Trip Changes, Diversions, and Viruses
This Christmas trip to Manhattan was really for our two oldest grandchildren, Lukey and Kenzie, but Sheila and I enjoyed it too. Christmastime is a great time to be in Manhattan because it seems like every window and every building is decorated very well.
As I mentioned above, though, this relatively short trip was not without its little problems and even some big problems.
We had made two changes to our hotel accommodations in the weeks even before leaving the house. In the end, we settled on staying at the Hilton Midtown and that was a good choice. One problem was trying to find a hotel with vacancies when we needed a hotel. Amtrak availability and hotel availability had to coincide. Another problem is that we definitely wanted to be in midtown Manhattan where all the major sites are located. We planned this two months in advance yet we still had some scheduling issues.
It turns out that it was very prudent to get a hotel as close to midtown as possible because our grandson ended up on crutches due to a broken foot. Consequently, we needed to minimize walking as much as we could. Honestly, minimizing walking is tough to do in a place like Manhattan but having our hotel right in midtown where we wanted to see the most sites decorated for Christmas was the best way to accomplish this difficult feat.
Even though we hopped on the subway whenever possible, we still walked four to six miles each day (while one of us hobbled). If we hadn't booked a hotel right in the middle of all the sites we wanted to see, we could easily have needed to walk 10+ miles each day. During past Christmas Manhattan trips, Sheila and I have walked upwards of 20 miles a day so four to six miles is probably the absolute minimum for this type of trip.
Our trip started with a major change and diversion just minutes before our trip was scheduled to begin. Part of this surprise Christmas trip for Lukey and Kenzie was a ride down and back on Amtrak. They had been looking forward to this Amtrak journey for years. Unfortunately, our train was completely cancelled about a half hour before arriving at our station due to significant flooding.
We were in the midst of a rain storm that caused flooding in Vermont... yet again. This seems to be a recurring theme in recent times and promises to get worse. Amtrak has had limited service in Vermont since our last big flood this past July. This time, before we even left Waterbury, our town was under a Flood Warning, yet again. Rivers and streams were already getting precariously close to roadways as we headed down to the train station.
Our Amtrak train, the Vermonter, was cancelled about a half hour before it was scheduled to reach Waterbury. We were then waiting on word whether Amtrak would provide buses as they usually do for cancellations. However, in my head, I was weighing the pros and cons of taking a bus all the way down to New Haven where we could pick up a train for the very short ride into Manhattan. There were far more cons than pros on this list in my head but I'll get into this in more detail in another blog entry.
In the end, we chose to change our mode of transportation to driving ourselves down to Manhattan. This bummed out everyone because every one of us had been looking forward to relaxing on Amtrak. We wanted to arrive well rested and we wanted to be able to nap as long as we wanted and needed while traveling in an effort to leave as much energy for Manhattan. Now we would be stuck in a tight car and two of us had to stay awake and alert enough to share the driving.
We needed to make a few other changes during our stay in Manhattan. The flooding caused some subway issues and some station issues. Lukey being on crutches caused a need for some changes as well. We missed getting into the Museum of Natural History and we had to cancel our walk through Central Park. In the end, however, after a bit of adapting everything worked out and we got to see most of what we had planned to see.
On our way back home on Thursday, later in the day, I was beginning to get a scratchy throat. I didn't think much of it since I had been avoiding fluids in an attempt to minimize the need for restrooms (public restrooms are hard to come by in Manhattan). At the time, I just figured and hoped I was probably a bit dehydrated.
The day after arriving back home, my throat was feeling worse and I had a bit of a headache. By mid-afternoon, Kenzie and Lukey's dad came by to pick them up. This is when I told Sheila I wasn't feeling so well. By now, I was feeling a bit worse but was still optimistic that maybe I was just exhausted due to our trip. I laid down and napped for about an hour but, unfortunately, I awoke feeling far worse...
At this point, I was shivering and weak. I was in and out of the bathroom with diarrhea. My throat was feeling worse and I was sniffling. My mouth and throat were coated in dark, thick phlegm exactly like I had experienced with my previous bouts of COVID. I immediately pulled out a thermometer and a COVID test. My luck with the accuracy of these tests had been poor since 2020 but I had to test again anyway. About two minutes into the 15 minute waiting time for the test results, I had two bright, very distinct lines visible which means I was positive for COVID. After 15 minutes, I still had the two distinct lines.
By now, it was about 7pm so I couldn't call the doctor. I figured I would sleep and call in the morning. As I dug out some cold medications, Sheila started making notifications to those we had been in contact with since my first symptom developed.
This also meant that we needed to cancel our little Christmas celebration at our house. We still have a rib roast sitting in the fridge (which I will probably make tonight... Christmas Eve). It meant we needed to bow out of going to Sheila's dad's house for Christmas. It meant that all our Christmas plans were cancelled for at least a week. This will definitely be a quiet Christmas!
I called my doctor's answering service that following morning and explained that I had tested positive for COVID. The answering service said a doctor will call me within a half hour, however, the on-call doctor called back within a few short minutes. He had already reviewed my medical history and even had already sent a prescription to a pharmacy about 25 minutes away (all closer pharmacies were out of this medication). Between my age, my weight and my daily breathing issues, I easily qualified for the emergency treatment, thankfully. I definitely wanted to be on one of the treatment medications. I am considered a high risk for COVID complications so I definitely need all the help I can get. It should come as no surprise that I do not want to end up in a hospital nor do I want to end up dead like a few of our friends and millions of others. To compound this is the fact that I have already been struggling with inflammation and prolonged breathing issues due to one of my previous bouts of COVID. COVID has already made this entire calendar year quite miserable for me and now it appears I'll be closing this calendar year with COVID too.
I am now on day two of this anti-viral treatment. I take six big pills a day and I'll take them for five days. I was telling Sheila that it sort of reminds me of Malaria treatment during my military career. So far my biggest complaint about this treatment is that this medication leaves a bad taste in my mouth like I had put a few aspirins in my mouth and let them slowly dissolve without washing it down with a drink... yeah, kind of a nasty, chalky but mildly sharp taste. And this odd bad taste lingers and never goes away.
Fortunately, my health is improving. I've been keeping an eye on my O2 saturation level and that has stayed above 97% which is good. We want to keep that above 94%. This is kind of silly though because my levels often drop into the low 90s and even down into the 80s. I'm on a steroid too so my breathing is, thus far, doing okay.
In the coming days, I hope to add more blog entries about our trip. I have plenty of photos and video clips (1500+ files) but I just need to feel well enough to be able to put all of this together.
Hopefully my health will continue to improve...
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