The BrokeBack in the Plane

I wished with all my heart that I could have boarded a ship instead of a plane to go back home.
However, my transport of choice would take months to drop me off in Kolkata. So, I resigned myself to fate and left for the airport on 8th May, 2010.


San Francisco Airport
We reached the airport around 3 hours before take-off. The wheelchair assistance service of Singapore Airlines was pathetic. The ground staff were unable to arrange a better seat for me. The lady who handled the wheelchair was listless and apathetic. I decided limping was better than being dragged along by a complete morone. Hubby brought along a salad. But I was too much terrified to eat.
Herein, I must mention the counter-intuitive design of the San Fran airport. The restrooms were rather far from the boarding lounge. One had to take an escalator/elevator and then had to walk a long way to the restroom. Also, most of the eateries were closed. USA is full of 24 hour diners like Dennys etc. Wonder why they did not think of something similar for the airport which has international flights that take-off in the middle of the night.


Flight from San Fran to Hongkong
This flight was of 14 hours duration and my longest flight ever. The first of the flight was pretty much uneventful with very little turbulence. I managed to calm my nerves with a photograph of Ma Kali, my stuffed toy Buni and my hubby's hand. I watched 'Shutter Island' to keep my mind away from the bumps and dips of the plane. I hardly ate any dinner or breakfast. However, I ate two crackers and some potato chips.
My back was hurting badly by the third hour. I rubbed on some Volini and took short walks.
The plane started trembling violently near Osaka over Japan Sea. I was sure that I was going to die. I let out a muffled scream much to the consternation of other passengers. This horrible state of affairs continued for around 15 minutes. But, it was enough to shatter my nerves. This happened two hours before touchdown. I did not move from my seat again before hitting terra firma.


Hongkomg Airport
This was a lovely airport. Absolutely spic-and-span and thankfully with strategically placed restrooms. I had denied wheelchair assistance this time after the messy experience at San Fran. Me and hubby freshened up with the mini toothpaste and toothbrush provided by the airlines. I tried to prepare myself for the next flight which was in less than an hour.


Flight from Hong Kong to Singapore
This flight did not bother me as much since we had crossed the Pacific by then and it was daytime outside. However, I still could not eat and was subsequently faced with a mini-mutiny by hubby who refused to have lunch unless I ate too. We struck a compromise where I ate a few bits of fruit and promised to eat a blueberry muffin later and he ate everything but the main course. There was almost no turbulence in this 4 hour flight. The Seat Belt sign never turned on other than take-off and touch-down.

Singapore Airport - Changi
This is the most marvellous airport in the whole world and this was my second time here - however, it took me two visits to succumb to it's charms. I was meeting my sister-in-law in Singapore and was bothered by the fact that I was stinking at that point in time. We got ourselves transit visas and met up with our relatives. After a fun-filled 7 hours at their house, we bade them goodbye. We still had about an hour when we reached Changi. We finished up some last minute shopping as I braced for one last flight before reaching sweet home.

Flight from Singapore to Kolkata
I was super-nervous on this flight. I was this close to reaching my sweet Kolkata. I wanted the flight to be super smooth and safe. Again, I refused dinner and just had orange juice with soda. I saved up a yoghurt for later. This was a night flight and the pilot warned about impending turbulence. However, there was about 5 minutes of very low-grade turbulence and we made a somewhat bumpy touch-down in Kolkata.

Kolkata Airport
I was home after 11 months!! Yippee!!!

The BrokeBack in Emergency

I went to my boss´s place on 2nd May for a barbecue party. This was also my farewell. I quite enjoyed myself on this ocassion. Ate a frightful amount of roast beef and had two tumblerful of red wine. I had sat at the yard with both my legs swinging from a bench.
I paid the price of my enjoyment just the next day. I had to call a friend to take me to an emergency. The pain in my left leg was killing me. My friend took me to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation emergency department where a certain Dr. Ahluwalia took me for my word when I said that I feared the pain in my left calf was due to my lower back injury. She did not botther to run any diagnostic tests whatsoever. She did not even pull up my legs to ensure there was no gross neurodeficit. For all I know, the left calf pain could very well have been a result of a local injury. Going by the diagnosis of this brilliant doctor, the nurse gave me two rather painful injections of Prednisolon and Toradol respectively on my butt. In addition, the doctor also prescribed Hydrocodone(Vicodin) and Indomethacin. I Googled later to find that the latter has very severe side-effects. Thankfully, I had not partaken of this particular medication and was hence saved from a nightmarish headache(one of the many nasty side-effects of Indomethacin).
The injections gave me an all over body ache and by the time my hubby reached me on 6th May, I was completely bed-ridden.
I wish I could have seen that doctor again. To give her the same injections and one dose of Indomethacin.