Day 3, Monday, November 3 - the day with complications...
Okay, so as I said, this was originally going to be another Epcot day with the WDWFG meet-up at 2:00 in the UK pavilion courtyard. Then, realizing that our Boma breakfast and Jiko dinner wouldn't leave us much chance to enjoy the Food and Wine Festival, we switched to Magic Kingdom, with me park hopping solo to Epcot for the meet-up.
Our Boma reservation was at 8:50, so we set an alarm to be sure we'd get up early, although I don't recall whether the alarm woke us up or we got up before the alarm went off. I took a shower first, and as I was drying off and hubby was getting ready to shave at the sink, he happened to look over at me and said, "Oh, no." "What?" I asked.
"You have a tick on your back."
Gross gross gross. He said it wasn't engorged yet but was embedded in my back. I looked in the mirror as best I could since it was on my back below my left shoulder blade, and there was a big old red spot surrounding this little dark thing. Gross. I gave hubby my tweezers and asked him to pull it off, but unfortunately its head stayed behind when he did. Now, you know what this means - I couldn't be walking around the rest of the week with a tick's head stuck in my back. I was going to have to go to a walk-in clinic to get the thing removed. But although our friends had a rental car, I didn't want to waste their precious WDW time driving me there, so I assumed I was looking at the cost of a taxi ride on top of whatever insurance copay the clinic would require.
I got dressed, waited while everyone finished getting ready, and we headed down to Boma. While the others checked in and waited to be seated, I visited the Jambo House concierge to ask about walk-in clinics. Well, turns out a local health care provider called Centra Care had a clinic just a little way west on 192, they would even send a van over to pick me up! Aside from tipping the driver, I wouldn't have to pay anything to get to the clinic. I headed downstairs to Boma feeling a little better about the whole process. Once I finished eating, I headed upstairs to find a quiet spot to call for the van to pick me up, and it arrived even faster than they'd said it would. So far so good.
I was the only passenger, and the driver was quite friendly. We had a nice little chat on the short drive to the clinic. We talked about Florida critters; he said that animals in Florida were smaller than up north, using the bear as an example. Northern bears, he said, had to gain enough weight to hibernate all winter, whereas Florida bears didn't have to hibernate so they didn't gain anywhere near as much weight. I mentioned that I knew the insects were bigger, and he told me all sorts of horror stories about the poisonous varmints lurking everywhere out in the countryside. Thank God we spend all our time at Disney World. By then we'd arrived at the clinic; I tipped the driver $2 because other than two ones I only had $20 bills.
Inside I went to check in. Filled out forms. Handed over ID and insurance card. And waited. At one point I realized that if I was going to tip the driver going back to WDW I would need to break a $20, but the receptionist wouldn't make change. Then I noticed a small refrigerator with drinks for sale, so I got a bottle of water and handed over one of those $20s. Problem solved. And I waited and waited some more.
While I waited I visited the restroom, but the toilet wouldn't flush. I've fixed the occasional toilet with a minor flushing issue before (it's a pretty simple do-it-yourself repair), so I looked in the tank and immediately saw what the problem was - somebody else had done a DIY hack to the flushing mechanism using a large paper clip, and it had come loose. But I didn't want to linger in the restroom in case they called my name while I was in there, so I told the receptionist the toilet wouldn't flush, assuming someone would go in and investigate the issue. But no, they just slapped up an "Out of Order" sign. Should've fixed it myself.
Meanwhile, amidst all the waiting, I got an occasional text from hubby telling me all the fun stuff they were doing over at MK. Bummer! Their (our) first FP was Splash Mountain, followed by Big Thunder Mountain for the guys and Haunted Mansion, which was supposed to be for both Sherry and me, but ended up with her going alone. They visited the Swiss Family Treehouse and got Dole Whips (the first for our friends). They passed some time on a bench somewhere, did a little shopping, took a walking tour of New Fantasyland, visited Hall of Presidents while hubby took a smoke break, and managed to see part of the afternoon parade from a bit of a distance.
I think I must've been the next person on the list when the medical staff went to lunch, because a good half hour passed when NOBODY's name was called. I was starting to think I might not make the Epcot meet-up! Finally, around 12:30 and after I'd waited over two hours, I was called. A nurse did the usual preliminary stuff - blood pressure, temperature, pulse - and then I waited for the doctor. He wasn't long. I described the situation for the third time (first the receptionist, then the nurse, and now the doctor). He took a look, had me lie down on my stomach, and shot me up with lidocaine, which he warned would sting a little - it did, but nothing you can do about that, and it sure beat getting cut without the lidocaine. After a bit of a wait, he dealt with what was left of the tick, explaining afterwards that he'd cut a small bit of my skin off to get at all of the tick's head. Once done, he said he would have to give me a prescription for antibiotics to prevent Lyme disease since I didn't know how long the tick had been there.
Once I was bandaged up and had a prescription for doxycycline and some literature on ticks and tickborne illness in my back pocket, I was ready for the van to pick me up. I got the same friendly van driver, and we chatted some more as he took me straight to Epcot for the meet-up. This time I tipped him $5 and made my way over to the World Showcase, none the worse for having had a tick and having lost only a few hours of fun time.
After the meet-up (described in an earlier post), I took the monorail over to the TTC and another to MK, where I caught up with my group outside Carousel of Progress. I was in time to make our final FastPass, Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor for Sherry and me while the guys did Space Mountain. Then we left to get ready for our ADR at Jiko. Back at Kidani, I stopped at the concierge to ask if there was a local pharmacy that would deliver to the resort and if the concierge could fax my prescription over to them. There was and she would, so I reached for my back pocket and the prescription was gone! Both the prescription and all that tick info! Only the invoice was left, which I'd folded smaller than the thick wad of paper that included the prescription. Somehow, the really important info had somehow worked its way out of my pocket while I was sitting, standing, crouching, and walking all around. Well, there wasn't much the concierge could do without the prescription. Back in our rooms, I tried to call Centra Care, but got their recorded after-hours message. Tried calling the on-call night physician, but their message sounded like they just made house calls for resort guests. Figured I'd have to call Centra Care again in the morning and just not take my doxycycline that evening. About 15 minutes later, my cell phone rang. It was the on-call physician, who'd noticed I'd called but didn't leave a message. And as it turned out, he had access to Centra Care's computer system and was able to find my prescription and send it off to the pharmacy! So on we went to Jiko, and when we returned to Kidani my prescription was waiting for me at the concierge desk. And everything was once again magical (aside from the slightly sore spot on my back, but that went away after a day or two).
Next up, Animal Kingdom.
Trip reports! April 2017 - Animal Kingdom Lodge | Winter 2017 - Saratoga Springs | October 2016 - the Big Meet-up | December 2015 - Quickie Trip | Disney Wonder to Hawai'i/Disneyland | April 2015 - Mostly Universal | March 2015 - Snow Days at All-Star Sports | Winter 2015 - All-Star Sports with Robynprincess | Winter 2015 - Wilderness Lodge | November 2014 - Animal Kingdom Lodge | September 2014 - Saratoga Springs | April 2014 - Pop Century | November 2013 - Mr. Catperson's Solo Trip | April 2013 - Mostly Universal | October 2012 - Old Key West | November 2011 - My Mostly Solo Trip