Day 3: Sunday, 5/1

I started my day at 7am today. The plan was to get up, get ready & head to the pool to get the perfect lounge chair to spend my entire day in. Today was a sea day so that meant pretty much the entire ship had the same idea as me. Things get crazy on sea days when it comes to finding a lounge chair near the pool. People get up at 6am, go out & put their stuff on a bunch of chairs, then go back to bed & most of them never even end up using the stinking chair. It’s so annoying. So my alarm goes off & thanks to the Nyquill I slept the entire night without ever waking up. This is the part where I’d like to tell you that all I needed was a good night sleep & I felt much better. Not so much. I woke up in serious pain. It was now not only a soar throat, but my neck hurt to move it & was very stiff all the way down to my shoulders, it now also hurt in the back of my head/neck whenever I swallowed. My ears hurt, it hurt to blink. Swallowing water felt as though I was swallowing glass. This was bad. 

After a quick check in the mirror I knew that dayquill/nyquill was not gonna touch this. My tonsils were so swollen they were almost touching. Breathing was difficult. I have never in my life been this sick. I knew before even talking to my mom that I was gonna need antibiotics. So now the dilemma. The ship doctor is expensive & of course doesn’t take insurance & he’d most likely make me stay in my room for 24 hours so I didn’t spread whatever it was I had. Tomorrow we would be in Mexico but the thought of going to a clinic in Mexico...um yeah. I’ll pass. I’d go in for antibiotics & end up sold to Indonesia as a sex slave or something. I know, just a tad dramatic...it’s been a long boring day with lots of MSNBC documentaries. Work with me. So I did the responsible thing... I went back to bed. I slept until 9am, when my mom called to see why I hadn’t met her yet. I told her I’d be over in a little bit. Then I fell back to sleep. I finally got myself over to her at about 10:30am. She knew at the sight of me that things were bad. I was on a caribbean cruise & last I had talked to her we were spending the day at the pool. I walk in wearing jeans, a t-shirt, & the dead give-away... zero make up. She asked how I was feeling & when I went to talk to her the final give away of how sick I was hit. The sound of my muffled voice even surprised me. So she checked my throat & sure enough she insisted that we go to the doctor... NOW. No options. I felt like I was 9 years old again. I knew I should go & so when my mom said I had to go, there was no getting out of it. Growing up you had to be bleeding out of the ears to warrant missing school & going to the doctor. God forbid if we flushed our throw up. Forget it. So when she was so quick to say I needed to see a doctor, I definitely took her seriously. So off to the doctor I went. Yay! 

My mom & I head down to the medical center. The doctor is not in. He’d be back at 4pm. It was about 11:30am, so we headed up to get something to eat. I had chicken noodle soup with a side of shards of glass. After lunch my mom got me some hot water & salt to gargle. That was fun. My mom didn’t want to take any chances of not enough salt...cause this wasn’t like gargling salt water, it was more like coating the back of your throat with a layer of salt PASTE. I nearly threw up. I diluted it down & that was much better. After that my throat was feeling even worse. I headed back to my room to sleep until 4pm. At 4pm I headed down to the medical center. They weren’t messing around. They took my blood pressure, temperature, oxygen level, etc. I sit in the waiting room for a bit & then the doctor comes out. My mom lets out some sort of remark under her breathe letting me know just how good looking she thought the doctor was. I can’t bring her anywhere. She’s like a teenager. I didn’t really see it, but apparently this guy was attractive to 60 year olds. I think it was the accent. 

So he reads my chart & then has me get on the exam table. Let me just tell you this place is like a mini hospital. They have everything including an intensive care unit & a surgery room! So he looks at my throat & has a very similar reaction to my mom’s. He couldn’t believe how swollen my tonsils were. He said they were like punching bags. Thanks doc. Diagnoses...tonsillitis. He put me on antibiotics & painkillers. He said it takes up to two weeks to be back to 100% & said that I have to follow up with my doctor when I get home. Thankfully, I did not have to be quarantined to my room. Cruise ships are very serious about disease prevention. Sickness can spread on a ship so quick that they have to be very careful. I was going there with the plans to be quarantined to my room for at least 24 hours. He said that this had been “brewing” for a couple of days & that I’m past the contagious stage. So he gave me my drugs & sent me on my way.

Nurse mom walked me to my room & wrote down a schedule for when I need to take my meds. One every 8hrs the other every 12hrs. She wanted to stay with me but I already felt terrible for how this cruise had been going for my parents because of me & didn’t want to be even more of a downer. So I insisted that they go to dinner & that I’d just order room service & probably a movie since there is NOTHING on the room tvs. My channel options are Nickelodeon, BBC World News, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, & “favorite shows” which airs old episodes of “popular” (read:crappy) sitcoms. Seriously. If I watch one more prison documentary I think I may end up insane. She then told me that tonight at 8pm they were airing the Mets/Phillies game in the sports bar if I felt up to it. Let me tell you...there is no painkiller strong enough for me to survive a possible sweep by the phillies in the company of philly fans...drunk philly fans with the ESPN broadcasters calling the game. I mean the painkillers are good...but not that good. 

So she headed off and I went to bed. I woke up at about 6pm & ordered dinner. A blt & fruit plate with yogurt. I’m not a big fan of yogurt but doc’s orders was to drink lots of fluids & eat lots of yogurt. Wonderful. Room service came pretty quick. The guy was sweet & brought me an extra fruit plate. So I was sweet & tipped him extra. I ate that while watching how inmate 2271 “Butch” made a knife out of his tooth brush. Once I was done eating, I went back to sleep. 

I woke up again but I ended up not ordering a movie since I didn’t think I’d stay awake through the whole thing. I just flipped through the channels another 20 times hoping that  a new channel would magically appear. Not so much. At this point the painkillers were working pretty good. They’ve taken the edge of. With them now I just feel like I have a normal cold. My mom has called a bunch of times to check in & to see if I needed anything. Yeah...a new set of tonsils would be great! I tried to upload yesterday’s pictures from my phone again but I still can’t get it to work. I’m gonna start taking pictures with my normal camera so then you’ll definitely get pictures. With how I’m feeling tonight I don’t see how I won’t be feeling good enough to at least spend the day laying by the pool rather than in this room. Tomorrow we arrive to Costa Maya, Mexico. The ship will be empty so that will be nice. I wasn’t planning to get off the ship as it was but now with my “toxic tonsils” (thanks Matt) I have no plans of doing anything that doesn’t include the lounging position. 

I’m expected to feel good enough at some point to enjoy this cruise. The Doctor didn’t really tell me a timetable for how I’d be feeling except that it will take up to 2 weeks to feel 100% & that it could come back. Thanks for that bit of great news. However he also told me that alcohol & the drugs don’t mix well so to only keep it to 2 drinks & to take it easy tomorrow & not get off the ship. So apparently he thinks I’ll be feeling good enough to enjoy at least some of the cruise. I’ll take that. So it’s off to bed for me. Hoping tomorrow I’ll be up to at least leaving my cabin. This cruise has brought new meaning to the saying “cabin fever”. 

Let’s go Mets! Ugh.