Sofitel Alhamra Hotel, Jeddah, Monday, 1999-03-01 21:30 local (Z+3)
I terminated the previous part of this message sooner than I had planned because I started feeling poorly. An hour later the diarrhea started, an hour after that the vomiting. I had what is locally referred to as “the Delhi belly.” At 03:00 the hotel brought some medicine prescribed by a doctor I talked with on the phone. The medicine was ineffective for the simple reason that I couldn't keep it down, and I called for more help. At 05:30 the doctor arrived, took one look and gave me a shot to stop the vomiting. The one previous time that I've had such a shot, the vomiting stopped almost immediately. This time it didn't, but about 08:00 things started to calm down. I stayed in bed until the 15:00 wakeup call and then staggered to the airplane, using, fortunately, a hand towel as a diaper. Once above ten thousand feet—there's things the captain completes then—I went to the back of the upper deck and didn't return to the cockpit until the start of descent. Had I not had both an experienced f.o. and an experienced f.e., I couldn't have done that.
The f.o. had actually completed everything for his captain upgrade except for IOE.
I was supposed to have headed back to the U.S. tonight, but my replacement hasn't arrived. So, another night in Saudi. That's fine, really, as I'm still not back to normal. Another good night's sleep should to it.
Maybe it really is time to quit making a living this way.
Terry