July 2006 Vacation Diary

I'm back in town from my Alaska cruise with my wife and parents to celebrate their 51st anniversary. Here some highlights of our trip.

Friday 6/30: 7:00 am Fly to Seattle. Watch end of World Cup semifinal at airport bar. Go to baggage claim and collect 3 remaining bags left. Board boat. Open my green suitcase. Realize I mistakenly took someone else’s green suitcase onto the boat. Hand over the green suitcase that does not contain my clothers to the cruise staff. Call Alaska Air to report mix-up. My green suitcase with 2 pairs of running shoes is missing. Have to borrow my Dad's slacks to go to dinner which are 36 inch waist compared to my 32. Sounds like I need to eat more this week.

Saturday: Quiet day at Sea (before the storm).

Sunday: Visit Juneau, buy new Montrail running shoes and a pretty necklace for the wife.

Monday: Parents 51st anniversary day.
8:40 am Wakeup planning to view Glacier National Park. Feel nauseas. Faint in bathroom. Wife calls for help. Help arrives. Lifted onto stretcher. Faint again for good measure. Carried to infirmary. Put on IV. Blood test shows elevated heart enzyme. Possible mild heart attack. Ship doctor decides I must get to hospital sooner rather than later.
3:30: Huge chunks of my chest hair are torn out as electrodes from EKG are removed as I scream and startle the whole infirmary.
3:45: Strapped to gurney flat on my back. Ship crew attempting to lower gurney instead pull the release and drop me 18 inches to the lower position. More screaming from me. Crew bangs my head in the freight elevator. Thanks for the memories.
4pm: Loaded from ship onto tender at Glacier park office. Ambulance to airfield. Fly 90 mins. on 6 seat Lear jet to Providence Hospital in Anchorage. Wife enjoys the view from plane. Arrive at 7:30pm with a 102 fever.
4pm-11pm. Scared sh*&less. Comforted by wonderful wife.
11:00pm. Cardiologist, Dr. S arrives and orders chest x-ray and EKG along with blood test plus CT scan on my brain b/c I my head hit the floor when I fainted.
11:30: Eat some hospital jello then sleep.

Tuesday: Noon: Fever is down. Dr S. tells us probably ok to discharge. New blood test shows heart enzymes normal but also shows elevated liver enzymes. Dr. S. returns 15 minutes later and says CT shows prior mini-stroke. Dr. S. orders MRI of my head to see if I had a stroke. The Tech is called in from 30 miles away on a holiday to do the MRI. What a guy. MRI is negative on the stroke positive for a brain.

Doctor S. reports that I do have a common defect called patent foramen ovale – (PFO) occurs in 20% of people. Read about it:
http://www.clevelandclinic.org/health/health-info/docs/3400/3454.asp?index=11626

5pm Discharged. Go shopping at Wal-Mart wearing wife’s sweat pants. Buy complete Alaska wardrobe. Left boat with 2 shorts and 1 pair of socks. Purchased Alaska cap, Alaska sweatshirt, Alaska t-shirt and cool socks with bears and salmon. Stay at Days Inn, downtown Anchorage.
11:30pm. Watch late night show on travel channel on cruise ship mishaps while wife sleeps. I swear this is true. Makes me feel lucky since the mishaps are actually disappearances over board.

Wednesday: 11:00am. Arrive at Dr. S’s office for ultrasound of my liver. Discover cruise and travel documents are missing. Call hotel. Told by the front desk clerk that they did not find our documents. After ultrasound, drive back to hotel and find the head of housekeeping. Travel docs magically appear in her office.

2pm Drive back to Dr’s office for treadmill stress test. Lasted 15:30 on treadmill test. 2nd place all time at that office. Tech says I have average heart of 18 year old man. No problems with heart revealed on treadmill test but big problem with ego surfaces. Learn Tech’s cousin is Levi Leipheimer, cyclist in Tour de France. Ego returns to normal.

4pm: Leave Dr and check into Comfort Inn.
8pm. Quiet dinner and then sleep.

Thursday: 10 am. Photograph stuffed moose and bear in hotel lobby. Drive to Flat Top Mountain outside city to take a short hike and get a taste of the Alaska outdoors. Wife has sore throat and feels sick. Spend 3 minutes at trailhead enjoying the Alaska scenery while she sits in the car feeling ill. Got an earful when I returned to the car.
11:30am: Back in car and drive to airport. Fly to Seattle. Retrieve my missing green bag after argument with baggage staff who insist I must turn in the bag I mistakenly took but have yet to retrieve to get mine back. Hug my running shoes. Ok, I didn't actually hig them but I checked to see if they were still in the suitcase.

Friday: 8 am. Meet my parents at dock. Attempt to retrieve wrong green bag to return it to Alaska Air. Holland-America says they can’t find the bag but promise to return it as soon as they find it. Sightseeing in Seattle. Beautiful morning at Pikes Place Market. A lady runs her stroller over my foot.

Saturday: 9:30am Jog the Run of the Mill 5k in Millcreek, WA. Race start is 7 minutes jog from front door of my niece's house where we stayed. Jog back to nieces house at 10:30.

11am: Get phone call from Alaska Air. Wrong green suitcase has not arrived at Alaska Air from Holland-America as promised. Drive 30 miles back to dock. Wife convinces Holland-America to release the bag to us so we can bring it to Alaska Air. Take bag and drive back to Mill Creek.

1pm. Arrive back in Millcreek.
2:45: Drive 1 mile to street fair while niece and nephew walk there since we will leave for airport at 4pm. Can’t locate niece and nephew at fair. Call nieces cell phone to no avail.

4:00pm. Leave Mill Creek without saying goodbye in person.

6pm: Arrive at Seattle airport. Return wrong green suitcase to Alaska Air baggage desk. Alaska Air now says they have no record of that bag being missing and refuse to give us a receipt for returning it. Attempt to leave bizarro land stalls as our plane boards early then flight is delayed - problem closing plane door. Get a phone message from niece that she left her cell phone at home.

9:45pm Arrive in Long Beach. Retrieve luggage and find my brown suitcase did not arrive with the plane. Well what did you expect? Our prepaid van shuttle leaves 5 minutes before we get there leaving us mementarily stranded. We find an alternative shuttle. Arrive home in Irvine at midnight.

Sunday: 8am. Check messages. Dr. S. called from Alaska yesterday. Blood culture tests show I may have bacterial infection. May even have 2 kinds of bacteria. Then again maybe I don’t and the samples may just have been compromised by skin bacteria. Will need more blood cultures taken this week.

2pm: Alaska Air called. Brown suitcase was found and is on its way to our home.

3pm: It's good to be home but I could use a vacation.

Epilogue: After seeing two cariologists and my own physician in Orange County, I am confident that I don't have any serious heart conditions or liver conditions afterall. Happy Ending.