Trip Report - Medical Log

Remember when you're travelling in a group, odds are someone will get sick at some point, and even minor things will require a bit of time out of the schedule to sort out, and subsequent rearranging of timetables. You have just roll with it. We were lucky because nobody got very ill - just a few minor things (which I will talk about at great length to fill up this post)

Mild self limiting upper respiratory infection - Amelia, Hugo & Roo. I kept joking that the freezing temps, rain & wind in London were going to give everyone pneumonia but it really was just a mild cold which gently rolled through 3 of us & lasted all the way to Italy so I got to say "Do you have kleenex please? Quickly before they sneeze & snot all over your kiosk" in Italian. I also, on numerous occasions in Italy, attempted to buy the equivalent of Contact C or Tylenol Cold daytime. Italian pharmacists inevitably nodded & whipped out Reactine & announced proudly 'antihistamine'. Um, yeah.no. Reactine & Claritin etc are pretty much useless for colds IMO. Pseudoephedrine please? Or phenylephrine hydrochloride? Nope. I never figured out whether they don't have it just don't sell it OTC. I should have gone to a pharmacy in Paris because I read on several forums that peeps got the most awesome cold meds in France.

Allergies - me! And boy was I happy to be popping Aerius on essentially the entire trip. Because you know what it means? It's not my dogs, cat, or Amelia's rats! It's the evil poplar or alder or some other North hemisphere pollen thing & so no allergist can even begin to suggest that I should craigslist my furries (as if I would anyway!).  My allergies are much better by the way. It's weird to be seeing all the cottonwood floating around now and not being really affected by it. It's whatever pollinates before the cottonwood that gets me....

Blisters - Hugo had a few small proto-blisters which we proactively wrapped & taped before they could progress to anything really terrible. They were unusual in that they were on the bottom of his toes so it was hard to blame shoes. The shoes fit fine. I've since googled and learned that it's not an unheard of problem among long distance hikers. Some people's toes are just funny this way. Oh & moleskin IS available in Italy though not at every Farmacia. Several didn't have it & then one of the Florence ones did, and he had it two thicknesses even!

"women's problems" - self limiting - once the prescription drugs kicked in so we were only slowed down a couple hours. Yes, do you hear that? We had a late start one day because of someone's illness!

It was something like this:

Because uteruses are nasty bitches. Don't believe me?

Big Ben's Revenge/Eiffel Enema/Venice Canal Water Cure.... um I'm running out of ideas for amusing synonyms for gastritis so I'll end here - Roo! Self limiting, over within 24h & needing only the bottle of PeptoBismol tablets which I had packed. I was pretty pleased with my forethought in packing them, and the truth is that I was not a little smug because ahem, Roo was the only one who got sick -  after a meal in a restaurant where three of us had a nice vegetarian falafel and SOMEONE ELSE had not just an animal, but a BABY animal. Yes, it was Lamb's Revenge actually.

How COULD you?

Lamb's Revenge is not only that you get stuck in a hotel bathroom (in considerable discomfort) while your family goes off without you, but that your wife then blogs about it.