I Am Back After Almost One Month From My Vacation To Holland/Germany

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Hello everyone! I have been gone almost a month now and I am so glad to be back! I missed this place so much. I took a two week vacation to go to Holland and Germany to see my son, whom I have not seen in two years. He left 2 days after he graduated high school and had got married while in Germany. I went to meet his new bride and her parents. I also went to surprise my son to see his first live performance as a dancer, singer. My two weeks were the worse a person could imagine! I left May 5 and flew for 8 hours on an airbus flight, talk about cramped and uncomfortable. I was so miserable on this flight and of course it was packed, so I had to sit in my cramped assigned seat. Both people on either side of me were very large people and those seats are only wide enough for a baby's butt. LOL So for 8 hours I tried to watch movies, sleep, and eat all in about a 6 inch space. I could not wait to arrive at my destination. I left at 7PM my time and arrived at 3AM my time. I tried to rest all that day in case I was unable to sleep on the plane, but it didn't help. I was very tired when I touched down in Holland. My son and his wife had a very busy itinerary planned for my stay so I knew I needed to be very rested. I met them at the airport and we set out to explore Amsterdam for the day, then take a train for 3 hours to their home in Germany. We planned to check my luggage at the train staion so we would not have to lug it everywhere. But for some odd reason they had changed their storage to credit cards only, no cash! So we were unable to check the luggage. We had to roll two suitcases and carry one on our shoulder all over Amsterdam! What a problem that was, since there were millions of people walking around doing the same thing. Amsterdam was delightful, but very crowded and lots of rude people. Most of the people were tourist and they would run all over you and never say excuse me or anything. I was so tired by the time we left there 3 hours later. We boarded the train for our ride home. We had to change trains 3 or 4 times and it was getting very tiring to jump off one then run to get to the right first class car on the next with the luggage, but we did it. The last train we got on was only a 15 minute ride to our final destination. It decided to have problems and stop in the middle of no where. This was one of their newest and most up to date trains. We sat for about 10 minutes on the tracks while the engineer tried to get it going again. Finally it started and we headed to our final stop where my new daughter-in-law's Mother was waiting to drive us for 30 minutes to their house. I was so excited to finally be in Germany! I had a wonderful dinner with everyone and got all set up in my room. We all visited for hours then I had to throw in the towel and get some sleep. I had been up for over 28 hours when I finally laid down to sleep. The next morning it began to rain and got very cold! This was after weeks of beautiful sunshine and warm days. So we planned to walk into their village town and eat, shop, and take pictures. It was on a Sunday and most all the shops were closed and it was beginning to rain harder and get colder. I did not take any warm clothing with me, so I borrowed a thin jacket to wander around in the cold rain. I was able to eat some German food and do some shopping in a drug store and grocery store. I did get a few pictures of the quaint village, then we headed home. I ate with the family and visited while going over our itinerary. It all looked very exciting. The first week would be all about the performance and practice then the second would be fun tourist stuff. I went to bed Sunday night and sometime during the wee hours of the morning I started having severe chills. I was shaking so hard I could not even get the top off the aspirin bottle I brought with me. I could not believe how terrible I felt. I would take the aspirins, then sweat and a few hours later go right back into severe chills. I told the kids the next morning how horrible I felt and they said naybe it is just jet lag and I should rest that day since there was nothing really planned for the day. So I rested and took aspirin and had chills all day. By that night I could not breathe very deep without my back on the left side killing me. I would scream out when the sharp pain would hit. I felt clammy, feverish, had a headache, and could not breathe well at all. I thought I was dying all of a sudden. I kept telling everyone something terrible was wrong with me. They said I probably had the flu or a cold. I did not have either, because I did not feel like a cold or flu makes you feel. There was zero congestion anywhere, no soar throat, no stuffy nose, no achey body nothing. They kept thinking my back hurt because of sleeping on a different bed, but it wasn't like that at all. I knew whatever was wrong with me was something I had never had before. I know they had to go to practice and get ready for their big performance debut and I did not want to ruin that for them, so I tried to supress whatever was wrong and be a trooper and go along with them. I felt so bad everywhere we went. I would get dizzy then start having chills and feel like death. I kept pushing myself until the night of the performance, which was Friday night. 