Yuk Yuk... Ms. Yuk
Okay, so after an annoyingly extended period of about 5 hours I finally had a new tire and was on my way the other morning. Turned out that the people the our emergency maintenance crew called had no intention of actually showing up to do the work after all. I was asked to limp 7 miles down the road to another truck stop that had a tire shop on site to get the replacement taken care of. So I did...
Finally westward bound once more I enjoyed the trip across I-40 in fair weather. I snapped a ton of foto's which I will upload sometime in the future when I have a faster Internet connection. I think it'll be worth the wait.
So I made it within about 50 miles of my delivery point that day and shut down for the night. I slept well, despite the southern California heat, and woke up refreshed and ready to go. After making sure I didn't have any more flat tires, grabbing a hot shower and then a fresh cup of coffee, I finally headed out for the last leg of my journey.
I found the consignee with ease and made my drop with no problems. I also picked up a loaded trailer out the same place to take north to a Wal-Mart Distribution Center. Once I was hooked up and pre-tripped I hit the road again.
Things were going okay for the most part. When I'd woke up that morning I felt a little icky. I've been suffering seasonal allergies pretty badly lately and had to stop taking all of my meds so that my system would be clean for allergy testing appointment I have next week when I go home. So I woke up feeling a little worse than usual but figured it was just because the medicine was finally out of my system completely.
During my drive northward through some of the prettiest countryside I've seen in my travels so far I started to realize that something was really wrong with myself. My left ear started "plugging up" and things were difficult to hear from that side of my surroundings. Everything was very muffled. As I drove up and down the mountains, changing elevation quickly and extremely, the pain started.
A dull pain at first. But it built quickly into agonizing stabbing pain. After about two hours and changing elevation 1000 feet at a time over and over again, I heard a loud pop and felt a sharp pain... and then couldn't hear anything else out of that ear.
I thought for sure that my ear drum had ruptured. But I was in the middle of no where with about 80-100 miles left to go on my trip to Portersville to the Wal-Mart DC. So I kept moving, trying not to cry like a little sissy about my ear troubles.
I finally arrived and checked in at the guard shack a little less than two hours later. I asked the guard how close the Hospital was and she gave me directions. I made my drop and then bob tailed to the E.R. where I spent the next 4 hours, mostly waiting. As it turns out I didn't rupture my ear drum, thank gawd, I just have a serious middle ear infection. The doc said that the loud pop I heard was probably just pressure adjusting and "popping" air bubbles.
He gave me some ear drops on site and let me take the rest home with me. He also prescribed an antibiotic, which I've yet to fill since I've not been anywhere near a pharmacy that I could park at.
After leaving the E.R. I bob tailed back to the Wal-Mart to get my empty trailer and head to a Sears Distribution Center in Delano, about 45 minutes back south, where the next morning I was to acquire a load bound north to Washington state. A load that was not designed to get me moving back east towards home, where I am supposed to be this weekend. A load that they swore would be swapped with another driver before I got to Washington state for a load going east! Once I got arrived in Delano, I dropped my empty and parked my tractor to start my 10 hour break.
I slept like a baby and woke up feeling a little better. My ear still hurts like hell, but I'm taking Advil to help with that and using the drops as directed. I haven't gotten the antibiotics yet, but will as soon as I can.
When I got up this morning I went into the facility to inquire about my load and received the paper work and was told where the trailer was located. I went back out to my truck and headed over to find my pre-loaded trailer just where they said it would be. I backed up to it then got out and began to pre-trip the trailer. Things on the nose of the trailer looked peachy... then I got to the tandems.
This is where I found the wiring laying on the ground, frayed and out of it's corrugated casing, as if it'd been dragged that way for miles. There was no way I was going to leave the lot with the wiring exposed and frayed. So I called emergency maintenance again and hoped for the best.
While waiting for the mechanic to show up, I was working on some paperwork when I found I'd made a boo-boo on figuring out my hours of availability. I'd forgotten to add in one days' worth of work time... oops. And of course, when I redid the math I found that I didn't even have enough hours to head north towards Washington state with the load.
So after getting repaired and talking to my manager, it was decided that I was to head to the closest truck stop and wait for another driver to come and get the load to take to WA while I sat for another day to recoup some more hours.
So I'm stuck in Cali for at least another day. With an ear ache that is killer. And no idea when I will be headed towards home.
