What do you do when you're in L.A. at a conference and feeling sick as a dog? You just go on and do your best. What if you are from a major medical school, and you can't get reimbursed for the cold medication which will reduce the chance of you infecting your colleagues and increase your chances of concentrating? You pay the $31 out of pocket.
What? Did you just ask why the hell it cost $31 for cold medication? Why? Well, because you are at a hotel which is in a part of L.A. with no drug stores in sight. How much does a single dose of medication from the hotel gift shop cost? Well, one dollah fifty. How many doses per day? Well, at least three, maybe four. You can skimp at night, since there's no one to infect.
What do you do when you are too sick to face a room full of 400 other conference attendees and you're hungry? You get room service. What if you are in L.A., and room service exceeds the per diem limit for that particular meal of the day? You eat it. Yeah, that's right. You eat it.
What if, in the middle of the night, the rattle of phlegm in your throat is keeping you awake so you can't sleep? Like that death rattle they talk about. What if you are so sick the morning you leave that you screw up a pre-paid $37 shuttle ride to the airport and have to pony up $126 for a cab to the airport instead? You eat it. That's right. That's what I said, you eat it.
Well, by the time you're at the airport, maybe you feel like sitting down and crying like a baby. Maybe you get to the terminal, which is so crowded there's no place to sit, and you just curl up by your luggage, and shut your eyes.
But then your husband text messages you saying he'll pick you up up at the airport instead of you having to get a cab. Then, as you remember that you've left clothing at the hotel, you message him asking, what else could go wrong? and he answers Don't say that! with a little smiley. And you know he's right. Soon enough, you'll be home, he'll pick you up, and you'll be in your own bed, back in your own town, with your own people. He just texted the sweetest words you've heard all week. And you remember that you are loved, and you are not alone.
