Passage To India - Epilogue

    When we woke on the morning of Wednesday, December 8 our train, the Palace on Wheels, was back in Delhi. After eating our last Jai breakfast we had to be off the train by 7:30 A.M. I had booked a room at the Hilton for the day as our flight home did not depart until 11:30 P.M.


Hilton Lobby

    My original plan was to check into our room and then go out shopping but my husband's illness changed things. We ended up staying at the hotel all day, napping and repacking our bags for the flight home. He was feeling better and was able to pack his own bags. He took a nice nap while I watched cricket on TV and wrote the last of my postcards. We headed for the airport at 7 PM to allow for traffic (which was not bad) and going through customs (which was a breeze). So we found ourselves at the airport all ready to go by 9:00. We went to the food court where I got a fish sandwich from McDonalds. The McDonalds in India do not serve hamburgers. They have chicken burgers and veggie burgers but no beef. My husband had not eaten anything significant since the prior Saturday when he first got sick. He took a bite of my fish sandwich and then wanted one of his own. I was able to do some shopping at the airport, especially for tea (you could hardly come home from India without any tea).
    I took it as a good sign that Mike was able to carry his bags and eat something so we boarded our 15 hour flight from Delhi to Newark. On the plane, I immediately set my watch to Louisville time (EST) which was 1 PM. I wanted to try to stay awake until 8 so it would feel more like morning when we got into Newark at 4 AM. We were lucky in that we had three seats to ourselves. I offered to move to another seat to let Mike lay down but he said he was OK. I watched a movie, played some games and read but I kept dozing off. I gave up around 4 and went to sleep for a couple of hours. When I woke up I watched another movie and then took a sleeping pill and slept until 1 AM. We were over Greenland then, about three hours out. The flight went pretty fast for me.

   Not so much for my husband. He did manage to get some sleep but he was having intestinal pain again. When we got to Newark he surprised me by asking for a wheel chair transport. We had to go through customs in Newark which meant going to the baggage area to get our bags and then standing in line and then going through security at the domestic terminal. He told me later he considered going to an emergency room in Newark but just really wanted to get home. Thank goodness there was no issue with our flight to Louisville. Our friend Janice picked us up at the airport and she helped me with the bags.

   We arrived home to snow on the ground (snow that was to stay there past Christmas - very unusual for us). We got an appointment to see the doctor that afternoon. The doctor immediately admitted Mike to the hospital where he spent the next four days. He was diagnosed with a severe intestinal infection and blockage. His bowels were the size of a football and they drained off 15,000 cc of liquids. He is at home now and slowly recovering. He was in such bad shape that he did not even see the irony in the fact that his nurse's name was India!
   It may be some time before Mike can look at the pictures and remember the good times but someday I hope he does. The trip to India was a wonderful adventure and I hope to go there again someday.