A couple weeks later, my mom came across an article about an ongoing study, in which scientists and doctors were using phage viruses to attack and destroy many bacterial infections, including and especially Pseudomonas. I qualified for the study, and while it required me to travel to Portland, Oregon to get it, I was desperate and willing to do anything scientifically credible to get rid of my infection and avoid spending any time in the hospital.
My sinuses were extremely full and sore. I had extremely heavy nosebleeds nearly everyday, and I knew if I didn't get rid of the Pseudomonas in my sinuses, it would eventually spread to my lungs. I had been out of school for a month by that point, but I didn't care. I was in too much pain to worry about my school at all. While I did have a few days here and there where I felt perfectly ok and healthy, the infection always found a way to remind me that it was still there. I'd be just fine one hour, and the next I'd be curled up in bed, with bloody tissues around my face as I cried. It was a truly horrific infection, and it needed to be eradicated as soon as possible.
Before I flew out to Portland, I went pronghorn hunting. It was a pretty easy hunt, especially since I went hunting on one of my good days. I had 30,000 acres of land to myself, and uncle Courtney drove me around in his truck. The only real walking we did was just a few yards away from the truck, so I could take a shot at the pronghorn. I missed the first doe I shot at, but I nailed my second. She was an average sized pronghorn, and gave me about 60 pounds of meat. My uncle Courtney processed the meat for me, and managed to make 40 pounds of burger from the pronghorn's neck meat. He mixed the pronghorn meat with organic ground beef, because pronghorn is too lean to be made into burger on its own. It was nice to have so much wild game, but I was often too sick to cook it.
I wasn't looking forward to traveling to Portland, but I knew it needed to happen. My mom's boyfriend at the time, offered to come with us to just be some extra support for my mom. He knew she'd need some extra support, especially since I was so sick. My mom's boyfriend was squeamish and didn't want to help me all that much, but I didn't blame him. In fact, I didn't want him to help me out, especially since he didn't know very much about me or my condition. He was good company for both me and my mom, and the trip would have been much more emotionally exhausting if he wasn't there.
We flew into Seattle first. We have family out there, and they offered to take care of Jack for a couple days, while my mom, her boyfriend, and myself drove down to Portland. I didn't enjoy the flight to Seattle or the drive to Portland, but I was honestly too tired to care. I just leaned my head against the window and watched the world go by.
My mom managed to get an Airbnb house for us in some nice suburb near Portland, since she knew staying in a hotel would be very hard for everyone. I needed my privacy, especially since my illness made my already short fuse even shorter. If someone even breathed in my direction, I'd get upset at them. Then, later on when I was alone, I'd get mad at myself for snapping at people for the dumbest things. But who could blame me? My face was pale and swollen due to the worsening sinus infection, and I was losing a pound of weight by the week. I was scared, and when I get scared, my first instinct is usually to become hostile and aggressive.
At home, I was very physically weak. I struggled to climb the stairs and hold heavy drinks steady, and I slept up to 20 hours a day. But at sea level, I actually gained back some strength. The salty, wet air rejuvenated my lungs so I could breathe like normal again. And since I could breathe normally, I had more energy to do things and stay awake, and had no issue climbing the stairs or carrying heavy things. Because of this, I almost wanted to stay on the northwest coast for the rest of my battle with Pseudomonas. However, at the same time, I was still exhausted and homesick.
After spending a long couple of days in Portland, we packed into the car and headed north back towards Seattle. However, the drive would be too long for us that day. It was the late afternoon by the time we had packed our stuff in the car and got on the road again, and my mom's boyfriend wanted to take a little detour. He was adventurous, and wanted to stay on Cannon Beach in Oregon, where the famous Haystack rock is, for a night. I wasn't very thrilled about it, and tried to convince them that I was too sick for it and just wanted to get to Seattle, but my mom said it took much more energy to drive four hours, rather than drive an hour and stay in a nice hotel.
My mom's boyfriend booked us a suite at a resort hotel right on Cannon Beach. It was actually more of a small apartment rather than just a simple hotel room. It had two private bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, a pullout couch, and a dining area right next to the couch. The dining table was right next to a large sliding glass door that led out onto a back porch, which faced the ocean. In fact, we had a perfectly clear view of Haystack rock from the back porch.
My mom hoped it would be nice and sunny, so she could spend some time with her boyfriend on the beach. Instead, we were in the direct path of what was basically a hurricane, only Oregon didn't call it that because it was so cold. They called it a major bomb cyclone, which would bring sustained 70 mile per hour winds, with 100 mile per hour wind gusts, heavy rain and snow, and the tide would literally be at our back porch. Normally, this would've freaked me out, and I would've demanded that we stayed much further inland. But instead, I was too tired to care. I just wanted to get to the hotel, curl up on the couch, and fall asleep to a movie.
When we got there, it was just starting to rain, but most of the storm was still west of us. My mom's boyfriend went to the hotel lobby to check in, and once he had the key, he drove our car down into the parking garage, and helped us carry our stuff to our hotel room. It took us awhile to find our room, as we struggled to navigate through the outdoor maze of doors and stairs. Thankfully, our room was on the first floor, which was very sheltered. I didn't even feel a breeze while I was following my mom and her boyfriend around as we tried to find our room. Once we got there, I immediately curled up on the couch and just stayed there for nearly an hour.
