Up in the air, can’t keep anything down


I think it was thr last time I flew across the Pacific, I felt like I was going to throw up. I was overheating and I’d just watched a film about Nicki Lauda where he has his ears burnt off in a crash. I paused, thought happy thoughts and my stomach settled.

This time round, about nine hours in to a twelve hour flight, I had that familiar rising in my stomach. My head hurt and I was getting hot. But I hadn’t watched any films where a man loses his ears.

And so began three hours of vomiting into airplane toilets. That is not even as much fun as it sounds. I was sat right by them, so usually I could wait until there was no queue, but they’re not an unlimited resource. Sometimes I’d have to wait, trying to stand upright as my gut spasmed, until I could get in and throw up.

I wonder why this is happening. The food I’ve eaten is the same as it has been for thr last six years (Delta don’t change their vegetarian menu ever, I guess). Was it not cooked properly this time? Or, worse, could I have some bug that’s going to afflict me all week? At least if I’d had an unexpected dose of Quorn I’d have been ppurgijg for three hours and then felt fine. With this, I was still fearful all the way through the baggage retrieval and the taxi lines that I was going to start going again.

The journey from JFK to the hotel was painless at least. I got in the back of the taxi and then woke up an hour later with a man pulling my bags out. Check in was slightly more than my brain could handle, and then it was all I could do to go straight to bed. I woke, ravenous, after ten hours sleep and ate the blandest thing I could find in the room, a jar of gummi bears which have stayed down so far. So far…


One response to “Up in the air, can’t keep anything down”

  1. […] to arrive in New York. The last time I came through JFK, I remember it being a smooth experience, although I had been vomiting constantly for the three hours leading up to my arrival, so perhaps my perception was off. This time was a much more frustrating experience: over an hour […]

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.