It was a normal Florida day. The sun was as bright as a laser and it was as hot as ever. Disney’s Animal Kingdom had just opened its latest and greatest ride at its Pandora Section of the park. “Flight of Passage” is a 3D adventure that realistically propels a rider spinning, tossing, and diving through the air at high speeds. I was going to ride a Banshee that day.
We arrived at the park around noon. The parking lot was stuffed to the gills. The heat was blistering and actually stung your skin. The walk in was like walking on fire. The line for “Flight of Passage” was the longest I had ever seen for any ride. We waited patiently as the line crawled towards the entrance. After an hour we had just reached the entrance and was told it was about 2 hours more until we could get on the ride. I was soaking wet with sweat and it felt like the Sun was aimed only at me.
Finally, we started the long, steep, ascent to our goal. The Sun was riding me like I was an old tired pack mule. Three hours into our journey I stopped sweating and my skin dried up like a river gone dry. A strange and powerful musty smell overtook my nose. The smell invaded my mouth and made me nauseous. My heart started pounding in machine gun bursts. I told my Dad, something is wrong. He grabbed my hand and said let’s get out of…show more content… Then, I realized, I was in a restaurant in a wheel chair. After a few minutes I felt better. We left the park and went to the Emergency Room. The ER Doctor said I was fine and we left. But for weeks after, I had the same symptoms over and over. Months later, after numerous tests and special doctor appointments, nobody knows for sure what happened to me. It could have been a condition called Postular Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome or a severe allergic reaction that made my Mast cells go haywire. I’m allergic to everything. Nobody knows what this is or why it happened. I am getting better