6 days after the initial problems. That night I was in the balcony with a wonderful seat and started getting very sick in the middle of the performance. I had to get out of that area soon. I kept looking around and could not see how to get out with all the people standing and sitting everyone. The performance was a sell out. I got sicker by the minute and decided I had to try to get out of that hot balcony. I began working my way to the door over and around people in the dark. Finally I made it to the door then I was going to have to go down steps to the break area. I took a few steps and the next thing I knew two people were beside me helping me up, I fainted! They took me to a table and it was so cool in the break area. They got me a soda and stayed with me until they could find my son or someone else in the performance that knew me. Thank goodness everyone in Holland speaks English, because no one speaks English in Germany. I missed the whole second half of the performance. After the performance ended they always have a cast party, but my son said they only stay about 15 minutes then we would go home. Not this night! They did so well everyone was wanting to celebrate and buy our group dinner, and drinks. We stayed out until 3 AM. I honestly thought I would actually die that night. I was crying by the time we got home because I was so sick! Finally after I begged for 6 days to go to the Dr. they said Monday you will go see a Dr. I had to faint and turn pale before anyone would believe I was seriously ill. Only because they do not go to Drs. unless they are injured. They do not give medicines as easily there as they do here in the US. They say we are spoiled to pills. Monday finally came and we set out to go to see the Dr. in Holland. It was over an hour drive. Every bump hurt so badly and I could not get a breath. While at the Dr. my daughter-in-law talked to him in Dutch. Then he asked me to tell him what happened, I described it all to him. He listened to my chest and back while I tried to breathe. He said he thought he knew what was wrong, but first I must go to the hospital and get a chest x-ray and blood work then come back to him. It was 45 minutes to the hospital. So off we go. I get the test and head back to the Dr. office. The whole time I am getting sicker and sicker. I go back to the Dr. and he says I was correct you have a very serious case of pneumonia in your left lung. The whole lung is full of solid mucous. The pain in the back is caused from no oxygen getting into that lung. I keep fainting due to lack of oxygen. He prescribed Amoxicillin and said after I take the first one the chills and fever will stop. He said he would call with the blood results later that day, by the time I arrived home and got into bed he called. The blood test identified the pneumonia as bacterial, he mentioned it was a very serious case and I could die if I did not rest and take very good care of myself. He also said I could not fly back to the US for at least 8 weeks. YIKES! I had no intentions of dying in Germany or Holland. I started the medicine and the chills and fever subsided. I laid in the bed for the next week taking meds and trying to live. I lost 12 pounds within 5 days and thought about nothing more than getting home on my flight May 19. On May the 18 I went back to the Dr. to beg to get on my flight. He listened to my chest again and made notes for my physician and the airlines. He advised me not to fly due to the lung possibly collapsing, but allowed me to board provided they had an oxygen tank available in case of the lung collapsing. Thank God! I flew back on the 19th and have been in and out of the Drs office ever since here in America. I still have pneumonia, but I am getting better every day and hope to recover completely within the next several weeks. I can not stay up long because I get tired and weak from trying to breathe. I still do not have any congestion and nothing is moving or breaking loose. It is still a solid mass in my left lung and I am taking meds to loosen everything up. I was told by both Drs. the kind of pneumonia I have is the kind people die with daily. I have lots of hope all will be well soon. Thanks for reading my book about my vacation from Hell! I hope to get back to My Lot as soon as I feel better. I am taking breathing treatments every 4 hours, taking meds, drinking lots of fluids, resting and trying to breathe. Please put me on your prayer list if you have one, my real name is Wanda Gibson.