Choir tour from...somewhere not nice....

[Alexxia]

Yesterday in the thread formerly known as 'Something,' I said I'd tell about how my choir trip went this past weekend (even though I'm sure the majority of you didn't notice I was gone). So, here goes:

We left on Saturday afternoon and headed to Georgia without making any major stops. We were to stay in local homes for the evening. I was with three other girls. Our hosts, however, were at a wedding, so we were taken to their home by the music minister, who was given the key, but not the security pass code for the alarm. We wondered what the beeping sound was when we walked in, but he apparently wasn't concerned. Until we start hearing sirens. Minister of music starts swearing like a sailor. I find the time to be mildly amused by this even as I contemplate my chances of ever getting into the Navy with jail time on my record. Security company calls, asks music minister if he's a burgler. He says no (who the hell is gonna say yes?). The company hangs up with him to check on his story with the owners, who are still at the wedding, and who haven't left the codes for us.
Anyway, the maid calls for some reason, and Mr. Music Minister gets the codes from her. Sirens stop. House is blissfully silent. Music Man leaves us alone in a strange house (anyone else think this is a bad thing?), telling us he'd return in about fifteen minutes to bring us to a party at one of the other homes. We missed dinner because of the whole alarm fiasco, but we caught dessert, so we didn't starve, at least.
Anyway, the alarm story was a hit with our fellow choir members at the party, and after a while, we went back to the place we were staying. No alarms this time. Music guy leaves us alone again. The occupants of the home are still at the wedding.
We four girls all agree to get to bed, as we have a fairly early day tomorrow. Small hitch in the shower plans, though: I never took German Shower 101, so I couldn't get the damn thing to work. Minor setback, though, as the two girls in the room down the hall had a normal shower.
After a little while, when we're all clean and changed into our pyjamas, the dogs start barking downstairs. We're talking rabid barking here, not little yip-yapping at a person walking his or her own little pet. Well, we thought it was excited barks because Mummy and Daddy were home. So, we all agreed to go downstairs to greet our hosts.

To be continued...

[Alexxia]

All right, so once we're all downstairs, we notice that it's still deserted apart from the two little poodles. We're a bit concerned. I should've mentioned that when we first got there, we'd taken a tour around the house. There were a few things out of place when we went downstairs to greet the owners. Drawers were open that weren't before, doors unlocked that shouldn't have been, etc.
We knew that the youth minister lived in the guest cottage in the back of the house. So, we found the church directory and tried calling her. Nobody answered, so we assumed maybe she'd gone to bed or something. Well, we were still a bit freaked out, so we all four agreed to perform a thorough search of the house, all of us sticking together. It was windy, so the noise of the trees against the windows didn't help alleviate our fears.
One of the girls suggests we all walk to the guest cottage and knock on the youth minister's door. All of us are agreed, and when the girl opens the door, she screams and slams it again, scaring the hell out of all of us, and set my heart rate well above the speed of sound. She thought she saw something moving outside. Scratch that idea.
So, we consulted the church directory again and got a hold of the music minister. He calls the youth minister's house, and she answers and comes over straight away to check on us.
She checked out the whole place and said that she couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Soon after, our hosts arrived...drunk. The rest of the night was smooth, though. Nothing else happened, and we learned how that damn shower worked. Now I know.
Next morning and day went smoothly. Two church services in the morning and one small concert in the evening. We stayed in local homes again, but there were no more incidents like the previous evening.

To be continued...

[Alexxia]

The next morning, we were taken back to the church to rehearse and then head to the local high school. Two of our members, however, were sick upon arrival. They were throwing up. We thought it might be food poisoning, as they'd both stayed in the same home, but the other two who'd stayed there didn't have any problems keeping it down.
By the time we were ready to pull out of the church parking lot to head to the school, one more girl had fallen ill. On our way from the church to the school, yet another girl became sick, and then another as we were warming up in the school's auditorium. Are you all feeling a little concerned yet? Just wait, there's more.
Between the first and second performance stops of the day, nobody else got sick. But while we were on stage ready to sing, two guys had to step off or give the audience a performance that was unscheduled and unrehearsed, and wholly unwelcomed.
Seven people were now down. We made our way to the hotel that we would be staying at for the night, and two more people became ill. So, our choir director made the decision to cancel the hotel and head straight for the nearest emergency room.
All the sickies were sent into the ER while the rest of us waited in the bus. Ten minutes later, I became the latest victim of the hurly bug. I felt much better right after, but it wouldn't last, as I'd soon find out.
Ten of our group were in the ER holding these handy little vomit bags, waiting to be called in. I should probably put an emphasis on waiting, because there was an undoubtedly long wait. Did I mention that we were WAITING? Oh, I did? Good.
They finally called me in to check my vitals after only an hour of waiting. They told me I wasn't allowed to wear a jacket because my temperature was at 101.6. So, I was sent back to the waiting room, where it was freezing, to sit with my nifty little vomit bag. While we were waiting, three more of our group ended up signing in. We now had half of our entire group in the emergency room holding handy little vomit bags, waiting to be called into the back, and basically moaning pitifully and trying to get comfortable while throwing up every fifteen minutes. The first person of our group was finally called to be treated after only five hours of waiting! Imagine that! Only five hours.
Well, after only waiting four and a half hours myself, I took the liberty of completely ignoring the nurse's advice and wrapping up in my sweatshirt and curling up in a chair, handy vomit bag firmly clutched in my hand, ready for action.
The whole group ended up staying there from 5:30 Monday evening until...get this...11:00 Tuesday morning. I understand that we were non-urgent cases, but don't they take compassionate pleas? After the first four hours, I was calling for them to page Dr. Kevorkian (however the hell you spell that)! It was not a fun time.

