Sick at MK--Now what?

[itchin2go]

Great to know!! So thrilled to know that Disney pulls through for all guests!

Huh. From reading this thread, I got the impression it was hit and miss ....

 

[kandb]

Huh. From reading this thread, I got the impression it was hit and miss ....

 

[MartDM]

I also spent thousands of dollars on my vacation that trust me, wasn't easy to come by.

This is the case for most of us, which is why people are reacting negatively to you going into the park and a restaurant while ill.

Turned out that it was food poisoning from my TS meal the previous night--so I wasn't contagious afterall.

You didn't know that when you decided to enter the park and the restaurant. You could have potentially exposed hundreds to a virus and negatively impacted their vacations, just so you wouldn't miss your meal (which, ironically, it seems you did anyway while you sat on the public bench instead of in your room).

I shouldn't be surprised at the level of judgement that there is in public forums where people can post things about others that they'd never dare say IRL, but I am surprised each and every time.

I would have no trouble saying any of this to you in real life. You publicly advertised that you knowingly went into the park and a food establishment while ill. Did you really expect people to applaud such a self-serving decision? Your post is a great review of the first aid staff, but it ultimately is an illustration of how you were willing to risk the welfare of everyone you came into contact with, just so you could go to CRT. It's hard to put a positive spin on that.

 

[larryz]

Brought a little tear to me eye... (snif)

 

[larryz]

I'm glad that everyone else had such great experiences being sick at Disney. I too was hit by some sort of short lived, but very aggressive bug or food poisoning while at WDW. I started feeling very sick at MK and left to return to my hotel. While walking to my hotel room, I became very ill in the bushes (I tried to make it to the room...unsuccessfully). No less than 4 CMs passed me, and not a single one stopped to see if I was ok.

Was it around F&WF time?

 

[kelmcg]

We were at EPCOT in November and my DH was complaining about his ear. He went to the First Aid station and he had great service. They gave him a list of all the Urgent Care facilities that were near by and they also told him that a van could take him to one of the Urgent Care places. The van would come directly to the First Aid station, through a back entrance, to pick him up.

We had a rental car so he chose to drive himself, but it was nice to know that we had options if we didn't have the rental car. He had an ear infection, he had to get antibiotics, and the Urgent Care place was great in telling him where the closest pharmacies were, etc......

 

[Interpol]

Working in food prep may make you sensitized to this issue, and I respect that. Encouraging people to avoid going out with such symptoms is fine. Condemning people for doing so anyway, in this situation, is unfair, unsympathetic, and unrealistic.

Encouraging parents to get their kids vaccinated is fine. Condemning people for not doing it anyway is unfair, unsympathetic, and unrealistic. Right?

I'm sure you and the OP would be singing a much different tune if the outcome had been different. Remember the outbreak of measles that occurred at Disneyland not too long ago?

Please stop quoting WebMD and Mayo Online as some sort of gold standard reference of infectious disease. They're far, far from it.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

1. There is no way to know for sure wether this was truly food positing unless the food from the restaurant was tested. Otherwise, it is speculation only.

2. If it was food poisoning, you may or may not have been contagious, that depends on what microorganism caused the illness.

3. Any time you wake up "extremely nauseous" as an adult and there isn't an underlying medical condition that makes that common for you it is highly likely that you are indeed carrying a contagious gastrointestinal microorganism. You should isolate yourself until you have more of an idea what is going on.

 

[Maleficent Dragon]

Please stop quoting WebMD and Mayo Online as some sort of gold standard reference of infectious disease. They're far, far from it.

WebMD and Mayo are horrible sources for accurate medical information. May as well go to TMZ for the truth about celebrities or Jim Hill for facts about Disney.

 

[Interpol]

1. There is no way to know for sure wether this was truly food positing unless the food from the restaurant was tested. Otherwise, it is speculation only.

2. If it was food poisoning, you may or may not have been contagious, that depends on what microorganism caused the illness.

3. Any time you wake up "extremely nauseous" as an adult and there isn't an underlying medical condition that makes that common for you it is highly likely that you are indeed carrying a contagious gastrointestinal microorganism. You should isolate yourself until you have more of an idea what is going on.

^^^This.

Not having a definitive diagnosis means you should isolate yourself and assume the worst until proven otherwise, in order to decrease risk of exposure to other people. Doesn't matter if you've spent thousands of dollars on your vacation or if you're just sitting at home.

 

[mummabear]

I don't get the posters who call the OP selfish and say that she should have stayed in her room. Why can't we be happy that she was properly taken care of? It created a good memory for her. Why point out that in your opinion she was wrong?

