The last thing that happened when I left off was that we were entering the park. We decided that there was no point in contacting the other group because they were all coaster riders. Plus, they had gotten FlashPass (all 17 of them - it was up to 6 to a FlashPass) so even if we did meet up with them, we wouldn't be able to ride together.
A few people from my group actually thought about getting the FlashPass (haha, I don't want to write FP because then it looks like WDW's FastPass!). However, the line for the FlashPass was insanely long. Everyone was joking that you need to go on another line to get a FlashPass to get on the FlashPass line! I knew that I didn't want to get it because I didn't intend on going on many rides. It ended up that no one in our group got one.
Our first order of business was to head on over to ride Dark Knight. It's the newest ride at GA. I had seen the video of it on
youtube, so I knew that it wasn't scary. We got there and the line was crazy long. However, it was moving so I figured it would be okay. I don't like standstill lines. We passed by the sign that said no bags or hats or cells and all that were allowed inside. I had to give my bag to my mom since I was NOT about to rent out a locker for $1 JUST for that one ride! I'm sorry, I just find that incredibly lame! Why do they have to charge a $1?!? What happens if everyone in the group wants to ride and no one is left to watch the stuff? That means you HAVE TO get a locker! I mean, unless it was like, you get your dollar back when you retrieve your stuff or something ... from what I saw, it didn't look like it was.
Anyway, there was a group of 8 of us waiting to go on the ride. Three of the older younger kids from our church group were a few people ahead and they came back so that we would be together. There's one part of the line that wraps around a flagpole in a circle. It's directly in the sun. And of course, the line wasn't really moving anymore. We stayed out in that blazing sun and that stifling heat for quite some time. My uncle who wasn't on the line, got an ice for my cousin and he bought an extra that my little brother and I shared. The thing is, it brought absolutely no relief. It cooled off the mouth for literally a split second, but it did nothing for the intense heat felt throughout the body. I was, however, glad for it because I hadn't had sugar in the morning and I needed it (I'm hypoglycemic).
While we were waiting around, my heart started racing after about 10 minutes. I couldn't get it to stop.
To go on a tangent ... at the beginning of 2007, I started getting these really bad heart palpitations. It was so bad that you could actually see my heart beating out of my chest. It would beat fast and it would beat hard, and it messed with everything I had to do, including sleeping. I went to a cardiologist, and I had a battery of tests done to find out what was wrong. Other than the echos and the sonograms and all that, I also had a stress test (running on the treadmill ... that was tiring because at the same time I was running uphill, I was trying to explain to the technician that The DaVinci Code was really fiction). I also had to be hooked up to a Holter monitor (24-hour heart monitor) and THEN a 21-day heart event monitor because they wanted to catch one of my "episodes."
The heart monitor recorded an episode where I was just sitting on a bus. My heart rate went up to 130 or so. The monitor said that I had something called supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). Treatment for that would require burning/scarring part of the heart tissue by inserting a catheter through the leg to the heart so that the heart wouldn't receive the message to start palpitating. Haha, I know I just butchered that explanation. I was sent to an electrophysiologist, and after taking one look at the pages of data from the heart monitor company, she said that it wasn't SVT. It's strange but I was really upset because I had thought I finally had an answer.
That doctor wanted to do a HUT test (head-up tilt table test). Basically I was strapped to a table with IVs and whatnot and then the table was tilted so that I was standing at like, 80 degrees. The point is to try to recreate an episode. After about 10 minutes, my heart rate was at 113 and I was nauseous and woozy and apparently very pale. Since they got the results, they stopped the test. Of course, my blood pressure wouldn't normalize and they actually had to tilt me a little backwards to get the blood flowing properly again. Anyway, after ALL OF THAT, it was discovered that I have vasovagal syncope ... which actually has NOTHING to do with the heart! Haha.
This is what vasovagal syncope does: When I stand too long, the blood pools in my legs because there's something wrong with the vagus nerve so there's really not that much blood left in my upper body, particularly my brain. My heart tries to compensate, and it starts pumping faster and harder to get the blood flowing again. Fainting is actually the body's response to this because when you faint to the ground, your entire body is at one level so there's no need for the blood to be pumped upward (when I learned that, I was amazed ... it's actually a defense mechanism!). I refused to take medication for it since I already take medication for other issues so the "treatment" was to up my salt intake a bit (my family really does not use salt much), drink things like Gatorade, stand for shorter periods of time, and pump my legs when I go from a sitting to a standing position to help the blood circulate.
