A Visit to a Canadian Hospital

Richard flew up to Ottawa in 1995 for a three day visit to the Nortel lab in Ottawa with a side trip to Nortel's St. Laurent manufacturing (St. Laurent, located in Montreal, is a couple of hours by car down the Queensway from Ottawa). Richard was the program manager for a new fan shelf for the AccessNode which was needed for the increased cooling requirements for the new VTBM circuit pack being developed. Early Wednesday morning, Richard made the trip to St. Laurent to visit several people. He ate a lunch of lasagna at the St. Laurent facility's cafeteria and drove back to Ottawa in the late afternoon, arriving back at his hotel in the early evening for a night's sleep followed by a flight back to Atlanta on Thursday afternoon.

Richard Feels Poorly

By the time he arrived at the hotel, Richard was not feeling well. His stomach had that bloated, queasy feeling that is the harbinger of a night of light sleep interspersed with quick runs to the toilet. He parked and went up to his room and spent an miserable hour watching television before the night's activities began.

The queasy feeling turned into outright nausea and Richard barely made it to the bathroom before he started worshipping the porcelain god, on his knees hugging the toilet and tossing his cookies like a fraternity college boy after a night spent drinking too much cheap beer. Richard's spasms grew more violent and then there was a gap of memory. Richard slowly opened his eyes to the bright light bouncing off of the shiny, glazed white tile. He was crammed in between the tub and toilet, a space too small for his large frame.

Leg muscles crampped and hurting, Richard pulled himself up awkwardly using the toilet and the tub side to lever himself to a sitting position on the side of the tub. His legs aching but his stomach feeling better, Richard walked haltingly and uncoordinated to the bed and lay down. After an hour, Richard was feeling better though not tip top. He realized he was actually a bit hungry but was not sure if food would sit well.