Because it is wrong, and puts others in danger. What about those with more weakened immune systems than the OP, or you or I? Those travelling with infants, those Make A Wish children or those adults trying to make memories with their own families while undergoing chemo.

What about the families she passed this onto whose trips she affected?

In my opinion she was not selfish towards her family, she thought of them, trying to give them a good time. It's not just thousands of dollars, you are trying to create good memories in the lives of your family, which are worth more than money. To me, she wasn't selfish, quite the contrary, she had the people dear to her in mind.

That is the definition of selfish, she thought about those close to her and thought to hell with everyone else.

 

[Interpol]

I don't get the posters who call the OP selfish and say that she should have stayed in her room. Why can't we be happy that she was properly taken care of? It created a good memory for her. Why point out that in your opinion she was wrong?

In my opinion she was not selfish towards her family, she thought of them, trying to give them a good time. It's not just thousands of dollars, you are trying to create good memories in the lives of your family, which are worth more than money. To me, she wasn't selfish, quite the contrary, she had the people dear to her in mind.

Unfortunately, she didn't have the hundreds/thousands of other people at WDW in mind.

Are you also in favor of people going to work or school when they're sick too? Why is this any different?

In addition to this, staying in your room is not necessarily an option or a solution. What if she was alone, her family off to the parks as they were feeling fine, and her condition got worse, and she was unable to reach the phone for help? What if she passes out in the bathroom, hit her head on the sink and lies there for hours before the family returns. No one to check on her, as there was a 'do not disturb'-sign on the door. There are so many bad scenarios possible, by keeping her in her room (also what if housekeeping misses a spot before a new family arrives). If you are a family with young children, who aren't old enough to go into the parks on their own, you have to stop the vacation, so the other adult can keep an eye on the patient. You should isolate all family members when one of them gets sick. As the other family members may not have visible symptoms, but what about the invisible symptoms?

If this was really a concern, then you're right - staying in your room is not an option. The correct thing to do would be to go to a hospital.

Every place where masses of people come together, people get sick. It's easy to say afterwards what the OP should have done. But what if you (or your kid, husband, other family member) have a runny nose or a cough. Do you go to the parks or stay in your hotel room? It could be nothing, could be something serious. Or it may not be serious to you, but to people with low resistance: elderly people, infants, people recovering from certain diseases or operations etc., it could be serious. Those people who called her selfish, might have sneezed, spreading something that was caught by someone else's dear granny standing next to them while waiting for the parade, causing the granny to develop something from which she may not recover.

If you think of everything that could happen in life and try to protect yourself from all danger in the world, you can best lock up yourself in a room with padded walls.

Try telling that to the 50 people who contracted measles at Disneyland in January of this year. Or the thousands of people who have gotten ill on cruise ships.

 

[tmj212]

Well, this is a very divisive topic both in terms of the level of service received from First Aid, whether I should or should not have gone to or stayed in the parks and the credibility of the Mayo Clinic and Web Md sites.


I live/work in NYC and my major mode of transportation is the subway. Any one that has ever had the pleasure to ride the MTA during the winter months packed like sardines during rush hour among sneezing coughing wheezing runny nosed phlegmatic patrons while the fragrance of urine wafts through the air, might understand that my frame of reference for seriously ill is likely to be at a much higher level than others. I'd also like to add that the Nurse Practioners did not advise me to stay out of the parks or to go back to my resort. I would think that if I posed such a major health risk, as some of you suggest, that they would have at a minimum made that recommendation.

It is extremely unrealistic to think that everyone that might be sick will opt out of going to the parks. Unless Disney starts screening everyone's temp and vitals via their MB there will always be a risk. Labeling anyone from a single post and name calling because I handled a situation differently than you would've is short-sighted and just plain rude. As evidenced in this thread and throughout this board--there are ways to express an opinion without being offensive.

I hope the info shared here has helped others to know that there are options available if they do get sick/injured. I haven't seen this info posted anywhere else previously and thought it might be useful.

Since we've already covered vaccinations, measles, let's move on now to Ebola, shall we?

 

[jemlover]

I don't really have a problem with people going to the parks with cold symptoms w/o fever. These last about a week and could ruin an entire trip. We are exposed to these germs all the time anyway. I just wish people would learn to cough or sneeze into their elbows like they teach kids at school. That way they aren't depositing germs to their hands and touching everything. Stomach viruses are usually pretty short lived (24-48 hours) so a couple of days in a hotel room shouldn't ruin your entire trip. I'm not sure why anyone would want to go to a park with stomach symptoms anyway. How could you have a good time?

