Trials while traveling

Travelin'Oma's assignment: have you ever been sick while traveling?

I cannot ever recall being sick while traveling. I do, however, recall having my children get sick. One time was the year we flew to my parents’ house in Western New York for Thanksgiving. We were there for two weeks, and all was well until the last two days before we were scheduled to fly home.

Two of the kids came down with fevers and were throwing up. I was desperate to have them recover. I did not want to fly with sick children, but on the other hand, we had no money to pay for changing our flights. The next day the kids seemed better. We kept our fingers crossed and decided to go home as scheduled.

The day to return home arrived, and the kids seemed fine, if not completely back to their usual rambunctious selves. That was in our favor – five hours of flying with subdued children is a bonus.

In my relief that the two were feeling better, I neglected to notice that my youngest (nearly three) was listless and getting warm. Until we were on the plane, and she was leaning up against me I just thought she was tired. No. She was sick. Right after take-off she laid her head in my lap and threw up. I never saw it coming. I am the queen of getting children to a sink, toilet, or bowl if I have any clue they might vomit. I guess it was the hubbub of travel that blinded me to the fact that she wasn’t doing well.

I cleaned us up as well as possible. I hate the idea of exposing others on a plane to sickness, but it was too late to do anything about it. Before we landed she vomited a couple more times. By the time we got off the plane, gathered our luggage and were headed home we were both a mess.

This is a pretty mild case, I must admit. Thankfully that’s about as bad as I’ve ever had it while traveling.