A Bunch of Map (Geeks), San Diego & Two Trips to the Hospital

The day after we got home from our vacation in Maine, I hopped on a flight to the other coast for the 2014 Esri International GIS User Conference in San Diego. This conference is essentially Mecca for mapping geeks like me. With over 15,000 attendees, the conference is huge and far, far bigger than any conference I've ever been to. It's held at the San Diego Convention Center right on the coast. Below is the view from the balcony of my hotel room. Um, yeah!

As excited as I was to attend the conference, it was hard to be away from my family for the week. It was the first time I'd left Cece for more than a night since she was born. And what's more, as soon as I landed I got a phone call that James was in the hospital. Whaaat?!? He had severe stomach/abdominal pain and went to the ER. At first they thought it might be appendicitis and might need surgery which means I would be getting right back on the plane. After several tests, he was diagnosed with diverticulitis, which definitely makes sense because he has had similar pain in the past. After a night in the hospital and a heavy dose of antibiotics, James recovered without needing further treatment. Fingers crossed he doesn't have another bout of it in the future or else they may need to have surgery.

Once I got word that James was recovering, I could relax and enjoy the conference. Almost all of the photos below are from Esri's Flickr account so they aren't mine. You can tell which ones are mine, they were taken on my crappy iPhone. =)

 

The conference opened with the plenary session. It felt like we were at a rock concert. With 15,000 people in one huge room, screens, lights, music and yes, lots and lots of maps. Will.i.am even showed up via Skype to show off his new map watch.

The conference was chock full of information. There was a ton to see, do and learn. So much to absorb. And lots of parties, food and drinking (non-alcoholic drinks for me and baby of course). There was even a 5K race that was part of the conference. Even though I had not run in 8 months and not once this pregnancy, I decided to jog it with my colleague Emily. I finished in 32 minutes and managed to jog the whole course, which was victory enough for me. 

 

The last day of the conference featured a huge party in Balboa Park. All of the museums were open for us to wander through and there was catered food spread out at stations around the park. It was amazing and overwhelming at the same time. I stayed for a few hours and then said goodbye to my colleagues and headed to the airport for a late night red-eye back to the east coast. No problem, right?

 

Wrong. 

 

Approximately 30 minutes into the 5 hour flight, I was struck with the worst pain I've ever been in in my entire life (and that includes birthing Cece without drugs!). I didn't know it at the time (and neither did the two doctors on board) but it turned out I had an 8mm (that's big) kidney stone in my left kidney. I spent the entire flight on the floor in the back of the plane, most of it throwing up into a plastic bag. It was bad. They almost diverted us to Chicago. Thank goodness that didn't happen. When the plane landed at our scheduled stop in Philadelphia, an ambulance was waiting for me. After a very painful ride to the University of Pennsylvania hospital, I was admitted and remained there for five very rough days until I finally (mercifully!) passed the stone on my own. My parents drove down to PA to pick me up and drive me home (you couldn't pay me to get on another plane!) and it took another week to fully recover. Fingers crossed I don't get another one of those suckers. It was by far the worst pain anyone can experience without actually dying. The worst. I'm betting birthing kid number two will be a breeze after that! Let's just hope the next time either James or I are in the hospital is in November when our son joins our family. We do NOT need any more hospital visits before then!