The sad story of my tragic, no good, perfectly awful morning, and how McDonald's made it better.
I have been sick for almost 30 days. What started as a cold, turned into a sinus infection and I took a ten day regimen of antibiotics, which finally worked. But it was short lived. I left last Wednesday from my home of L.A., and wasn't even off the plane before I realized I was relapsing. 'But maybe it's just a cold,' I thought optimistically, 'I might have gotten sick at the airport.' Hah! Now, on the 6th day of agony, I woke up this morning coughing out my lungs, and a very peculiar white cloudy mucous into the sink. Yeah, pretty sure I relapsed.
I spent the morning googling how to go to a doctor in Germany, and what the insurance process was, etc. luckily, there is a doctor across from my hotel. Unluckily, it gets worse from there.
I go to the doctor, almost an hour wait. She is very very kind. She adds bronchitis to my list of ailments. Gives me a prescription for antibiotics. Cool. I walk half a mile to the nearest pharmacy (I could find). Half a mile when you are walking with bronchitis, a low fever, and a sinus infection seems so much longer than just ten minutes in the cold. I walk in, relief finally in sight after days of enjoying the hotels bed and literally nothing else because I am too weak to walk or stand for long periods. I hand the lady my prescription.... it's not signed. They can't fill it.
The walk back to the doctor was a sad one. I will continue to pretend I had sinus pressure behind my eyes causing my tears, but it was a hard, hard morning. Of course, everyone in Germany is super nice and they are so sorry there was no signature, I get the signature and make the trek back... again. I finally arrive and get my medicine 'to take with a meal.'
It's hard here to find a meal because a lot of the sandwiches are premade, and I am allergic to tons of seeds, vegetables, nuts, etc. so I decide I will go find a McDonald's, since I know that is a safe food and then I can take my antibiotics and start feeling better. I go to the nearest McDonald's, about a mile away, every step paining me, my slow progress the dismay of the honking cars in the intersection, but frankly, I can't move any faster. I trudge along, and finally I make it, only to find no breakfast menu in sight... thanks alexanderplatz, but a burger in the morning is a great way to ensure my continued pain. I walk down the station, desperate to find a simple egg and cheese sandwich! Dunkin' Donuts! Yes, they must have one! And there, gleaming like a beacon is a beautiful picture of a plain bagel with egg, cheese, and bacon, the perfect, safe sandwich. I order happily, forking over a really pricey amount of money with joy as I dream about a warm egg sandwich along with my antibiotics. He hands the sandwich to me. It is covered in seeds.
The tears stinging my eyes this time are real. I am allergic to seeds. I cry a bit in a corner, I'll admit it I was just really, really tired. Fine, well, I'll use the restroom in the warm Alexa mall, and go to the hotel and figure out what to do.
I check the food court in the way in, at 10:28. Hallelujah! There it is! The egg mcmuffin!! She's on the menu gleaming like my last thread of hope and I almost cry because I am so happy to finally eat and start to feel better! I order my mcmuffin, and as I sit down, they turn the menu to lunch. I had miraculously caught them no more than two minutes before the menu swap, and I may or may not have shed a tear of happiness.
It was the best damn egg mcmuffin I have ever had in my life. And the prescription pills work much better than the over the counters I was taking for what I thought was a cold.
Thank you McDonald's at Alexa, for having my mcmuffin available just in time, and allowing me to start on the road to recovery after so many things blocked my way this morning and week. I'll always remember this McDonald's as the best. read more