Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Florence Trip: Days One and Two - Travel and Recovery
Written by Laura. The squeamish should beware of some graphic details. Later installments (thankfully for us at the time) will have less of a "gross" factor. :)
The reason for our Florence trip was that Matt had a week long conference to attend there. We decided that it would be fun and worthwhile to spend the extra money so that Samuel and I could tag along. None of us had ever been to Italy before so we were very excited.
However as the trip got closer, I stopped being excited and started worrying. All I could think about were all the things that could go wrong and how difficult it would be to be on my own with Samuel in a foreign country. Matt reassured me that we would enjoy ourselves and I started to get excited again in the weeks before the trip.
We were scheduled to leave at 3pm on Friday afternoon from the Ithaca airport. At 2am Friday morning, Samuel woke up crying and wanting to nurse. As I held him, I noticed that he was incredibly warm. Matt and I got up and took his temperature and it was over 102 degrees. We called the airline and found out our options (pay $200 and use my ticket for something else later) and went back to bed. By the morning Samuel seemed better and his fever was barely over 100 degrees, before lunchtime his temperature was normal. Nervously, we made the decision to go.
Everything was going well at the airport until they announced that the flight (from Ithaca to Philadelphia) was delayed due to problems in Philadelphia. Eventually the announcement came that the flight would not be departing until 45 minutes before our scheduled connecting flight was due to take off. Matt got in line to turn in our tickets and we got ready to go home with plans to come back tomorrow and try to fly to Italy then. Matt was just about to hand in his tickets to the airline employee when someone we know from church who works for the airline appeared and said, "What are you doing? They can go today. They may make their connection, and if not there is a back-up flight through London they can take."
To our surprise, we were boarding the plane earlier than expected and taking off for Philadelphia. The flight attendent on the plane talked to us about our connection and told us to run all the way through the airport and we just might make it.
Samuel thought speeding through the airport in his stroller was great fun. By the time we reached the international terminal I didn't think I could run anymore, but we had made it. The flight to Rome had been held for the numerous passengers whose connections had been delayed into Philadelphia. We were by no means the last people on the plane.
The flight went smoothly for the first four hours. Samuel fell asleep, Matt dozed off and I wiggled uncomfortably as I tried to sleep. Samuel, who was sleeping on Matt's lap at this point, started making funny noises and I woke to full conciousness and realized he was throwing up. Matt held him while I found a flight attendent to help us. We mopped up Samuel and Matt and the surrounding area. They both changed into fresh clothes, Samuel nursed and fell back asleep.
Now I really couldn't sleep. High fever, then vomiting . . . I was sure that Samuel and I shouldn't have come. I considered one bad scenario after another. Samuel slept peacefully until it was time for the breakfast service on the plane right before we arrived in Rome. Samuel woke up and nursed some more and then settled down on my lap for landing. He projectile vomited everywhere. He and I were both covered in vomit but the most we could do was to wipe ourselves off as the plane was about to land.
We arrived in Rome to find we had missed our connecting flight to Florence due to the delay in Philadelphia. I was just grateful to have the opportunity to change into clean clothes. Traveling with us were Matt's boss and his wife and Matt's officemate. As we headed off to find a bathroom in the Rome airport, Matt's boss' wife told me that I really didn't look so good. I bit my tongue from replying that few people covered in vomit do.
Fresh clothes for Samuel and I made us feel better, much better. Samuel ate a few saltines, and then fell asleep for a three hour nap in the Rome airport. The flight to Florence was short and I was looking forward to collapsing in the hotel room and regrouping. Samuel nursed on the flight and a few minutes later started throwing up again. This time he got Matt and I both. Matt tried to get him to use the motion sickness bag but that met with limited success. Samuel got good at pushing it away.
Smelly and wet, we arrived in Florence and found to our shock and joy that our luggage had arrived too (otherwise I was out of clean clothes). We took a taxi to our hotel and during the ride, Samuel continued to throw up, by this point I was just getting him to throw up on me so we wouldn't upset the taxi driver. I have a clear memory of arriving on the street in front of our hotel and holding a very limp and dazed Samuel who was almost unresponsive when I spoke to him. My horrified brain was registering that I had dragged my extremely sick baby to a foreign country. I felt guily and awful.
Samuel did perk up by the time we reached our room, I kept nursing him and he just collapsed for a nap, as did I. I was too drained to do the staying-up-to-beat-jetlag thing. Samuel threw up a few more times during the next 12 hours but never seemed as bad as he had on our arrival. I got sick the following morning and made Matt fetch me enough Gatorade to keep me alive through the day while he attended his meeting. Samuel and I hunkered down in the hotel room, him eating only mommy milk, me drinking only Gatorade. By the end of the day, I felt good enough for a walk around the city to see the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio.
The next morning, Samuel and I felt fine and got to start enjoying beautiful Florence.
Continue on to day three.
Posted by Matt on 3/09/2005 12:41:00 PM 
My thoughts, profundity not guaranteed