 

[Interpol]

I'd also like to add that the Nurse Practioners did not advise me to stay out of the parks or to go back to my resort. I would think that if I posed such a major health risk, as some of you suggest, that they would have at a minimum made that recommendation.

Disney nurses/NPs will NEVER make such a recommendation for medicolegal reasons. Additionally, they do not have the expertise or qualifications to make such a decision.

IMO the care you received was inadequate. If the nurses there knew that you woke up feeling ill, had so much pain and nausea that you couldn't eat, and that you vomited a large amount after receiving antiemetics, they should have gotten you to an urgent care clinic at the very least.

It is extremely unrealistic to think that everyone that might be sick will opt out of going to the parks. Unless Disney starts screening everyone's temp and vitals via their MB there will always be a risk. Labeling anyone from a single post and name calling because I handled a situation differently than you would've is short-sighted and just plain rude. As evidenced in this thread and throughout this board--there are ways to express an opinion without being offensive.

You're generalizing. The decision to opt out of going to the parks should be based on the symptoms you're having, and from the symptoms you described, you definitely made the wrong choice. I guess "selfish" isn't the appropriate word to describe this situation, because I don't believe you had any malicious or self-serving intentions. "Irresponsible" would be more appropriate.

Since we've already covered vaccinations, measles, let's move on now to Ebola, shall we?

OK, let's move on to Ebola because it's a good example. A patient infected with Ebola usually starts out presenting with nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain - pretty non-specific symptoms, wouldn't you agree? The hemorrhagic fever that the media loves to sensationalize comes later. That's why patients with suspected Ebola infections are isolated based on their history and symptoms until a definitive diagnosis is made. And that's how it should be.

 

[Summertinkerbell]

"Food poisoning" is just an informal term for any of a number of gastrointestinal viruses or bacteria that are commonly transmitted by food (but could be transmitted some other way). I don't know whether ERs routinely do testing to determine precisely which one, but since there are many cases that simply aren't life threatening and will self-resolve without antibiotics or antivirals, I wouldn't be surprised if they just diagnose food poisoning based on symptoms without testing a stool sample. This WebMD article makes it clear that there are many different causes, so a formal, rigorous diagnosis would be the specific agent (e.g. salmonella or E. coli), and not simply food poisoning. This Mayo Clinic article has similar information. (IANAD, but for this level of discussion, I consider the agreement of two such articles to be good enough.)

Perhaps a PP who went on about "very contagious gastrointestinal virus" had had a bad personal experience with such things, but usually this set of symptoms is only indirectly contagious, and has to be ingested; you don't get it by being in the same room, otherwise the OP's entire family would have gotten it. Thus hand washing is the prevention, and demanding self-imposed quarantine seems unnecessary for most cases. Even norovirus, which is the one that spreads rapidly on cruise ships and other crowded places, is best addressed by stringent hand washing, though staying home is recommended.

Thus a polite suggestion that staying in the room should be considered could be reasonable, but berating someone for not doing so is uncalled for. If you're going to get upset over sick people in the parks, get upset over the ones with colds and flu, which have airborne transmission, not things like stomach bugs that are largely controlled by washing your own hands.

Carry Purell with you like I do. I wash my hands often and use the Purell after a ride or touching a public surface. I avoid touching my face with dirty hands. If you take cleanliness precautions, you can avoid a lot of illnesses.

(This works for me in my Pre-K classroom really well. I only got one cold last year...even when we had a stomach virus going through the class, and the kids were dropping like flies.)

By the way, do we have to jump down someone's throat every time they express an opinion we don't like? People don't always agree. Leave it at that. Be kind.

 

[Aliceacc]

My husband some medical issues in 2012.

He tripped and fell. We didn't realize he had broken his finger, since it broke beneath the nail and he could still bend it. A few days later it, and the adjacent finger, were both red and swollen and obviously infected.

He went to first aid in Epcot, and was told to get to Urgent Care or the ER. Since UC didn't take our insurance, he went to the ER. Once there, they realized his blood sugar was at dangerous levels and wanted to admit him.

All the day before we were supposed to come home.

(End of story: They released him that night. Twenty four hours later he as admitted into our local hospital, where he stayed for 5 or 6 days. He eventually recovered from both the broken finger and the staph infection-- my guess is that one of the hot tubs were to blame-- though there's no way of knowing. His diabetes is under control.)

