I flew to Honolulu on Monday (10/6) for a follow up appointment with my doctor at Tripler Army Hospital. The purpose of my visit with her was to make sure I was tolerating the oral antibiotic I switched to after my 8 weeks of IV medications. The doctor was very happy with my progress. I have no evidence of side effects and the open wound at the base of my neck - where the lymph node had pushed through - is healing nicely. Also, she told me that the attempt to culture the microbacterium that caused the infection showed no evidence of it, i,e., the IVs and subsequent oral medication have beaten the infection. I love good news! I also have regained about 10 lbs since I got home a month ago! Home cooking beats the crap out of hospital food! The misadventure started as I walked out of Tripler and saw the bus that goes to the airport pulling out of the parking area. At the moment, I wasnt too worried because I mistakenly understood that the bus would be by again in about 45 min. I had about 2 hrs before my flight to Maui and then home to Kona so missing that first bus did not seem to be anything to be concerned about. I started to go to the Subway on the first floor of the hospital, but decided the line was too long and didnt want to take a chance on missing the next bus. When I got back to the bus stop, I called the customer service number to check on the approximate time the next bus would be picking up at Tripler to go to the hospital. I was told it wouldnt be there until about 12:48! Uh-oh! My flight was at 1:28. I knew there was no way I would be able to make that and that I would have to get on stand by. Sometimes, I hate being right. Hawaiian Air put me on stand by for the next flight, but I didnt get lucky. So, I went to the another gate to await the next flight to Maui. This time I got lucky and mine was the second stand by name called. Now the fun really began! We couldnt taxi out for take off due to a military plane leaking something - noxious fumes, ebola virus, I dont know what - on the runway. So we sat while they cleaned up that problem and finally started taxiing to the runway only to find out we were fourth in line for take off. Finally, we were in the air on our way to Kahalui Airport on Maui. Of course, we arrived there as my connecting flight to Kona was taking off! Naturally, there was no other flight going to Kona from Kahalui that afternoon. Even if Hawaiian flew me back to Honolulu, there were no definite possibilities of me getting on a flight from there to Kona that day. I was put on stand by for the 8 AM flight to Kona but now was faced with a new problem - I had to find a place to stay and I was momentarily somewhat financially embarrassed! I did manage to get a room at the Maui Beach Hotel - decent room, comfortable bed and helpful employees. Didnt sleep well,unfortunately - probably due to the stress of the day. Caught the hotel shuttle back to the airport at 6 AM Tuesday and got lucky and had my name called for the 8 AM flight. So, I finally got home to Kona about 8:30 on Tuesday. That was only about 15 hrs later than I had anticipated being home after my appointment. Slept like a rock last night. Just happy that this didnt happen on my birthday!
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 19:21:05 +0000
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