Final Thoughts & Updates

Saturday July 26

We checked out of the hotel. (we should have changed rooms here but didn’t) They put us in a handicapped room which had only a sink with no vanity. (nowhere to put anything down in there) The biggest issue was again the shower head. Since the entire bathroom was essentially the shower; water went everywhere. The shower head wouldn’t stay where it was useful, so Greg used some of the sticky sheets from the lint brush to tape it into place. Worked like a charm! The hotel was well located from Wawell Hill and the Main Market Square both within walking distance or a short Uber. 

When Wojtek picked us up on the first day, he said he’d be our driver except for the last day as it was his birthday, and his girlfriend had planned a surprise. However, he told us the day before that the timing of our flight didn’t interfere with his plans and he’d be there. Yay! He was just so helpful, and we were comfortable with him. We got home on Sunday and back to real life. UGH!

It was a great trip with little to complain about. My health however decided to make it interesting.... (don't read if you are squeamish) 

At first after a day or two into Paris, I thought I was just fighting a very minor cold, however, it became clear that it was probably a sinus infection. Clear liquid just pouring out of my nose while bending over or not and then sticky yellow gunk and some blood and I started blowing my nose like crazy. Lovely smell of yeast or wet diaper in my nose. Yum! (that last part didn’t develop until Poland towards the end of the trip)

The whole time we were in Paris it felt like I was walking with 2 broken big toes. (I attribute it to me forgetting to put in my regular orthotics and a new brand I was trying out was left in there) I also had tons of swelling in my legs (knees to feet) for a couple of weeks. (and I wear compression socks) I got several blisters and have lost at least one toenail. (I'm thinking the swelling had my shoes too tight) Same shoe and sock combo I wore in Asia with NO issues, but that darned new brand of insoles. (they are out now and the old brand in in preparation for the next trip)

The first week or more I was having “Prairie dogging” constantly, so there were many stops for bathrooms which aren’t always easy to find in Europe and almost never free. I contacted the PA at the gastro office to see if she could make me an appt for when we return. She did but then canceled it since she was sick and couldn’t reschedule me until Sept. Maybe the cyst or something else was causing this.

Yeah, in addition to all of the above, while in Switzerland I started growing a huge egg (cyst) in my peritoneal area. It got infected by the time we got to Poland, and it started to drain blood and yellow gunk. OUCH! No way to wipe either end comfortably. I got in the day after we got back and the GYN expressed it and prescribed antibiotics, and I had to do cyst baths twice a day for 10 days. All better now! I’m allergic to sulfa but the doc really wanted me to take Bactrim, and I said it’d been 40 years since I tried it and wasn’t sure if it was just upset stomach or something else and agreed to take it. Well, I learned it will stay on my “do not take” list as I developed a rash and itching. That took weeks to get over.

However, my sinus infection is still being treated. He vacuumed out a lot of gunk and prescribed a nasal lavage for twice a day containing antibiotic, antifungal and a steroid for 28 days.

A couple of weeks ago I felt like I should have gone to the ER. I was having tightness in my chest and shallow breathing with some rails (rattles) with deep breaths. Greg said if you aren't better tomorrow you need to go to the ER. Later that night, after I got worse, he said maybe we should go tonight. I said let me see how I do, and I'll go tomorrow if I'm not better. The next day I felt better but the day after I started coughing hard and couldn’t stop. Still tightness in my chest and hard to breathe. So, we took off for the ER.

I had a chair in the hall but everyone was so nice, and they were attentive. The lady that took my blood and started my IV called me “her travel bug). (since we travel so much) The guy who took my symptoms had to ask about any recent travels and he asked how we liked it. I told him I underestimated Switzerland as a country to visit and told him about the stunning scenery and he said, "you mean the hills really WERE alive with the sound of music?" That got him singing Do a deer a female deer and so on. He said now he'd be singing that all day. I apologized for planting the earworm. Anyway, they did a chest x-ray which prompted them to do a CAT scan with dye which found a couple of nodules in my lungs. (not unusual as about 30% of people find them and they are usually not an issue) They will have me repeat that in 3 to 6 months to make sure they aren't growing.

