Home Sweet Home

Steven picked me up at the airport in Atlanta and brought me home where he had the kitchen stocked with all of my favorite foods. I spent the next few days eating everything in sight, hungry or not, inundated with delicious foods that I had not tasted in six months. I even baked myself a welcome home cake. During the weeks that I was sick, I had dropped 20 pounds, going from a healthy 140 to a scary 120 and I was determined to put it all back on.

The day after I arrived back home I contacted the Travelwell Clinic at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta and talked to a doctor who agreed to see me that morning. After a brief examination, he suggested that I immediately check myself in to the hospital where I would receive a seven day intravenous antibiotic treatment. My mind immediately went into rebellion mode with rapid fire questions: Seven days? Days? Isn’t that going to be expensive? Can I even afford that? Did I hear you correctly? Seven days? The Gators play Tennessee tomorrow. I did not come all this way to spend game day in the hospital! Seven days. Really?

He confirmed that the treatment lasted seven days and agreed to let me check in two-days later so that I could attend a “previously scheduled event.” Because my health insurance only covered my post-travel expenditures up to $10,000, I inquired about the possibility of checking into Grady, a hospital that bases fees on a sliding scale. He agreed that that was a good option and informed me that the same immunology team that works at Crawford Long, also does rounds at Grady, so I would receive the same treatment at a lower cost. I thanked him and agreed to check myself in at the emergency room at Grady (the only way to be admitted) on Sunday morning.

Sunday afternoon around 1:00 p.m., after watching the Gators beat the Vols 16 – 7 from my perch on the couch beneath a wool blanket, Steven accompanied me to the Emergency room at Grady Hospital. 12 hours later at 1:00 a.m., he finally went home to get some sleep, while I wanted until 8:00 the following morning to be called. After a total of 19 hours in the waiting room, I was finally given a bed, in the hall.

The next four days passed somewhat enjoyably, spending hours talking and playing cards with my mom, who had flown up from Florida on Monday, and enjoying the friendly hospitality of the hospital staff. I continued to have mild symptoms, but by the forth day, my tests had come back negative and the doctors decided that I was well enough to go home. My long ordeal was finally over...or so I thought.

On Sunday November 6th, just before I was to get results from the final test, the Typhoid came back and I was put on a 30 day dose of antibiotics to get rid of it once and for all. As of January 2006, I was declared Typhoid free. The adventure that I had begun on March 12th, 2005 and all that came with it, was officially over.