Pandemic Diaries - Year 3 - Flying South for the Winter

30 January 2023

I took a little break from posting - turns out I have arthritis in my hands.  I've learned to block out low achy pain, so I didn't notice I had a problem until my thumbs starting turning inward.  I'm in the process of taking care of that, but that will be another blog.

Between my hand issue, and still recuperating from my post-Covid pneumonia, we decided to give our car a break and take the auto train.  I hadn't heard of this previously, but it seems to be very popular!  There's a train that goes from Lorton, Virginia, to Sanford, Florida, with train cars designed to hold a batch of autos, motorcycles, and small trucks.  Passengers pay for a seat or little room on the train, as well as for their vehicle to ride on the train!  It saves almost 17 hours of driving, or nearly 900 miles.  Amtrak has all kinds of information about how much car pollution it prevents from entering the atmosphere.  (So we really didn't fly south, we trained south.)

For us, it was more about saving the stress and exertion of driving, and making it a more relaxing way of getting to our winter rental in Florida.  

We moved up the date when we'd leave New Jersey because there was a huge weather system moving through the US east coast. The day we drove to Virginia was the major day of rain - torrential rain so heavy, there were times we couldn't see the painted lane dividers on the interstate!!!  We managed to get to the hotel I had booked about ten miles from the train station, and we hunkered down for two days.  The weather system brought freezing temperatures, so everything was iced over from all that rain.  We opted to stay in, have meals delivered, and skip the ice.  

On 24 December, we drove to Lorton, checked in with Amtrak, and followed their procedures.  I took photos as some of the autos were loaded onto the rail cars, with crew members driving up ramps and into the two-storey coaches.  Each vehicle received a magnetic number, and that was the identifier for the rest of the trip.

We eventually boarded the train, found our "roomette," and got comfortable.  The roomette is tiny  - as wide across as two seats, and just long enough to lie down when the bunks are folded down.  Our car wasn't very full, and we had a really kind and helpful steward.  There were bathrooms and showers down the corridor, several other roomettes, and one or two full rooms which run across the width of the entire rail car, preventing access to the next car.  Upstairs was a similar setup, though the corridor connected to the next rail car.  

Our steward told us the kitchen was short-staffed due to the weather as well as the holiday, and that our dinners would be served in our room.  He took our orders from the limited menu, made sure we were comfortable, and said he'd be back about 10 PM to set up the bunks.

It was an interesting ride once the train left, just about 5 PM.  First, the train pulled forward so the vehicle cars could be attached.  That took quite a while, I think there were something like twenty-three rail cars hooked up to the train.  The conductor said that even though the train wasn't full, the entire train of passenger cars and train cars was still roughly half a mile long, making the auto train the longest train in the world.

As we rode along, Richard and I saw all sorts of little towns and houses  decorated for Christmas, with buildings and trees outlined in colorful lights, inflatables, and swags of greenery draped around.   Two favorites stood out:  first, someone had a Santa in his sleigh figurine, and eight "deer crossing" yellow diamond signs, with the deer all leaping across the lawn, and yes, of course, a red nose on the deer leading the team!!!  Funniest yard of decorations ever!

But the prettiest was either a park or forest adjacent to someone's house, with scattered lit-up snowflakes hanging from the trees!  The house was nice, with the "icicle" lights framing the house.  But the randomly placed glowing snowflakes really were outstanding - it looked like some random magic forest along our train route!

There were a few problems with our train ride.  Due to the staff shortage, dinners were served much later than anticipated.  Every passenger had a choice of having their meal at 5, 7, or 9 PM.  The woman two rooms down from us requested her meal at 5 PM, and she received dinner at a bit after 10 PM.  Our dinner, expected at 7, arrived about 10 as well.  Our room steward was so irate, he insisted that the head of food service come talk to the passengers in his car.  Not that it helped, but at least the head knew how many people were affected by this inefficiency.

The other issue was the upper bunk.  Our two seats faced each other, and the seats slid together while the backs slid downward, making the lower bunk.  The upper bunk folded out from the wall, a pad was put down, and then a sort of harness was snapped in place so the person up there couldn't fall out.  To climb up, there were small built-in "steps" that we used as shelves.

Well.  At bedtime, Richard lay down on the lower bunk.  The instructions for the upper bunk said to climb up the steps, bend over and get the upper half of your body onto the bunk, and crawl in.  That probably works for a child, or anyone under five feet tall.  I'm only about 5' 4", and my back hit the ceiling before I even got into crawl position!  There was no way I could do a knees-and-hands sort of crawl into that bunk!  I had to do that military belly crawl kind of thing, which of course rather messed up the sheets.  Rolling over wasn't the easiest thing either, because I could barely raise my head!  I don't think the upper bunks were designed for adults, but, well, I did manage a couple of hours sleep.  Eventually.  At least the rocking of the train lulled me to sleep.