SoOo ... at Six Flags that day, the palpitations were already signaling to me that something was going to happen. To alleviate some of those symptoms, I kept pumping my legs to get the blood circulating since I couldn't sit down. It's funny because I'm supposed to try to avoid standing for so long (my cardiologist always says to avoid the lines at Costco!), but that doesn't really seem possible at a theme park.
While all this was happening, my younger cousin in 5th grade started getting really hot and grouchy. She didn't drink much in the morning, and when her dad asked if she wanted to get off the line, she said yes. THAT'S how miserable she was. We were going to wait until we got to another part of the line because there really was no way out. We held a map over her head to shade her from the sun. She was not a happy camper at ALL. I was watching her because I was afraid she was going to faint or something so I was making sure I'd be able to catch her. This distracted me from my own racing heart.
I was just trying to pretend that everything was okay. Then I was really distracted from my own problems when suddenly, out of nowhere, I saw that one of the junior high girls we were with was lying on the ground! We picked her up and she said that she was really dizzy. Then as I was holding her hand and someone was holding her other hand, she started crumpling down to the ground again. We were kind of holding her up so we let her down slowly to a sitting position. It was so scary because it was like dead weight. I've fainted many times before and people have had to hold me; I've never been on the receiving end of that.
I made sure that she didn't hit her head against the bar as I held her up. Then she woke up and said she was really dizzy. The group in front of us was very nice. They were asking if she drank anything and thought her lips were purple (she had had blue ice earlier). Then the lady was using her map to fan her. I thought it was really nice of her to do that and be concerned. We finally got her up on her feet, and then my uncle took her back to where the adults were sitting.
I was really concerned about all the kids then. It didn't matter how I was feeling. I wanted to make sure the younger ones were a-okay. Instead of having them wait on one part of the line where it was in direct sunlight, I had them stand on the inside part in the shade because we would meet them there anyway when we looped around.
My aunt and my mom realized how miserable we all were so they came closer to where we were on the line to give us some drinks. I took a few gulps of water and was hoping that that would help. Unfortunately, it didn't. No amount of pumping my legs helped my situation. As we were standing around, there was a girl a few rows ahead of us who had thrown up and then fainted afterwards, I believe. I was grossed out because when people came to help her up, they didn't do anything about the vomit that was right in the middle of the line! I mean, cover it up! I just kept thinking, WDW would NOT just leave it there. They would do their best to clean it up right away!
Everything in front of my eyes started swimming, and I just felt confused. Since I know the feeling before fainting, I was well aware that I would probably faint at any moment. Considering I was responsible for my younger brother, I was still trying to fight it. Weird knew that I wasn't feeling well when my younger cousin was feeling sick because he saw it in my face. He was standing next to me at that point, asking if I was okay. I've reminded him many times that when I faint, I faint forward so he was probably preparing to catch me.
I decided to just sit. Normally I'm a pretty big germaphobe, so sitting on the ground where everyone stepped (and where someone else could have thrown up beforehand, yuck!) was a big deal for me. That's how much I didn't feel well. I was waiting for the blood to circulate in my body again now that my heart didn't have to work so hard to pump it. When the line started moving again, I stood up and although it was a bit better, I knew I couldn't wait any longer for the ride. I was debating it because we had already waited at LEAST an hour and change. But because my health comes first (haha, learning not to push myself anymore), I ducked unde the bars and got out of the line.
I sat down at the benches where all the adults were waiting. My uncle gave me Powerade and they were using a spray fan to cool me down. I was also in the shade because the benches were underneath trees. I felt better to just sit and wait. I would NOT have been able to wait another half hour. After a few minutes, I actually had to put my head down and close my eyes because I was exhausted. With the way my heart was beating beforehand (and it still hadn't settled), I felt like I had just run a marathon.
Here's the thing ... we weren't the only ones suffering from the long lines and the heat. After I got off the line, every few minutes, someone else would faint. It was literally every few minutes. Suddenly all the heads would turn as someone new was on the ground. The medics came with stretchers so often! They must have had a LOT of work to do that day.
However, the fainting wasn't the worst part. We got a phone call from my older brother who was with the coaster group. Apparently one of my friends had heat stroke! She was sitting on a bench and everything from her waist up was frozen. Her hands and fingers were in these claw-like positions and she couldn't talk. Tears were streaming down her face because she was so scared since she didn't know what was happening. They had to transport her by wheelchair to First Aid. I read up about heat stroke when I got home, and oh man, I'm so glad she's okay! There was a doctor in our church group so we were relieved to know that he was there with her at First Aid.
