Airplane Trip to Germany

After taking stronger prescription pain pills on Thursday night I was much improved on Friday and so began planning to take the plane trip to Germany with my kids on Saturday. Some good friends, the Brandsma family, came and picked us and most our luggage up in their suburban to help Cory’s Mom get us to the airport in one trip. Once there, we checked ourselves and our luggage at the counter, went through security and then Phillip, Mariel and Grace took a detour to Quiznos to get some lunch while Elizabeth, Cloie cat and I headed for the gate. Once at the gate, it was clear that the plane was already boarding and my other kids were nowhere in sight. So, I stayed with the luggage and the cat and sent Elizabeth sprinting off to call the kids to the airplane gate as fast as they could run. Everyone else had already boarded and they were giving the final boarding announcement when all the kids came running up.

In all the chaos of checking in and boarding, I had forgotten to take my next doses of medicine on time. Therefore, by the time I found my seat on the airplane I was in excruciating pain. I quickly asked the flight attendant for a glass of water and took some medication before the plane pushed back from the gate. Luckily the airplane was more than half empty so once we got up to cruising altitude, I lifted myself up and hobbled over to the nearest empty row and laid flat on my back across three seats to get some relief from the pain.

By the time our flight landed in Salt Lake City, my medication had begun to kick in and I was feeling much better. We were able to walk leisurely to our connecting flight’s departure gate which was close by and we hung out there for the next two hours. In the gate waiting area there was plenty of room for me to lay down on my back and rest. The next leg of our trip was almost 10 hours as we were flying from Salt Lake City to Paris, France so I knew it would be a while before I was able to lie down again. Phillip found an electrical outlet to plug in his laptop and my older kids took turns checking email and logging into Facebook and then they watched a movie via Netflix with the younger girls. Then we boarded our next plane bound for Europe.

The long flight went rather well for us all. Our cat slept through most of it while we watched a couple of movies and ate dinner. I had brought along an empty, quart-size Ziploc bag and asked the flight attendant to fill it with ice. This I put behind my back to help with the pain and stiffness. Eventually I had to dump out the melted ice and water but it worked great while it lasted. The only negative side to this home remedy was my backside being all wet from the condensation of water to the bag. By the time the third movie was showing, we were all tired and dozing off, which was good as it was an R rated movie that I didn’t want the little girls to watch. I took away their headphones and they eventually drifted off to sleep. When we were being served breakfast, I knew we were getting close to our destination but I let Mariel and Grace continue sleeping and I kept their breakfast for them until they awoke.

When we touched down in Paris, I needed Phillip to retrieve all the bags from the overhead bins as I wasn’t suppose to lift anything and Elizabeth had her hands full with the cat and her own bag. But, our bags had gotten stashed on all sides of the plane, wherever there was room. So, we just had to wait while Phillip dodged in and out of the stream of passengers trying to exit while pulling bags down. Once we had everything then we exited quickly as we only had just over an hour to make our connecting flight. It just so happens that our connecting gate was D60, at the farthest possible point from where our flight had just landed. We didn’t know that at the time, but we just kept following the signs to the D gates around corners, along corridors, and through moving sidewalks. Finally, it looked like we were exiting the airport completely and it occurred to us that we were going to have to go through security to get to our gate. That is when I started praying that we could make this connecting flight.

Sure enough, as we rounded the last corner we spotted the security line that we had to navigate before being able to board the airplane and it looked menacing. There were security folks stationed at almost every corner of the lines and they were asking to see boarding passes. I kept showing them my baggage claim tickets that had the destination airport as Stuttgart, Germany but I didn’t have boarding passes or even a ticket to show as ours was an electronic ticket. When we were all the way up to the scanner and had all our items in bins and were going to walk through the security checkpoint they asked to see our boarding passes which we didn’t have. Then the security officer told us to take all our things off the conveyor belt and get out of line. We piled all our stuff in the middle of the floor right there at the security checkpoint and the officer told me to leave everything there and go over to the nearest airline desk and get boarding passes, which I did. Then we had to again place all our stuff in bins and go through security to be able to get to our gate to board in time. Thankfully, we made it there just as the airplane was boarding.

Our one consolation in all this chaos at the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris was that the ticketing agent gave us seats in first class since there were five seats together across the airplane in row four. So, for the last leg of our flight, we were served shrimp cocktail and salmon pâté along with blue cheese, a breadstick and dessert. We were also offered complimentary wine and beer but graciously declined. When we landed in Stuttgart, Germany we went straight to baggage claim and waited for all our luggage to appear. When the conveyor belt stopped we were still missing a bag so we had to stay there and report our missing bag at the baggage counter. We were last in line behind several others and had no way to contact Cory and explain to him where we were or what we were doing. As we waited in line, two uniformed policemen approached us and asked my name. I answered, “Angela.” and the officer looked confused until I added, “Isakson.” He then nodded and smiled and said there were two persons inquiring about the Isaksons’ whereabouts. Forty-five minutes later than scheduled we finally walked out of baggage claim and into Cory’s arms.

Last Week's Challenges

The Saturday before last in the morning friends showed up bright and early to help us clean our house and get it ready for renters. In spite of reading the email three times and it said, "Is 9:00AM too early?" I kept reading it as 9:30AM and said, "That would be great, we'll be ready for you." So, at 8:55AM my doorbell rings while I am lying in bed thinking I need to get up to shower. As I opened the door standing there in my pajamas, I was greeted by all six members of the Lee family with vacuum, broom, and rags in hand! They were such awesome workers and had the place almost whipped into shape by lunchtime.

My back was aching but I didn’t pay much attention as there was much to be done. The next morning my lower back muscles were really hurting and again I ignored them and pushed on through the day so we could go spend some time with the Boise Families Fellowship and say goodbye to some dear friends. Well, by Sunday afternoon, those same lower back muscles were screaming in pain and by Sunday evening I couldn’t even stand up straight or walk.

Sunday night, I ended up crawling up the stairs to bed. And in the morning when I again couldn’t stand up, I ended up sliding/crawling down the stairs face-first (yes, it was a stupid move, I now admit) and there I stayed flat on the floor for the next three days. I did call into the doctor’s office on Monday and he prescribed a muscle relaxant that Phillip drove to the pharmacy and picked up for me. Each day I was hoping for just a slight improvement but none came and my hopes of getting on an airplane to fly to Germany at the end of the week began to wane.

Thankfully, my wonderful mother-in-law called and offered to drive down to Boise and help me and the kids try and get ready to leave the country. She arrived on Wednesday afternoon and immediately starting nursing me back to health, playing with the little girls and working through my task list of what needed to be done before we left the country. On Thursday and Friday Connie spent much of those days driving me around to doctor appointments to try and get me up and walking so I could get on the airplane on Saturday.