The family Vacation

After missing the entire week of dance camp, the following week was my family's vacation. My the day we left, the steroids had taken effect, and was no longer suffering the effects of the allergic reaction I had gotten from penicillian.

Too bad I cannot tell you I was physically back to my normal self.

I was stressed to the max, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I had been sick the entire morning, as my father packed the van for our trip to Traverse City. As my mother and father were packing up, and my brother was in the basement anxiously awaiting the "go ahead" to get in the car, I was in the upstairs bathroom. By this point, I had learned to wait to take a shower until I was sure I could not hold the sickness off anymore. The sound of the shower was a great way of muting the sounds comming from my body. And, if the shower had gone on too long, I would run the sink instead. The good thing about living in a 2 story house is that I was normally the only one upstairs... My mother and father had no idea what was going on up there.

I was so greatful that I actually made it the whole way to Traverse City successfully! I had (luckily) figured out that if I sat directly in the middle of the car, and looked ahead out the windshield, It helped with the motion sickness.

The vacation itself...well...I regret I can't say it was much of a vacation at all. My parents cottage is quite small, I shared a room with my little brother, and there was only ONE bathroom.

This meant I was going to have to be creative.

Each morning, I would stay in bed as long as I physically able to. (I seemed to be fine as long as I didn't move.) I told my parents things like "Oh, It's so nice to just rest!", and "Gosh! I'm really tired today!". The other problem I was having, was that the more I spoke, the sicker I felt. I also spent quite a bit of time just sleeping. My body was so tired it was sometimes difficult to even use the bathroom. And when I couldn't sleep and I felt ill, I would physically force myself to sleep until my head ached. Once my family had made it out of the cottage and to the beach (lucky for me, they left pretty early), I would get up and go about my morning ritual. I needed to be absolutly positive no one was around, in case the sickness struck. And, surely it did.
Every...single...day.

I did, however make it outside to the beach once the nausiousness had passed. And, it was really nice. Beautiful actually. Of course as life would have it, by the morning of day 3 of our vacation I found myself on a trip to the local hospital. Wouldn't you know the steroids the hospital had prescribed had a side effect of severe sun poisoning? Even with sunscreen?

My entire body. Scalp to the top of my feet was burned. Not just red, purple actually. The hospital called it "4th degree sun burn". Turns out, it's about as bad as a sunburn can become. And it happened over only a few hours! I was miserable. I was sick. I was tired. And, there was nothing that could be done about it.
I spent the rest of the week slathered in antibiotic ointment, frozen towels, and drinking water.

The family vacation was runined.