 

Our room steward moved our luggage into the room across the corridor, to give us more space.  He also allowed us to sit in there so that we each could have a window and face forward.  (I really can't ride backwards, it makes me a bit ill.)  That definitely helped with our comfort when sitting, but there really wasn't much anyone could do about the sleeping arrangements.  Next time we might need to get a full size room.

Breakfast was served in the dining car, just a cold buffet sort of breakfast.  I should point out that meals are included for people who book the different room options.  People who book the seats only don't have meals included in their price; there's a café car, or they can bring food with them on the train.  Less expensive, but also less roomy and less private.

We arrived in Sanford a bit earlier than the train usually arrives, so the train sat for a bit.  When we were able to pull up to the platform, our friendly steward helped us get everything off the train and put it on a rolling cart.  I was ready to hug this wonderful man goodbye, but, well, Covid.  We were able to wait in the train station until our car was unloaded and his number was called.  We tossed our stuff in, and drove north to Saint Augustine, where we've rented a little house for the winter.  (We did stop along the way at a Chinese restaurant.  It was Christmas Day, and everything else was closed.  It has become a tradition for anyone not celebrating Christmas to have a meal at a Chinese restaurant, so we were happy to find this place!)

So, other than the capsule-like bunk, and the delayed dinner, the train absolutely saved us time and wear on our car (and ourselves).  Especially since I wasn't fully over my bout with Covid and all the subsequent illness.

 

That's our update!  I'll post a bit about our house, where we're located, and anything exciting we find in our wanderings.  I'll also do a short blog about my hands - and then there will be another break while one hand heals and the other does all the work.

 

I promise to keep everyone posted!

 

Pandemic Diaries - Back in the USA - Covid Hits. Truly Pandemic Diaries!

2 January 2023

 

We left our hero and heroine (Richard and me) in Miami, Florida.  The night of 18 November was spent  on the cruise ship as it arrived early to disembark some passengers who were considered medical emergencies. 

 

We non-medical-emergency passengers disembarked on 19 November.  Richard and I ended up getting a taxi to Fort Lauderdale – the original itinerary had the cruise arriving in Fort Lauderdale, but for some reason that was changed to Miami, no explanations.  There were buses, but there seemed to be a long delay and it was just easier to go ahead and grab a taxi.

 

We had already booked a hotel not far from the Ft. Lauderdale airport to spend one night, just to decompress and get used to being on land once again.  The next morning, 20 Nov., we went to the airport in pouring rain, checked in, had breakfast, and flew to Philadelphia.  There were a variety of travel mishaps, fortunately not losing our luggage.  Mostly I pushed Richard around the Philly airport in a wheelchair, because they didn’t have enough personnel to cover all the passengers needing assistance on our arriving flight.  I was fine, until we hit a long uphill ramp – fortunately, some nice man saw my struggle at the top of the ramp and lent a hand!

 

Richard’s brother S met us at the airport to drive us back to their home in New Jersey.  The weather was cold, and of course our warmest clothing was packed in our car because the Mediterranean was rather warm.  Oh well, we unpacked some sweaters and warmer shoes, and thought we’d be fine.

 

The original plan was to spend Thanksgiving with the extended family in the Philadelphia area, hosted by our niece.  Then we would drive down to Saint Augustine, Florida, where we had rented a small house for the winter.  But, life never goes according to plan.  It’s always better or worse, somehow.

 

On Tuesday, 22 November, I was having breakfast and reading, enjoying my mug of tea.  It was a chilly morning, but I had on warm clothes.  I started out warm.  I should have stayed warm.  But on my second mug of tea, I realized I was shivering, and that made no sense.  I finished the tea, and realized I was developing a headache.  More shivering.  Hmmmm.  Sounded like I was coming down with something. 

 

I let the family know I didn’t feel great, and I would go back to bed and take a Covid test.  The test was negative, fortunately.  But the headache got worse, I developed that aching body and bones feeling that often comes with the flu, and my temperature climbed to 100.7.  Not good signs at all.

 

We all agreed I should test again the next day, and of course that test was positive for Covid.  Even though I’ve had the first two vaccinations and three boosters, given my asthma, I thought it would be best if I could take the antiviral medications.  A quick trip to the nearby urgent care center, and I had a prescription for Paxlovid, which I started once we were back home.  A consultation with our niece, the doctor, and all agreed that the entire household should self-isolate and not go anywhere for Thanksgiving.

 

Turns out Paxlovid makes me very nauseated, as it does to some people.  My quick fix for that is always mint tea, so I started drinking that in copious amounts.  Richard moved to the second guest room, I kept my door shut, trying to isolate as much as possible.  Wore a mask for trips to the bathroom, talked to the rest of the family via the telephone or through the closed door, stayed upstairs, and everyone was very kind about bringing me mugs of tea or various meals, leaving them outside the bedroom door. 