I've got to tell you though: the people at Disney, and the Beach Club in particular, did absolutely everything they could to help. They picked up cab fare to and from the ER. They got his prescriptions up to us as soon as they arrived at the BC. They let us have the room beyond check out time, right up until the DME arrived. When I wrote to thank them, we received both a Thank you for the note and a follow up phone call to see how he was doing.

There is nothing more they could or should have done.

 

[Magpie]

Confession time:

Some days I wake up nauseous. Most days I don't mention it to anyone because I know it'll go away in an hour or two, all by itself. This is just me.

Sometimes, when I deviate from my usual low fat, unprocessed diet, I vomit. It's unfortunate and embarassing, but not something I can predict or prevent ( though I try!). I've had this issue since I was a child.

A few times in my life I've contracted a horrible bronchial cough that stuck around for six months or more. No way am I letting this keep me inside. My husband still laughs about the hilarious contortions I went through trying not to cough in the middle of a Voices of Liberty concert!

We have pictures of our 12yo daughter looking wan and pale in WDW. I swear she seemed fine to us at the time, but evidently she hadn't recovered as fully as we thought from the previous night's bout of croup. We didn't notice until we looked at our pics and went, "Whoa, sweetheart, you look terrible!"

Just the thing to tell a sensitive preteen.

My son got a bad case of molloscum, which is in the pox family, but which hangs around for potentially years. You bet I let him swim at Disney! We just didn't share towels. I also let him swim with a big ol' wart on his toe.

I know contagion is a fact of life. I don't berate people for choosing to go to the parks when they're feeling under the weather. When I see wobbly folks in the parks, I just feel sorry for them, and hope they feel better soon. I also make sure to wash my hands at every opportunity.

Judge away!

Edit: I meant to add - Thank you, op, for posting this! I didn't know own the first aid centers at Disney worked, and I was very interested to read about your experience. Your post was informative and helpful!

 

[mjkacmom]

I don't get the posters who call the OP selfish and say that she should have stayed in her room. Why can't we be happy that she was properly taken care of? It created a good memory for her. Why point out that in your opinion she was wrong?

In my opinion she was not selfish towards her family, she thought of them, trying to give them a good time. It's not just thousands of dollars, you are trying to create good memories in the lives of your family, which are worth more than money. To me, she wasn't selfish, quite the contrary, she had the people dear to her in mind.

In addition to this, staying in your room is not necessarily an option or a solution. What if she was alone, her family off to the parks as they were feeling fine, and her condition got worse, and she was unable to reach the phone for help? What if she passes out in the bathroom, hit her head on the sink and lies there for hours before the family returns. No one to check on her, as there was a 'do not disturb'-sign on the door. There are so many bad scenarios possible, by keeping her in her room (also what if housekeeping misses a spot before a new family arrives). If you are a family with young children, who aren't old enough to go into the parks on their own, you have to stop the vacation, so the other adult can keep an eye on the patient. You should isolate all family members when one of them gets sick. As the other family members may not have visible symptoms, but what about the invisible symptoms?

Every place where masses of people come together, people get sick. It's easy to say afterwards what the OP should have done. But what if you (or your kid, husband, other family member) have a runny nose or a cough. Do you go to the parks or stay in your hotel room? It could be nothing, could be something serious. Or it may not be serious to you, but to people with low resistance: elderly people, infants, people recovering from certain diseases or operations etc., it could be serious. Those people who called her selfish, might have sneezed, spreading something that was caught by someone else's dear granny standing next to them while waiting for the parade, causing the granny to develop something from which she may not recover.

If you think of everything that could happen in life and try to protect yourself from all danger in the world, you can best lock up yourself in a room with padded walls.

I would follow the rules the kids' schools have - stay away from others until 24 hours of being fever and/or vomit free. It's really pretty straightforward and easy to follow. Common cold that lasts 7 - 10 days? Enjoy the parks and wash your hands a lot. Take some OTC meds to lessen your symptoms so you feel better. Vomiting? Hang back at the resort and let your family enjoy the parks (and don't worry about banging your head and passing out - give me a break, an adult with a stomach bug doesn't need to be babysat on vacation, or at home - talk about dramatic nonsense).

 

[kandb]

I don't really have a problem with people going to the parks with cold symptoms w/o fever. These last about a week and could ruin an entire trip. We are exposed to these germs all the time anyway. I just wish people would learn to cough or sneeze into their elbows like they teach kids at school. That way they aren't depositing germs to their hands and touching everything. Stomach viruses are usually pretty short lived (24-48 hours) so a couple of days in a hotel room shouldn't ruin your entire trip. I'm not sure why anyone would want to go to a park with stomach symptoms anyway. How could you have a good time?

I agree with this statement 100%