Originally posted by Krusher
Small world Rogwar.. My wife works for American as a Flight Attendant. She has been working the Santiago run out of DFW for about 3 years now. You dont by any chance work for Ericsson do you?
I work for Siemens in the mining and cement industries. She and I have likely been on the same plane. Last year I was doing a lot of Chile-Brazil trips together. I would typically start out DFW-MIA-GIG or GRU (Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo) for a week or two and then to Santiago on LanChile (nice airline), and then Santiago-DFW. In the last 3 years I have flown the Santiago-DFW route many times including once sick with a 103 to 104 fever, and another time with a substantial concussion...hehehe. Interesting story with that one
I knew better on the later. It happened before coming home and I didn't care much about going to the doctor. I even had blood coming from inside my ear. I remember getting home to DFW and picking up my truck, driving towards my doctor's office, while speaking with one of the nurses there via my cell phone. After hearing my symptoms, she said don't come here, go straight to the emergency room and tell them exactly what you told me.
Was shuffled in quickly by showing them my insurance card. Described my symptoms and told the doctor I had a slightly moderate concussion. Next was a CAT Scan on a Siemens machine no doubt...hehehe. Doctor comes back after 2 hours and says looks like you have a concussion. My co-pay was $50 for the emergency room visit but the overall bill was like close to $1,500. WOW!
Coming back with the strep infectionwas worse though. Didn't know exactly what it was at the time. I've had Typhoid and Dengue, neither of which are very fun.
Severe chills followed by sweats, but was able to get by with 600mg ibuprofen every couple of hours. Remember this flight is a long haul. Went to the doctor on my arrival the next day. My throat was killing me and I was really feverish. Could only see a nurse practicioner and she gave me a antibiotic shot and a scrip for some mediocre antibiotics, with the request to come back in 2 days.
It helped some and seemed to make a dent in the infection, but I had this weird big white spot and major swelling in the back of my throat. There was a lot of fluid and puss in there and it was really hurting. I should have waited to go to the doctor, but I knew what they would do. Send me to the emergency room to have this lanced. Having become tired of ERs I took one of my own sterile lances from a high quality first aid kit and lanced it myself. You also had to squeeze the area alot.
I have never seen so much fluid in my life. The size of the swollen area decreased significantly. I drank some hot limeade and took more ibuprofen and felt 100% better. I went to the doctor the next day, filled him in on everything. He advised against doing such a thing in the future on my own, but he agreed it was the right procedure.
Lancing sore, swollen, infected areas in ones own throat is really a milestone in life.
Santiago is a nice city. I also travel a lot up in the Atacama Desert region because of the copper mining. Here is a pic of yours truly standing on the Tropic of Capricorn just outside of Antostudmuffinasta, Chile. Driving across that desert is very hypnotic. We take turns driving about every hour.