 

The Paxlovid worked well, and by Sunday (27 Nov.) I was feeling much better.  Another Covid test, and it was negative.  Everyone agreed I no longer needed to isolate myself, and the two cats were very happy to come snuggle with me again. 

 

But that night, I could tell I was in trouble again.  The fever was back.  My chest was really heavy, my  breathing was labored.  I couldn’t take deep breaths.  This was about 1 AM and everyone was sound asleep, except for me.

 

I debated driving myself to the ER.  We had three cars in the driveway, and our car was blocked at the top end.  I thought that since I couldn’t back up, I could potentially drive the car forward into the back yard.  I could just drive across the yard, over the sidewalk, and onto the road, a straight shot to the ER.  Sounded like a great idea.  But it had rained all day, and there were puddles in the yard.  Maybe not a good idea if I got our car stuck in the mud back there.  (Yeah, sick and possibly low oxygen make for weird logic!  Though it does sound very funny now.)

 

In the morning, 28 Nov., we headed back to the urgent care center.  They told me that if I had had Covid, but now had breathing problems, they really couldn’t help me, they didn’t have the equipment.  I should go straight to the ER.  We headed there.

 

We were directed to the separate seating area for those with Covid symptoms or positive tests.  It took about an hour to get into a room, they were that crowded.  I was in a room with walls, not just curtains, because, well, Covid is that contagious - but they wouldn’t even allow Richard to come to the back!

 

I had a wonderful nurse, though, who kept Richard apprised of what was going on with me.  I was hooked up to various monitors, had a chest x-ray, and the diagnosis was post-Covid bilateral pneumonia, as in pneumonia in both lungs.  My asthmatic lungs were doing exactly what I was afraid they might do if I ever caught Covid – they were freaking out, over-reacting, and being drama queens.

 

So IV antibiotics, a huge dose of steroids, and medication for the coughing.  I ended up being in the ER for four or five hours.  (Once they hooked up the IV, I called Richard and told him to go home for lunch,  I’d call when they were going to discharge me.)  There was talk of admitting me to the hospital, but fortunately, no, I was not.  I went home that afternoon, back to bed for a week or two.  Antibiotics, steroids, the coughing pills, and who knows what else.

 

I was advised to have a follow-up visit with my regular doctor.  Who of course is in Washington state.  I tried to coordinate a tele-med phone call, but the state has a new law or regulation that they can’t give medical advice over the phone to people out of state.  So no tele-med call allowed.

 

I tracked down the medical practice I had been to in 2020, because they had my records.  The person I saw didn’t like the sound of my lungs at all.  She said between the Covid and the pneumonia, on top of my asthmatic reaction, was a double assault to my lungs, so we’d treat this aggressively.  Her weapons were a higher dose of steroids and two different antibiotics.  Wow!  Major weapons!

 

Two more weeks in New Jersey.  Went through the course of treatment, had a follow-up chest x-ray that looked pretty good, and finally, about a month late, we were able to leave New Jersey.  I felt like I was back to about 85% of my normal healthy self.

 

We made it to Florida (I will do a separate blog about the trip south), and settled in our new temporary home.  But I could feel my lungs getting tight and painful once again.  Fortunately, we had established a medical presence at another urgent care place when we were here in 2020-21.  On Monday, 26 December, we went there and saw someone.  I gave an abbreviated history with the meds and doses, the PA liked the treatment but listened to my lungs.  He said they didn’t sound like there was pneumonia, but he described them as sounding “coarse.”  As in fluid building up once again.

 

So here it is, some five weeks after the initial illness, I’m back on my third round of antibiotics and steroids.  Laying low and just trying to heal.  It’s fine, all that bed rest gave me time to edit all the photos from my two month trip and post all the previous travel blogs. 

 

This also has shown me that I was right to do all I could to protect myself from Covid.  For some people, this disease hasn’t been a big problem.  For my insanely uncooperative and over-reactive lungs, it has become a huge problem.  I’ll keep masking up, and I’m trying to see a pulmonologist.  There may be more we can do to get me back to normal, and keep these lungs from freaking out. 

 

The only fortunate part is that I didn’t infect anyone else in the household – everyone else has been just fine.  I guess isolating right away was good, and the fact that everyone else also was vaccinated and boosted.

 

This has been quite the unexpected adventure in post travel!  No idea if I picked up the virus those last few days on the ship, or in our hotel in Florida, or possibly the airport or the flight.  Doesn’t matter, really.  But it has not been a fun adventure, that’s for sure.

 

I forgot to add the map showing where our cruise went.  Red stars denote stops in towns or cities; the yellow-orange triangle is Volcano Stromboli.  Since I have zero photos to add to this blog, I might as well end with that.  Remembering the fun days that led to me catching Covid.