Craig MacDonald's not-so-excellent adventure

No, I'm not at a cabin on Puget Sound. I'm sitting in my chair at home feeling a strange combination of embarrassed, disgusted and thankful.

I felt fine when I got on the plane at 7:50 yesterday morning. Maybe 20 minutes into the flight I felt a little light-headed, but that's not unusual for me (when flying!) and I can usually just talk my way through it. The last thing I remember is thinking that I should try to get my head forward. The next thing I remember is people gathered around me and a woman gently slapping me and asking me to talk to her. They got me on the floor in the aisle, asked for a dr. or nurse to come forward, and put an oxygen mask over my face.
I don't have a clear concept of how much time passed, and I'll skip some of the less pleasant details of the next stretch of time, but they seemed to think that flying on to Seattle with a guy laying in the aisle unable to speak or move wasn't such a good thing.
So the plane was diverted to Las Vegas, and I was taken off and transported to Desert Springs Hospital in the back of an ambulance. I spent the next several hours (I have no idea of how long any of these stages lasted) in their ER hooked up to an IV and getting my vitals checked.
In order to get back on a plane I would need the Dr.'s clearance, and that required spending the night in the hospital. That didn't make a lot of sense to me on several levels, so they discharged me to the lobby where I waited for Pam & Steve, who made the 7-hour drive to get me. And I can tell you that lobby chairs make for an uncomfortable sleeping position.

Note: When stuff goes wrong, as it certainly will, nothing equals the value of family. I am very, very thankful for mine and for the relationship we have. In any circumstance any of us can call on any of the others with the assurance that if it can be done, it will be. And if nothing can be done, we'll all stay loyal and supportive through whatever. The greatest blessing I have - my family!

We got back to the house at 3:00, and Steve still had the 30-minute drive to his place. I spent most of the trip laying down in the back seat.

I have no idea what happened or why. I don't know how much of what I feel today is a bug of some sort that bears responsibility for the event, or if this is the aftermath of yesterday's experience, but I feel generally whooped. My suitcase is getting back here at 2:00 this afternoon and we may have to go pick it up, but other than that I'm laying low for awhile.

I wish I could apologize to the rest of the passengers who got into Seattle several hours later than they planned. And thank the people who helped me out, every one of whom was kind and compassionate, from the people on the plane to the EMT's in the airport to the nurses in the ER. (Note: paper scrubs are not a fashion statement you want to make if you're going to sit in a lobby for 7 hours.) But right now, aside from feeling lousy, I'm thankful for the way things turned out, especially compared to what could have been.

So no pictures of eagles soaring over Puget Sound, but maybe I'll run some water in the bathtub and take a pic of one of Pam's rubber duckies floating around.