I was there about 4 hours and in the room across the hall just behind me a guy coded. His wife brought him in saying she thought he was just overheated doing yardwork and drove him in instead of calling for an ambulance. (they probably could have saved his life by starting treatment sooner) First I heard them say "Can you hear me" twice and then they yelled get the crash cart and called a Code Blue. There were at least 20 people in the room with him. I heard them say "welcome back" and then they were back doing compressions and shocking him. They worked on him for a long time but lost him. His wife was probably in shock and was taking it pretty well, but their daughter got there and was losing it. She was crying so hard she was dry heaving and kept leaving the room. Her boyfriend kept telling her she needed to be strong for her mother. They were still all in the room when I left hours later.

Anyway, back to my saga. I tested negative for all the viruses they test for, but I had some elevated bloodwork that suggested a clot breaking up in my lungs. In the end they chalked it up to a virus that just wasn't one they tested for. They sent me home with Tessalon Pearls to help with the cough and to follow up with my PCP. She agreed with me that it’s possible that my sinus drainage is causing it. I’m doing much better and almost “back to normal”.

Other than physical issues the trip was great. We had a mixed bag of weather from hot, cold, windy, sprinkles to torrential downpours. It was great to have so many days in Paris but one more would have been perfect. (mainly to see the things that the rain caused us to skip)

Viking river cruise was great, but we learned never to book that type of cabin again. No issue with the French Balcony but the small size was laughable. The people were really nice on this one (compared to a few on the one last year). We met one couple named Karen & Steve from California (we met a couple from CA with those names on the 2013 world cruise, so they were easy to remember). However, their personalities were like Rick & Janie another couple we met on the 2013 world cruise. So, nice table mates as well as the others that we sat with often. 

While not Viking's fault, the day before we were to go to the ship and go through the locks from Trier to Cochem, a ship ran into one of the doors to the lock and it was unusable. All traffic was at a halt until they could get it fixed. It honestly didn't affect us that much. We had 1.5 hours longer on the bus from Paris to go straight to Cochem where the ship was waiting for us. We bussed back to Trier for the Highlights tour the next day so we lost nothing except the short distance we would have done on the ship. (though people acted like it was the end of the world, including those on upcoming cruises that wanted to cancel). After the cruise we got an email saying they were giving us $250 (maybe PP?) credit to use on our next voyage. You’d think people couldn’t complain about that but of course people did. "What good is it if you never plan to sail Viking ever again due to the issue." Stuff happens at home or while traveling. We bought more onboard certificates as we definitely will sail Viking again.

I totally underestimated Switzerland as a country to visit. The Alps are stunning! Poland was interesting but no huge desire to go back. (of course I would) In hindsight, we said we should have booked our own hotels and could have used Viator for a small group tour for the two days we had tours. However, GFP made it “easy”.

This is the first trip that I didn’t bring my camera and instead used my new iPhone. It overall was a good experience. There was a learning curve of not nipping off the tops of things and getting the lighting adjusted but I think I got better at it and will be more prepared for the next trip. (now shooting in a different scale)

Speaking of which we leave in a bit over a month for a trip with the Krills for what we have dubbed “Epic Asia”. We’ll be gone 2 months and will start in Chengdu, China to see pandas and receive our Tibet Permits. We’ll spend time in Tibet including Base Camp at Mount Everest. From there we will visit Nepal which will include a tiger safari in Chitwan National Park. After that we will go to Bhutan where we will hike to the Tiger’s Nest Monastery. After Bhutan we will spend about 3 weeks in Myanmar seeing Bagen Archeological Site and the Fishermen at Inle Lake and a few other towns. Then, we spend a week in Bangladesh which will include an overnight on a ferry and a few nights on a houseboat on a tiger safari in the Sundarbans. At the end of that trip the boat will take us to the border of India where we spend our last days in the Kolkata area. I have been planning that one for a couple of years now. I used 4 different tour companies and managed to get it all to flow together. Fingers crossed that it all works out as planned! As usual, I won’t blog on the trip and will update the blog upon our return.

'Til next time.....