My group hadn't eaten yet so we headed on over to First Aid to visit my friend first. They were walking in the opposite direction and everything was okay for the time being. We decided to leave the park to get lunch because there would be proper AC with enough seats and cheaper food. We had to wait for the rest of the people who were riding Dark Knight (Weird being one of them, and apparently it was a waste of time!).
We waited inside a random store. NONE of the stores felt like there was enough air conditioning. I just kept thinking about how the AC can be felt outside of the stores when you walk by open doors at WDW! My aunt was saying that it's probably because the doors to the stores were open but that's not true at WDW! Just imagining walking down Main Street at MK! But it's okay ... all wasn't lost … I did enjoy the baby Looney Toons merchandise!
Baby Bugs!
Baby Taz! And Sylvester!
These were also so adorable! I particularly like Daffy (?) on the left and then Marvin the Martian.
A friend is holding up such a cute shirt for a baby!
Plus, I ended up getting 2 flattened pennies (one was baby Taz, the other was baby Sylvester). Those were my souvenirs for the day.
At that point, there were 4 cars leaving the park. Some of the people already decided that they wanted to leave and not even stay for the concert. It was just way too hot and gross. Plus, with all the fainting and heat stroke going on, a lot of people weren't really feeling well. Weird and I were up in the air in terms of deciding what to do, but the option was always there since Weird could have just dropped off my family at home on the way back to his house.
The walking to and from the parking lot was a-okay since we had the preferred parking. Boy, I really appreciated it then! Back to the car, we had to open all the car doors so that the hot air could escape. It was unbelievably hot and stuffy. We had to wait for a while. We stayed in the shade of a big van using the ice from the cooler to help us deal with the heat. It has never been that hot in Florida, and my family has been to Florida in the unbearable heat before!
Eventually, we did have to climb into the car! But we weren't very happy about it …
Weird and Ninja just wanted some relief as well!
Weird and Ninja were feeling so hot! Not sure if the lamination protects them from the heat or keeps the heat inside. To help out with that problem, they jumped into the air conditioning vent.
Considering the lack of pictures inside Six Flags and the lack of any kind of adventure, Weird and Ninja felt that they needed to make up for it … by taking a photo at the gas station.
Although Hurricane Harbor is NOTHING in comparison to Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach (not that I know from personal experience, but I've seen the pictures!), Weird and Ninja were actually thinking about how great it would be to cool off there!
Then we headed to KFC to get some lunch. A lot of the restaurants at Six Flags didn't have air conditioning! Most of the seating was outdoors. Plus, with the crazy prices for food that's not so good ... it wasn't worth it so that's why we left to get lunch elsewhere.
Weird had boneless wings while Ninja had a KFC snacker. On normal occasions, Ninja would really enjoy the junk food quality of the lunch, but considering how she was feeling, she couldn't enjoy it.
After we ate, there were many phone calls that had to be made because we decided to leave for good. Even though the original plan was to go to the concert, it didn't matter at that point because of how we were feeling. So the whole ride situation had to be figured out since Weird had driven other people out and not my mom, another friend, and me. Once that was all settled, we were on our way home! YAY!
The ride home was very fun because we were in AC and we got to just talk. My mom kept saying I was so unladylike with how I sat in the car with my shoes off (after smelling my feet to make sure they still smelled like roses). Haha, I was like, "But it's just Weird!" Since he's seen me at my worst, it really didn't matter if I didn't have shoes on! Plus, after that long day? Any relief was welcome.
That was about it for our not-so-great adventures! As you can see, we unfortunately did not have many pictures at the park. All the plans I had of going on Superman, Runaway Mine Train, Sawmill Log Flume, Congo Rapids, Skull Mountain, and even Dark Knight (just to see what it was) ... totally down the drain! That was stinky. I don't know that I'd go back in the future. I think I'd rather save my money for a WDW trip!
The ENDDDDDDDDDDDD
Even though I'm closer to the 7th graders (my homeroom), I still will miss the 8th graders ... remember those rare moments when they actually listened to me in class~ ahhhh. Haha.
My husband and I teach 3-4 year olds at church, and this is our third year. Those kids just melt my heart, and by the end of the year it is so hard to let them go, as they feel like they belong to me. Then you start the next year ... and you love those kids just as much. 
and 2.5 months of vacation 
LOVED reading the book. I read a lot when I was younger (still do) but I didn't remember Flat Stanley at all--I have no idea how I missed it!
I'm so happy to finally be done with it. I really need a break!
Can't believe I forgot to post about the SWT! Very glad the SWT technique was able to rescue Weird from an eternity between the glass panes. 
