glands in my next start swelling and my mind goes blank. If I can't escape the offenders pretty quick, I usually can taste those products for about 2, or 3 days. My system can't process them, like most people can.
ReplyDeleteWow...Jen! You had a pretty festive week. My hubs travels all the time and his worst pet peeve is when folks blow their nose on the plane or in a restaurant. You know that kind of blow where it seems like they haven't blown their nose for a week and it just keeps going and going. lol Great call on that driver. A person driving recklessly is a lethal weapon.
ReplyDeleteYuck! Does he want to yell at them to go wash their hands?? That would drive me nuts.
DeleteI wish we knew if they found that driver or not, no way to know!
Hubby one time called 9-1-1 about someone driving crazily. Not sure if the police were able to find the car. If the lady indeed was sick on the plane, she should have taken better precautions to make sure her germs didn't spread. I do hope your mom makes a quick recovery!
ReplyDeletebettu
Awwww. Sorry for your mom. Was she the one doing the crosswords on the vacation? She did NOT look 84 - wow! Hope she's feeling better soon. My husband and I were on a huge overseas commercial flight when we were moving to Japan to be stationed there. The whole middle row adjacent to us hacked for the entire time. You are on that flight FOREVER and I was sick by the time we arrived in Japan. It was miserable to be sick and have crazy jet lag at the same time. As for the driver I've witnessed that too but all we did was hang back. I should have been more proactive about that. Thanks for the lesson.
ReplyDeleteThat's crazy. Good for you to call the cops. I hope your mom is doing better!
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ReplyDeleteLove & Appreciate your honesty! Xxx
Thanks sweetie! Hope you're having a good week..
DeleteJust when I think people can't surprise me anymore with their thoughtlessness, I hear another story (or two) that makes me shake my head.
ReplyDeleteGlad y'all escaped relatively unscathed.
On my last flight, there was a young girl who was vomiting on the flight. She had the flew and cried and hacked the whole trip. They moved her to the back, but it was awful. You can just feel the germs floating around! And YES, masks should be given to the sick!
ReplyDeleteYou made me laugh as I have been that woman. I blame the people who walk round duty free and spray themselves with lashing of stinky perfume then go into and enclosed space like a plane. I coughed and coughed when the women in front of me sat down and it was so embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteSo good that you contacted the police about the car. I hope your mum improves.