Pandemic Diaries - Mediterranean Cruise - Mango Attack

7 November 2022 – Malaga, Spain        

 

I missed Malaga altogether.  I had another close encounter with mango, my personal kryptonite. 

 

It all started with filling out the room service breakfast delivery paper the night before.  I was a bit tired, and when I ordered the “continental breakfast” (fruit, yogurt, and pastries), I forgot to write NO MANGO as I usually do.

 

So brekkie arrived, such a luxury for someone like me who just wakes up slowly.  We started eating.  I opened my fruit plate, and there were two slices of some pale colored fruit.  Not with peel on, the way apple or pear might be.  Peeled.  I was suspicious, and had Richard check it out for me.  He insisted it was apple.  So I took a bite, and once I swallowed it I realized nope, that was definitely not apple.  That was mango. 

 

I called the food service number and asked.  Yes, mango.  I called the medical services office, explained the situation, and they said to come on down.

 

Threw on my bathrobe (yay for cruise lines that give you a bathrobe to use), grabbed my key card, and ran out, wearing a mask.  The middle of a major allergic reaction is not the time to be exposed to Covid.

 

The staff at the medical office were all great.  The intake person rushed me in, got my name and room number from my card, and they already had basic info on me from my little cold two weeks ago.  Then they rushed me into a room, though I saw my friend L from the previous day, there to get her mother out of isolation.  She asked if I was okay, I just said mango and rushed into the room.  But then we had to go into a different room for the nebulizer treatment (epinephrine in a mist form to breathe in so it goes directly to the lungs, where my reaction hits first).

 

I also was given four tablets of steroids, which basically subdue the allergic response.  I’ll be on steroids for three more days, in decreasing amounts, because with food allergies the reaction can pop up anywhere in the digestive tract.

 

And then two injections, in my tush.  Ugh.  One was fine, but the other was rather painful, apparently a different serum.  Some are just thicker liquid, or whatever it is that makes them hurt when being injected.  But much better than not getting whatever reaction this injection would prevent.

 

The doctor checked me out after all the treatment for the day, and said I reacted well to everything.  And that it was good I was able to get there so quickly, so they could stop the anaphylaxis before it really took hold.  (I guess waiting, or taking a while to receive treatment, can make it more difficult to stop the reaction.)

 

Richard met me down in the med center, so we went back to our cabin, and I ate the rest of my brekkie, skipping the fruit plate.  For me, it was now contaminated, and I couldn’t risk another iota of mango.

 

I opted to stay in – receiving steroids in three or four forms makes me initially hyper, and then I crash and am just exhausted.  So I napped in the afternoon, when that crash hit.  Totally missed Malaga.

 

But we had another crew drill on the ship in the late morning, so that kept me amused for a while.  I watched from our huge window, because this drill was manning the lifeboats, taking them down from our deck (Deck 4) and getting them to Deck 3 where more people got on each boat, opened the hatches, checked the equipment.  Then the lifeboats were lowered to the water, and they circled around for a while, making sure everything was in good working order.  I appreciate knowing that they conduct these drills, even if it’s a bit noisy with all the running around and whirring pulleys and cables of rope.

 

Richard had gone out for a smoke, and came back handing me a card saying “evacuated” that had been in our door’s key card slot.  He thought I had had a relapse, and had to be evacuated for more treatment.  I thought it was likely part of the drill, and I peeked out into our hallway.  Sure enough, every room had a bright yellow evacuation card in their card slot.  I put our card back in, and went back to watching the crew continue their drill.  By the time I thought to take a photo of the cards, they had already been removed.  Oh well.

 

The rest of the day was uneventful.  Steroids have a side effect of making people absolutely ravenous, and fortunately our ship has plenty of comfort foods.  Along with menu items highlighting whatever region in which we’re travelling.  So lunch was seafood paella, bread pudding, and then a bowl of strawberries.  Doesn’t that sound like a healing post-medical-crisis sort of meal?

 

After we left port in the evening, the captain announced that we’d be cruising through the Straits of Gibraltar at about 11 PM.  We checked the bow camera on TV, and we couldn’t see much.  Lots of lights, many other ships coming and going, and what must have been fireworks going off in the distance.  At first we though they might be lighthouses, but they were not consistently timed, and they definitely were exploding in circles.  Fireworks seemed the most likely explanation.  (I can’t imagine fireworks on a cruise ship, so they probably were on land.  I hope!)

 

Tomorrow will be another day.  And I will remember to always write NO MANGO on my breakfast order!!!!!