You finally get to go on that vacation that you have been dreaming of when a couple of days in one of your kiddos gets sick. Do you cancel the whole vacation and find a flight back home? Or do you make the best of a not so perfect situation and continue on with the vacation?
There are some very tough decisions that you will have to face when illness strikes during a vacation. This happened to us during one of our vacations and we had to make some tough decisions. I’ll tell you about the decisions we made and some decisions we would have made differently.
During our trip out west 2 days into our vacation my daughter got a bit of a stuffy nose. We went through lots of climate and elevation changes in a short period of time that could have triggered her illness. We are used to a very humid climate in East Tennessee. And we went to a very dry climate in the desert of Arizona.
Then we went from the lower elevations in the desert to some much high elevations and snow in Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. Once we got to the Grand Canyon my poor daughter’s sinuses were a hot mess. She was a really good sport about the whole thing even though she felt pretty lousy. She was still having a good time enjoying all of the sites. It just would have been more enjoyable if she felt well.
Here is how we handled the illness and some things we wish we had done differently:
Stocked up on meds
We found a nearby CVS and stocked up on meds. We got some decongestants, cough drops, vitamin C and lots of tissues and hand sanitizer. The medicine seemed to help with some of the symptoms to make her a little less miserable.
Gave her time to rest
Instead of going on some hikes that we had planned we found shorter walks that weren’t far from the car. And in some cases we just went for drives to enjoy the scenery. I also let her go to bed a little earlier instead of spending time out and about in the evenings. And I let her sleep in instead of getting up super early to get on the road to the next thing.
Take Advantage of Walk-in Clinics
Here is the thing I wish we had done. I wish we had taken advantage of a local walk-in clinic. If you are on vacation and end up getting sick find a walk-in clinic. If you can’t find a walk-in clinic, CVS and Walgreens both offer clinics. If needed they can give you a prescription to help knock out whatever you have going on.
With our situation flying back home wasn’t an option. It would have been super expensive to change our flight plans and she would have been miserable on the flight as well. We just toughed it out and made the best of a not so great situation. It wasn’t ideal. But she still says that it was the best vacation ever even with being sick.