[Alexxia]

I forgot to say that besides the setbacks *coughUNDERSTATEMENTcough*, the performances themselves went fairly well. And I didn't have to get bloodwork, which is always a plus.

[Clarsax]

Wow, sounds light a long couple of days. I hope you're feeling better now.

[Alexxia]

Oh, yes, most of us have managed to drag ourselves to our classes (although I've been told that two more people from our group have gotten sick since yesterday). But I've been able to hold down what I've eaten.

[PrairieScaper]

Ick, did the hospital tell you what was wrong with everyone? Hope you're feeling all better now!

[Alexxia]

I believe they determined that it was the Flu. I'm not sure if they told me personally, but I'm betting that they could've introduced me to Ben Browder personally and I wouldn't have remembered it afterwards. :dunno:

[PrairieScaper]

:eek3: Wow, you really were sick then! Almost on your deathbed!

[Alexxia]

If I'd forget meeting Ben? Yeah, I was pretty out of it. I still think that some of the things I thought I dreamed actually happened. :shrug:
But I don't remember even dreaming that I'd met Ben...he's in Oz anyway, right?

[eta_carinae]

Wow, what a story. All night long in the ER? What the hell was happeneing that was so serious you guys ended up spending the night there, and only with the flu?

[Alexxia]

It's not that we were kept there because we were sick, it was that we were kept waiting because we were just sick!
If that made any sense at all.
We were what they called "non-urgent" care, so we had about a six- to eight-hour wait. Which (and I don't care what they say...give me a broken leg over puking up nothing) is torture when you can't even drink water without feeling queasy. Hence the pleading for Dr. K.

[eta_carinae]

Was there some huge emergency going on? It seems strange that they wouldn't have at least tried to make you more comfortable. Was it just super busy or what? I mean geeze, half a choir shows up puking, and they end up in the waiting room? They should have just sent you home if there was nothing they could do for you. But that's just my opinion :D Were they at least sympathetic?

[Alexxia]

I didn't see any big emergencies, but then again, I wasn't paying much attention to anything else but the bag in my hands. Most of the nurses were indifferent, and there was one point where I went up to the desk and asked if they'd take my temperature again to see if it was down enough for me to bundle up. They said to just keep my jacket off. Didn't check my temp or anything. We were lucky enough to have one of the choir members' mums working in registration, so she might've had something to do with us getting a preliminary vitals check so quickly (and when I say "quickly," I mean in about an hour).

[Mrelia]

Don't you know anything about the ER? In order to get fast service, you have to hire someone to play the bongos nearby.
(At least that's the impression I get from the TV show.)
Personally, if they didn't get to me after a couple hours, I'd start "forgetting" to use my vomit bag. They may be used to messes, but an entire choir vomitting all over the floor...they're gonna want to get ya'll out of there!

[Alexxia]

Originally posted by Mrelia
Don't you know anything about the ER? In order to get fast service, you have to hire someone to play the bongos nearby.
(At least that's the impression I get from the TV show.)
Personally, if they didn't get to me after a couple hours, I'd start "forgetting" to use my vomit bag. They may be used to messes, but an entire choir vomitting all over the floor...they're gonna want to get ya'll out of there!
Ya know, I suggested that we all start synchronized vomiting! But the rest of the group didn't seem too keen on it. :dunno:

[eta_carinae]

:rollin: what a site that would be!

[Alexxia]

I think it would've cleared out everyone else. We could've been great!

[eta_carinae]

The best performance of the trip

[Alexxia]

:lol
The director wouldn't have been impressed, but...:shrug:.

[eta_carinae]

Hey, if it got you treated and out of the ER, who cares?

[Alexxia]

True.