Our holiday in MI and GA

We had a nice vacation in MI and GA this year with our families. We flew into MI on the 26th and spent a couple of days with my family, and then on the 30th we flew to GA and spent time with Alfonso's family. My family had a nice holiday dinner that included venison from the deer that my dad had hunted for in November and bear from a neighborhood kid. Courtesy of Chicago O'Hara Airport, I had a mild case of food poisoning from a hamburger I had eaten during our layover. So, I wasn't able to enjoy the venison and bear, but I ate well once the food had cleared from my system.

It was good to see my siblings along with their significant others. Also, my brother Joe had proposed to his girlfriend Mary, so it was exciting. Also, my little grandmother came to visit us (she is very cute and quite like the grandmotherly type) so we had a good time. We saw Alfonso's family in Georgia, where we rented a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We ate lots of yummy mexican food that Alfonso's sister and mother cooked for us. One day we tried to go visit some waterfalls, but it didn't quite work out. Still, we had a good time watching movies, eating, making a fire in the backyard, and hanging out. We had to leave on Wednesday the 3rd, so it was hard to put an end to our vacation.

We had a 9:30am flight from Atlanta to Dallas, and then a one hour layover before our next plane to Los Angeles. On the plane from Atlanta to Dallas we had a medical emergency of which the flight attendants had announced over the intercom. Alfonso and I got up from our seats and walked to the back of the plane where a lady was sitting in her seat nonresponsive. She was barely awake and could hardly say anything. At first I thought that she had a stroke, but then she said yes when we asked if she was a diabetic. (A note for those that have allergies or other serious conditions-- wear your medical bracelet or necklace so we know what medical problems you have.) We asked the flight attendants to announce if another passenger had a blood sugar machine so that we could check her blood sugar. When we checked it the machine read 43 (60-110 is normal). The medical emergency kit had glucose gel that we could put in her mouth, but since she was so out of it (she was drooling and her head was falling forward) it didn't work. Our next option was to insert an IV and give her sugar water through the IV (they had an amp of D50). It was then decided that we should land the plane, so we told the flight attendants that we needed an emergency landing. Alfonso started the IV (the airline kit had 2 #22 gauge (very very tiny) and we started a bag of normal saline. The flight attendant needed someone to talk to the paramedics on ground, so I volunteered and gave them a quick report. After pushing the D50 she woke up and started talking to us. We were already on the verge of landing (we were landing in Shreveport, LA) and there was a team of paramedics waiting for us. Once we had landed, the paramedics came on board and we explained to them what had happened and what we had done. They rechecked her blood sugar and it was 47. They started another line (an #18 gauge this time) and gave her saline with dextrose and pushed more D50. We rechecked her blood sugar and it was 211. By this time, the patient was all perky and apologetic. She felt really bad for what happened (in my opinion, the airlines need to at least give out free snacks on the planes) but felt better. We spent 30 minutes on ground, and after the paramedics had checked her out, we took off for Dallas. We made it in to Dallas, but missed our connecting flight to LA. We were able to sit standby, and got onto another flight 2 hrs later. We made it back to LA with our luggage (our good friend Diego picked us up) and were home by 6pm. We were so exhausted that we were in bed by 10pm. All in all, it was a good vacation. :)