Kicked off a flight

Mark that off the bucket list I didn’t know I had!!

Tums. That was my mistake.

My daughter and I had a fun weekend going to Women’s Conference and attending the 150th birthday broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. We had a wonderful time together.

At lunchtime, before flying home, she threw up. I think what she was eating for lunch didn’t agree with her stomach. She rested and seemed to feel a bit better. We left for the airport and then she started to feel icky again. So I found a place for her to lay down. After a bit, she seemed to be better.

I had us board the plane early, so she could get settled in her seat. My sister in law had given us some tums, to see if they’d help at all. She was complaining about her stomach again, so I thought, “What could it hurt?!?”

My fault. I forgot what a baby she is about taking medicine. I should have just let her complain. She chewed the tums and threw it up – we had a bag ready at least! She tends to be dramatic about these things. Gets sick about taking medicine, when she gets a shot, or even her ears pierced (even though SHE begged for it!). We asked the flight attendant for an airsick bag, since they aren’t in the seats anymore. She brought one, some napkins, and some water.

Then another person came and asked us to leave the flight. I was flabbergasted. What?!? Really?!? I had told the first flight attendant that she just ate something that hadn’t agreed with her stomach – nothing contagious. I said “seriously??” She responded, “yes, seriously.” I was surprised, shocked, and caught off guard.

So we got our bags and got off the plane. I pretty much burst into tears on the jet bridge. I planned a short, one night trip because it wouldn’t be too hard not to breastfeed my son. Well, now that was shot. I tried to tell them I was a breastfeeding mom that needed to get home.

My daughter was crying. She is autistic and likes things scheduled and in order. When I contacted Alaska after the flight, they said they did it for her health. Well, if they had LISTENED to me, this could have been avoided. Changing her schedule and traumatizing her like this was way worse for her health than just letting her go home with an upset stomach from food that didn’t agree with her. If they had listened to me, it could have all been avoided. Of course, That is what is wrong with most things in this world, isn’t it? People just need to listen a bit more to others points of view.

Who knew you could get thrown off a flight for eating something that didn’t agree with you. If you do, wait until you’re in the air to throw up!

Oy! This is something I never wanted to experience. It was stressful and surprisingly traumatizing.

They did rebook us, but not until morning. They gave us food vouchers (like we really wanted to eat?!?) and got us a hotel, so they at least took care of us. However, it wouldn’t have been necessary had we not been kicked off the plane in the first place.

While we were waiting for them to rebook us, we sat down to calm down. A nice lady in the airport came over to see if we were ok. We told her what happened and I was afraid she was going to go yell at someone or contact the news – yeah, the last thing I wanted was more drama. “Alaska Airlines kicks off breastfeeding mother and autistic child” seems made for the news. She was super nice and well-meaning and we assured her we would be alright. There was nothing else that could be done at that point. We couldn’t get home that night.

We got on the hotel shuttle and I put her to bed to calm down. Then I was up all night, sick with worry. I seriously made myself sick over it all. “How would we get home?” “What if she throws up again?” “What if I throw up?” “Will I need to rent a car and drive us all the way home?!” “Are my boobs going to explode?!” (Ok the last one was obviously meant for humor.) I tried to sleep, but couldn’t.

We left for the airport early. One of my sister in laws was there because she had a different flight. So it was a nice distraction. She and my daughter also spent our food credits at the snack shop, which my boys thought was an awesome bag of souvenirs 😂😂

We got on the plane and I anxiously awaited the door to close. Phew! We made it!! Up in the air! Ok, we can puke all we want now! Just kidding! We didn’t puke at all. (My new rule for my kids: wait to puke until up in the air!! We’ve never had a kid throw up on all our many, many flights w/kids 😜)

Thankfully, my father in law and brother in law met us at the airport to drive our car and us home, because I was only half conscious at that point from lack of sleep and still felt sick from it all.

So yeah – I’d rather never have experienced this. But hey, now I can say I’ve been kicked off a plane!!! Not many people can say that! We’ve joined an elite club that no one wants to join. However, I think I’ll tell people I punched someone – or something like that to make it more interesting! 😉

Who knows. Maybe we were supposed to stay that extra night? Maybe something would have happened on our drive home that night? You never know! We are home safe now, which is what matters. And I lost 5lbs from worrying myself sick, so it wasn’t all for naught *eye roll*

One comment

  1. Karen says:

    The lady who made you leave was UNBELIEVABLE. By the way we were getting ready to drive down and pick you up. We figured we could make it in under 13 hours.

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