Name Brand Mom in Generic Jeans: "The Night I Threatened To Throw My Sick Mother Overboard"

This blog may read like a novella and I will try just to highlight the important stuff. I feel like I have shared all about my vacation and I cannot leave out the last part of the trip at this point. We had some amazing experiences along the way, and it is a vacation I will never forget...and I know I will never forget the morning we were scheduled to get off the ship in Miami.. so here we go...it is always an adventure with us......

.....last post I left off with us porting out of St. Marteen.......

....the seas were rough coming back...like 12-15ft waves rough.....

....walking around the ship felt like you had drank numerous martini's....

....mom was down again...as we learned earlier her tummy could not deal with rough waters.....

.....me....this is how I dealt with rough waters......

......I sat by the pool and had pool boys bring me iced towels.....

Anyways, the captain redirected our course and put us close to land. Can I say I felt guilty as I passed countries such as Haiti and Cuba as I devoured my fourth meal of the day and wondered where my pool boy went so I could get a fresh bottle of water.

The waves calmed down and by Friday mom felt better and was able to enjoy her last day on the ship...

But......it all went to hell Saturday around 12am......

I woke up around midnight to my mother...she was ill......I knew it could not be sea sickness because the water was calm.....

She was sick......you know that kind of sick...that sick where you just want to crawl in a hole and die....the kind of sick that you begin to wonder what more can come out your body sick.

The problem is we were in a 200 square foot room with 4 people....we all were basically experiencing this with mom.... I love my mom, and we all react to being sick in our own ways, and my moms way is very vocal and very pronounced.......it was a VERY long night......

By 5 am I had basically been awake for almost 24 hours and I knew at this point we were getting close to Miami and I knew I was not headed home...mom was not making it on a plane...and I was not going home today.....I was grumpy, and mom stated to me, " she was not sure what we were going to do with her".......know keep in mind... I was really tired, I was the one sharing the bed with my mom, I had witnessed horrific amounts of bodily fluids, heard a lot of vocal discomfort coming from my mom all night, I was now worried about myself getting sick, and I was not headed home to my family......I may or may have not responded by saying,

"Oh...I know what I want to do with you!"

...so basically I threatened to throw my sick mother overboard....hmmmmm......my mother may want to rethink who she wants with her when she is on her death bed....I promise, I am much more patient when I am not tired and cranky.....I was not of sound mind at that moment...

So 7am that morning in Miami we had to figure out a plan...mom needed medical care, she needed to go to a hospital.....Gabby had to get home....Leana had a Dr appointment at home to get back to...that left me to take care of mom.....Problem.....I could not take care of customs, luggage, lodging, and hospital with a sick person in tow. Leana had to stay with me, I could not do it without her. I think Leana could see the desperation in my eye's, I needed my big sister, I needed help! She stayed, she knew it was going to take two of us.....I am so thankful she stayed!

We got mom out of bed, she was in just her robe at this point.....we put her in a wheelchair and wheeled her down to the infirmary where the Dr. could tend to her until we could figure out how to get her to a hospital.

So we realize there is a few other people with the same sickness in the infirmary....then it sinks in....the dreaded virus.....NOROVIRUS...that highly contagious virus that spreads like wildfire...is that what was happening here?

We had our naked, vulnerable, passed out mother in a bed hooked up to an IV in the infirmary........

...and then the whole experience...the situation...the stress of the moment hits my sister and I...and we begin dealing with it the only way we know how to deal with it....

We begin to laugh...we begin to be the cynical daughters that we are so good at being...

We laughed about the fact that Gabby had gotten the hell off the ship and away from the whole norovirus infestation ......we laughed about the fact that were a ticking time bomb of possible norovirus....we laughed about the horrid condition that we had to leave the room in......we laughed about the fact we were stuck in Miami and not sure what we were doing next.....we laughed about the fact I threatened to throw our mother overboard and some point in the night.....At this point even the nurse was throwing a joke here and there in to the mix....

We were laughing so much that the Dr came in repeatedly..he was fascinated by us...why were we laughing when our mother was passed out naked in a bed by us....we tried to explain how we deal with stress, and at this point this is was all we had left in us.....and that my poor mother would expect nothing less from us....Dr. Cuba (we nicknamed him this because he was from Cuba)...looked at us finally and pointed two fingers at us and stated in his Cuban accent

"You just keep laughing girls, you will get it too!" ...he was speaking of the possible norovirus outbreak that was occurring....

...how did we respond to this comment...we looked at each other and started laughing....

Finally they had an ambulance on the way and I took off to get our 6 large pieces of luggage through customs and figure out how to get a taxi to some hotel. Leana stayed to go to the hospital with mom on the ambulance. I found a taxi and a hotel and apparently Leana found a Cuban paramedic admirer. He gave her a sight seeing tour through Miami on the way to the hospital and offered his number to her when they arrived at their destination. Those Latin men are not shy in showing their attraction for you......

I arrived at the hotel with all our luggage in tow, I called family, got our flights cancelled, and then began adding up how much this was going to cost mom...basically the cost of two vacations when it was going to be all said and done.

I decided to call moms travel agent to get some advise on how to save some costs on flights home etc......apparently mom bought insurance for this trip....every single thing was insured...the flights, hotel, hospital. food, taxi's...EVERYTHING! This was huge news, this was something wonderful coming out of a horrible day. I think at that moment the day finally hit me and some of the stress was dripping off my back.....I had been up 30+ hours straight....I was tired...I showered off and crawled into bed and fell asleep....

In the meantime mom had no "visits to the bathroom" since about 5am that morning and if they told the hospital they were certain it was norovirus they would have kept her for a week in quarantine. They took mom to the public hospital, the ghetto hospital of Miami, and Leana was not leaving our mom there so she convinced the Dr. ...or pleaded with Dr..... it was just bad shrimp and she just needed some good sleep at her hotel at this point.......they finally released her that evening.....

Poor mom...she was still just in a robe..so Leana found had a shirt she could wear and apparently a pair of underwear that she grabbed before we left our stateroom...and then they had to catch a taxi to the hotel I found....

So I met them in the lobby at our hotel after their arrival from the cab and here comes mom...looking like death warmed over in a robe, t-shirt, and underwear..and of course I snickered and said....

"Well, that is how we all should arrive at a hotel...in a robe and underwear!"

....my poor mom and all that she has to put up with....I do wish I would have had my camera for her grand entrance...it would have been priceless....

She slept well that night and was feeling better by morning...it may have been a case of norovirus, or something she ate, we don't know for sure...the rest of us were lucky..none of us got sick.....That was a long 48 hours for me....I was just waiting to be sick, unsure if the virus was going to sneak up on me.

We had to stay in Miami till Monday...me and Leana had to be to the airport by 5am and our shuttle did not come pick us up, we had to call a taxi... I got to the airport and my flight was delayed....

When I arrived at the desk to check my bags the lady offered to upgrade my ticket to first class for basically the cost it was going to check my bags + 30 dollars...at first I said no then the last 72 hours flashed through my head.....and then the images of coach flashed through my head...