Less or Morgan

I Ended Up in the ER on Vacation. Here’s What It Changed

I just wanted to go home and get better. In all my years of going on trips, I have never been the type of person to hang out in a hotel room. I don’t need to rest or take naps during the day. I like to see and experience as much as I can in the little time I have. This type of travel doesn’t work for everyone, and usually when I get home, I crash quickly, but it’s been my style until this trip.

I’m usually healthy, and it’s easy to take that for granted. I don’t think about it. I don’t often get sick, except for the flu once a year in the winter. This trip, it happened. Getting sick while traveling is a curse. I have never experienced it before, but it happened on this trip.

On the first day, driving to Port Angeles, I got a migraine. I picked up our rental car with my friend Anna, and when we got back to the hotel to pick up our partners, I said I think I am going to throw up. Then I continued vomiting the whole three-hour drive.

Time felt slow.

I lay in the back of our rental car as my friend drove. Seeing only saw the green tree-shaped blurs as we drove deeper into seclusion when I dared to open my eyes. I was dizzy and nauseous.

We met up with one of Anna’s friends at a coffee shop on the way. I don’t remember their names or faces, but I do remember that the vomit was orange from the Gatorade I had been drinking when I threw up on the floor of the shop. Sorry if that is graphic, but it’s how it happened. I apologized to her friends and the barista for getting sick while traveling.

When we arrived at our Airbnb, another friend of mine joined us. I briefly said hello and went to bed. Forced to miss out on the fun because of a migraine. The Advil wasn’t working, and I couldn’t keep much food down. I tried one more time to take something stronger. This time, an Excedrin Migraine pill. It worked. Within 30 minutes, I was feeling better. I thought it was the end of it.

Our group of five went out to dinner, and my friend bought me a cute sticker from the bookstore I’d missed earlier. All seemed well. Waking up the next morning, we ventured out to Cape Flattery Trail to see the farthest point on the Pacific Northwest. On our hike from where we stood, we could see Canada. The day was great until I made a decision on the way back that would land me in the emergency room.

On the way back, we stopped at Lake Crescent. There is a swimming hole where you can jump into the water. While standing there deciding whether or not I am going to jump into the cold water, I see a man jump from a 45-foot cliff angle, and I think to myself. I have to do that. Fueled only by adrenaline I climb up the side of the mountain. When I get to the top I can’t do it. I and get so scared and it takes me at least 30 minutes to actually take the leap, and by then the sun is going down and my friends were getting bitten by mosquitos.

But I did it.

When I crawled onto land and started to put back on my clothes, I felt the pain bubbling up on my temples again. The migraine was slowly coming back. I had brain fog all day anyway, but when we got back, I tried to play a game of cards but couldn’t keep my head up. I took an Excedrin again, hoping the pain would ease. It didn’t. It got worse and worse until I got scared. I started frantically googling. If I jump off a cliff and get a migraine, what does that mean? Some answers said a concussion, but all of them said to go to the ER.

So at 3 am I went to the Emergency Room in Port Angeles. I could barely keep my eyes open, but seeing other patients in the ER really woke me up. They took my vitals, asked what was going on, and told me to wait until the doctor could see me.

I waited in the lobby for hours as the sun started to rise, with the sounds of a woman screaming in pain ringing in my ear and another person yelling at security and being escorted out. The ER is not for the faint of heart at this witching hour.

Finally, the doctor sees me and gives me something he calls a migraine cocktail. I am supposed to wait 30 minutes for it to kick in. They put me in a room off to the side, which was nice, but here’s the problem. The room was freezing. I had almost forgotten how bad my headache was because of how cold I got. I was shivering so much I couldn’t sleep. Finally, the sleepiness outweighed my discomfort, and I drifted off. The sleep made the hour and a half of waiting go by more easily.

When the doctor came back, he checked me out, and I was discharged. No more headache.

Except for the next four days, I woke up with a headache every morning. It happened like clockwork. I would wake up, and for the first 30 minutes I felt fine. Then the migraine would knock me out again. At least this time, the Excedrin would work. I never would have guessed I would end up getting sick while traveling.

I had to consult an expert… my sister. My sister is going to medical school in Virginia. I told her what was going on and asked for advice. She said, “Well, your migraine keeps getting re-triggered because you aren’t resting.” So I was forced to do something I never do on trips.

I took it easy.

Woke up late. Didn’t exercise. Took the shortest trail. Overall, I didn’t push myself.

The only way to really get better was to go home. Getting a migrane at home was one thing but getting sick while traveling is another. Normally I have time to rest. It was the first time on a trip I longed for my own bed and didn’t stay up late talking with my friends. It was also the first time I didn’t feel invincible. I have always been the queen of pushing through. I never want to miss out. This time I had no choice. It got me thinking about why it’s important to travel while you can.

I didn’t have these migraine issues a few years ago. While my doctor thinks they might be related to stress or the excessive amount of caffeine I drink, they don’t have answers.

After getting sick while traveling, I realized something. While this isn’t going to change my adventurous side, it did force me to travel in a new way. Oftentimes I want to see everything, video everything, and wake up for every sunrise while seeing every sunset. I am greedy. I want to see everything. Some trips aren’t about that. Sometimes you get sick and have to roll with the punches. I am learning to be flexible and open to the detours that will inevitably happen on trips and in life.

Hopefully, I can go back to Washington again and do it the right way. I would love to go back and actually hike the Skyline Trail at Mount Rainier again, but for now I am home and focused on relaxing.

Until next time,

Morgan

Guys, I am getting so much better at flying the drone. Some of these clips were harder to edit, but most importantly, I am excited about getting some airtime practice. This time I got it up and flying all on my own, with @annasmcq ‘s emotional support, of course! Hawaii has such a beautiful landscape; it’s easy to make her look good. I had been dreading this 15 hour travel day, but it actually ended up going better than I expected. Most importantly, I had a great trip and a successful photoshoot with @annasmcq This color walk really challenged me to look at things differently. In the loop, there aren’t a ton of interesting yellow things. Trying to make something boring seem compelling through a photo is a new way to challenge my creativity. While I don’t think the photos I got are anything to frame, the practice was a fun way to challenge my thinking and how I approach what to photograph. The long list of creative projects I have on my to-do list is never ending, but one day at a time I am tackling them! It’s not so bad getting to work on them at the Ritz-Carlton either. Postcards from Ritz Carlton Grande Lakes in Orlando, Florida; sunshine on my mind. Learning something new this week. For the longest time, the drone has intimidated me. I am not very good at video games, and worried I would crash it. But after some patience and learning, I finally got the nerve up to play around with Kerwin’s drone. I spent the last few days completely recharging at the @ritzcarltonorlando , and I have never felt more relaxed. Spending my days eating fruit by the pool, editing photo galleries in a lobby full of flowers, and mountain biking in the woods was exactly what the doctor ordered. Making my commute look cinematic with the DJI Action 5. Sometimes it’s just a pain to bring my big camera places so this little camera does the trick. Procrastination at its finest. I shot this in Portugal and have been sitting on the footage for months now. But when I looked back at the videos and photos I took, I noticed something. Every time I review footage from a trip afterward, I realize how quickly I have forgotten things. Maybe that’s a big reason why I love filming so much: so that I can remember details I so easily forget. These are a few of those moments from Portugal worth remembering.

lessormorgan

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