Meanwhile, my mom and her boyfriend went back out to find some food. They said they'd be gone for a couple hours, since they wanted to go to a nice sit-down restaurant, and I was ok with it. I just wanted to rest. When my mom and her boyfriend left, I drew the blackout curtains in the dining room so I could sleep. I found some extra blankets in the bedroom closet, and made myself at home. I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow, and I didn't wake up until my mom yelled in my ear that she was back. Apparently, I slept so hard, that I didn't hear them come in, nor did I feel it when my mom grabbed and shook my leg.
When I opened my eyes, she was holding a soaked paper bag in front of me, which smelled delicious. She was also wearing a cheap plastic poncho that really didn't keep her dry. Her clothes were clearly soaked under it. I swung my legs over the side of the bed, while my mom's boyfriend scooted the little dining table over to me. He was also soaked to the bone. They bought me a large bowl of clam chowder, as well as several packets of hot chocolate mix.
When I asked my mom why she and her boyfriend were so wet, my mom flung open the curtains to show me that the storm had arrived. High northbound winds and 10 to 15 foot rollers continuously battered the beach. The rain didn't seem to be falling. It shot across the sky in heavy white sheets along with the wind, and wet sand drifted across the beach, making it look more like a river than an actual beach. I had never seen such a storm before, and I couldn't take my eyes off it.
Our back porch was sheltered from the storm, so I stepped out onto it and leaned against the railing. The air was thick with sea spray, and it felt and tasted just like my saline nebulizer treatment, only better. I decided to just pull up a chair so I could enjoy the weather. As long as that northern wind didn't shift east or south, I would be just fine sitting out there. My mom and her boyfriend left me alone again to go to the hotel's hot tub, which was in a building just across the deck from our room's front door, sheltered from the weather by the parking garage.
I took in some of the deepest breaths I've ever taken, while I sat outside. I felt so good, that I almost forgot that I was sick! This excited me, since I was getting better even though I hadn't even tried my new Pseudomonas treatment yet! I wouldn't try it until I got home several days later, since the doctors warned that it would put me through an intense detoxing period. The last thing I wanted to do was get back on the plane while I was still being detoxed.
After about an hour or so of sitting outside, I was ready to do something productive. I wasn't about to go outside beyond the porch though, especially since the storm got twice as strong within that hour. However, a large group of young adults went out onto the beach to attempt to brave the storm. Nature quickly reminded them that it was in charge, and going onto the beach was a very dumb idea.
I watched them sprint from the hotel's beach access door onto the beach, and while the larger adults were able to withstand it, the smaller adults hardly had a chance against the storm's raging wind. Many of them were knocked to the ground by stronger gusts, only to get a face full of sand. I shamelessly laughed at them, because it was their choice to go outside in that, and they were idiots for doing so. Only a couple people remained outside after about five minutes, but they eventually had enough too, and went back inside.
I was also forced to go back inside when the wind began to shift towards the east. I wasn't feeling the wind yet, but I was getting wet. I quickly lost my good health when I went back inside, since I wasn't out in the salt anymore. But, the wind shifted sharply towards the east less than an hour later, just after dark, and violently rushed up against the sliding glass door.
My mom complained about the noise, saying it was one of the scariest sounds she's ever heard. To be fair, the wind did sound just like a woman screaming bloody murder from the pits of hell, and the sliding glass door rattled and bent from the force of the storm. However, I wasn't afraid. I knew what it was, and I trusted our building was sturdy enough to withstand the weather. The only thing I hated was when the "eye" of the storm passed over us, dropping the pressure, and inducing one of the most painful nosebleeds I ever had. It didn't help that when the other half of the storm arrived, the power got knocked out, so I had to take care of my nosebleed with just the light from my phone's flashlight.
My mom checked on me often throughout the night. She was worried that I'd be kept awake by the storm. The bedroom she was sleeping in was sheltered from the storm, since it was on the eastern side of our suite. But I slept like a rock despite being right next to the sliding glass door. By the time I woke up early the next morning, the storm had passed, and the sky was a pale blue.
My mom told me I should go for a walk while she and her boyfriend picked up some breakfast for us. My mom didn't want to eat in the hotel's dining room, because it was completely full. In fact, every room in our hotel had been booked, and everyone decided to go get breakfast at exactly the same time. My mom and her boyfriend went to get us a stack of waffles and bacon, while I ventured outside onto the beach.
It was still windy, but the sand was too wet to get kicked up. Instead, the wind blew around a lot of sea spray, which had the same effect on me as caffeine. I kept my back to the wind for the most part so it didn't overwhelm my own breathing, while I stared out at the endless sea. The waves were still large near the beach, but beyond that the water was relatively calm. There weren't any boats or ships out at sea. It was just an endless, empty expanse of silvery, blue water to the west, which matched the cloudless sky above. I spent almost an hour roaming around on the beach, completely oblivious to my mom, who was on the porch staring at me and taking pictures. She sent about 20 pictures of myself to me, which all came in at once as soon as I was within range of the hotel's wifi.
When I came back inside, my mom told me my bacon and waffles were cold, and asked why I had been out there for so long. I explained to her that the sea spray made me feel normal again, and I couldn't get enough of it. "I figured that's why you were out there for so long." she smiled.
Before long, we were back on the road again headed towards Seattle. I slept for most of the car ride back to my mom's cousin's house, and once again I crashed onto the guest bed and stayed there for the rest of the night. I couldn't wait to go back home so I could finally try out the phages. I was nervous, but excited to try them. There were risks involved, such as the miniscule possibility that there could be a corrupted phage virus that could wreak even more havoc on my body, but it was a risk I was willing to take. Either I took the phage, and risked a one in a million chance of getting a corrupted phage and dying sooner, or I would be dead within the next 5 to 10 years anyway.
