Sick

I started having sniffles during the weekend and poo pooed it as just something minor that would go away in a day or two. Well I was wrong.

Over the course of my four day work trip I got progressively worse. We had one more leg to fly till getting home and my nose was plugged, my ears were plugged, my throat was soar and my nose was running. Yeah. Yet I was still able to trick my passengers into the thinking I was all right.

We were just about to leave Salt Lake City to Seattle when a thunder and lightning storm hit and all flight traffic was stopped. Nobody was coming in and nobody was going out. then as soon as the storm passed we got news that there was too much flight traffic going into Seattle so we were going to be held on the ground for another 20 minutes. However we had to go back to the gate to get more fuel because of how much time had passed. We were not the only ones to do this so the fuelers we’re going to take at least 45 minutes to get to our plane. But this time the flight was already delayed over an hour. Then it hit me. A big wave of nausea and a pounding headache.

I ran to the bathroom and threw up. This was not good. I was no longer fit for duty and had to call off the trip. There was no choice. So I let my pilots know and thankfully they were so understanding and were very concerned. I felt absolutely awful knowing that I would further delay the flight and that all these passengers would be pissed at me but there was no way I could work in this state.

The pilots made an announcement to let everyone know that their forward flight attendant was sick and had to be replaced. I could hear people grunting and cursing as they shuffled about gathering their belongings. I felt so awful. At least my first class passengers were very sweet and all said they hoped I would feel better.

Crew scheduling was able to find a flight attendant finishing another trip in Salt Lake who was able to replace me. I’m sure that they were not pleased to find out they were not done with work after all. In the meantime I was set up with a hotel and so I headed straight there since there was no way I was getting home tonight.

As soon as I got to my room I took a NyQuil and immediately went to bed. The next morning my company flew me back to Portland and then I drove the two hours up to Tacoma. At least I was home by 1 PM, which was nice, and I felt a lot better today than I did last night. I just can’t let this get any worse since I have to be back to work on Monday. UGH. Wish me luck. 🤞🏻