.....but hey...like I said... I have gotten some great pictures!
Finally westward bound once more I enjoyed the trip across I-40 in fair weather. I snapped a ton of foto's which I will upload sometime in the future when I have a faster Internet connection. I think it'll be worth the wait.
So I made it within about 50 miles of my delivery point that day and shut down for the night. I slept well, despite the southern California heat, and woke up refreshed and ready to go. After making sure I didn't have any more flat tires, grabbing a hot shower and then a fresh cup of coffee, I finally headed out for the last leg of my journey.
I found the consignee with ease and made my drop with no problems. I also picked up a loaded trailer out the same place to take north to a Wal-Mart Distribution Center. Once I was hooked up and pre-tripped I hit the road again.
Things were going okay for the most part. When I'd woke up that morning I felt a little icky. I've been suffering seasonal allergies pretty badly lately and had to stop taking all of my meds so that my system would be clean for allergy testing appointment I have next week when I go home. So I woke up feeling a little worse than usual but figured it was just because the medicine was finally out of my system completely.
During my drive northward through some of the prettiest countryside I've seen in my travels so far I started to realize that something was really wrong with myself. My left ear started "plugging up" and things were difficult to hear from that side of my surroundings. Everything was very muffled. As I drove up and down the mountains, changing elevation quickly and extremely, the pain started.
A dull pain at first. But it built quickly into agonizing stabbing pain. After about two hours and changing elevation 1000 feet at a time over and over again, I heard a loud pop and felt a sharp pain... and then couldn't hear anything else out of that ear.
I thought for sure that my ear drum had ruptured. But I was in the middle of no where with about 80-100 miles left to go on my trip to Portersville to the Wal-Mart DC. So I kept moving, trying not to cry like a little sissy about my ear troubles.
I finally arrived and checked in at the guard shack a little less than two hours later. I asked the guard how close the Hospital was and she gave me directions. I made my drop and then bob tailed to the E.R. where I spent the next 4 hours, mostly waiting. As it turns out I didn't rupture my ear drum, thank gawd, I just have a serious middle ear infection. The doc said that the loud pop I heard was probably just pressure adjusting and "popping" air bubbles.
He gave me some ear drops on site and let me take the rest home with me. He also prescribed an antibiotic, which I've yet to fill since I've not been anywhere near a pharmacy that I could park at.
After leaving the E.R. I bob tailed back to the Wal-Mart to get my empty trailer and head to a Sears Distribution Center in Delano, about 45 minutes back south, where the next morning I was to acquire a load bound north to Washington state. A load that was not designed to get me moving back east towards home, where I am supposed to be this weekend. A load that they swore would be swapped with another driver before I got to Washington state for a load going east! Once I got arrived in Delano, I dropped my empty and parked my tractor to start my 10 hour break.
I slept like a baby and woke up feeling a little better. My ear still hurts like hell, but I'm taking Advil to help with that and using the drops as directed. I haven't gotten the antibiotics yet, but will as soon as I can.
When I got up this morning I went into the facility to inquire about my load and received the paper work and was told where the trailer was located. I went back out to my truck and headed over to find my pre-loaded trailer just where they said it would be. I backed up to it then got out and began to pre-trip the trailer. Things on the nose of the trailer looked peachy... then I got to the tandems.
This is where I found the wiring laying on the ground, frayed and out of it's corrugated casing, as if it'd been dragged that way for miles. There was no way I was going to leave the lot with the wiring exposed and frayed. So I called emergency maintenance again and hoped for the best.
While waiting for the mechanic to show up, I was working on some paperwork when I found I'd made a boo-boo on figuring out my hours of availability. I'd forgotten to add in one days' worth of work time... oops. And of course, when I redid the math I found that I didn't even have enough hours to head north towards Washington state with the load.
So after getting repaired and talking to my manager, it was decided that I was to head to the closest truck stop and wait for another driver to come and get the load to take to WA while I sat for another day to recoup some more hours.
So I'm stuck in Cali for at least another day. With an ear ache that is killer. And no idea when I will be headed towards home.
.....but hey...like I said... I have gotten some great pictures!
Comments
You poor girl. Mom says she once had an inner ear infection and it was no fun at all. I hope you can get the medicine you need and it helps you feel better. I will keep my paws crossed that they find you a load going back east so you can be home for the weekend.
Wags & wiggles,
Bijou
Best wishes,
Belledog