As frequent fliers I am sure most of us have gone through this at least once.

For me it was about 4 years ago..had to do 4 days in LAS (on business!)..the day before departure I woke up with a terrible sore throat. I knew it was coming. But the trip was booked and paid for for the most part. I was new to the company, and was not about to call out of my first trip with them. So I went..and boy, did I get sick. It turned out to be the flu. I had a 103 fever, lost my voice etc. It was the kind of flu that makes your teeth itch and your head ring. I had trouble STANDING UP let alone going and getting my business done..but I managed it. Truth was, everyone could see that I was sick and didn't want to deal with me anyhow. I cut work short most days and spent the remainder of the days in bed not moving. It was all a living nightmare..and when I flew home my ears got so clogged I was deaf for 3 days..and still sick for another week. I would have been less ill if I was not out on the road, I am sure.

And of course, there have been hangovers...slugging thorough work the next day in a field office, head pounding and stomach churning, but it's my fault I know.

Then there were a few incidents of food poisoning. I am a veggie, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Bad beer taps, dirty spinach..there have been many unpleasant surprises out on the road.

Any one got stories?

I managed to get deathly ill from salmonella a decade or so ago on the last day of a biz trip to SAN. Fortunately, I think I managed to puke everything out of me before boarding the short flight home to DEN, as I didn't have any "incidents" whilst airborne. It might have also been the pint of Pepto that I chugged directly before boarding.

I had a severe 2 year bout with vertigo a few years back, as well, which caused me to become extremely dizzy and nauseated during take-offs and landings. Again, no "incidents" on the plane (I would sooner die than lose it in public...), but I did end up going through massive amounts of water and Altoids to keep it all down, as no pharmaceuticals helped whatsoever. That was a fun 150 flights or so...

Yeah, I got struck with the Salmonella in N.Ireland back in 93, on a pleasure trip 2 days before being in a wedding party. Real embarassing to be losing it out of both ends in someone else's house! And worried about not making it to the wedding was a factor I could have done without. After about 24 hours though, it was all out and I was just weak and tired..but I made it.

I too have occasional vertigo as a result of migraine. It's one of my pre-dome symptoms. I get the vertigo, I know a headache is coming the next day. Sometimes it's so bad I cannot walk. I went through the hyper-motion sick results of flying with vertigo also..docotor prescribed scopalamine, which helped immensely. I have never lost my lunch on an aircraft, but have come close...like losing it in the men's room right across from the jetway after deplaning!

An old coworker of mine had appendicitis on the road. She was hospitalized and they put her in surgery..then she got crap for not getting the job done and missing the meetings. Nice.

I hadn't thought about the number of times I went to a health care professional away from home, but it looks like 6 counting the pharmacist in Brussles. And two foodbourne illness incidents.

Never eat Indian food in Cambodia. The day after the Indian dinner, I flew Siem Reap to Singapore on Thai. I was frantically looking for the loo. They had closets in economy on that plane! The taxi line was too long when I landed, so I hired a limo to take me pronto to the hotel, where I got some paracetamol and something like pepto from the pharmacy next door. I didn't really enjoy Singapore.

I got a sinus infection in Cairo (I think from working in a closed room with two chain smokers for 3 days). Flew home (Nashville) on Saturday then to Saratoga Springs on Sunday. I remember being miserable both trips. Then I went to the health department (on Tuesday) to get shots to go to Peru. By Wednesday I was too sick to work, went to the urgent care and got some antibiotics. Flew home on Friday. I should never have gone to Saratoga Springs.

Three more sinus infections:
Brussles, where the pharmacist next to the hotel hooked me up with some great drugs
London, where I saw a doctor as a private patient and got some antibiotics
Portsmouth, NH, where I went to the emergency room and spent a day in bed at the hotel

I fell in Geneva, landing on one knee. No problems until the following week, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, when my back hurt so bad I could barely get out of bed. Off to the Er, for some pain killers and muscle relaxers, and a sick day on Wednesday in my hotel room. That one took a year of chiropractic visits (on Saturdays, since that was the only day I was home) to fix.

After a holiday in Morocco, I was in Dana Point, Ca when it started coming out both ends. My holiday partner got it in Morocco, but mine took some time to develop. Another urgent care, but the doc loved to travel, wanted to know all about Morocco, and gave me drugs to kill whatever invaded me. I got worse before I got better. I went to bed Thursday afternoon after teaching a class Thursday morning, and didn't get up until Friday.

The seafood caesar salad in Biloxi came back up at 2 AM. I remember being on the bathroom floor, thinking how nice and cool it felt, then remember crawling back to my bed, but I was too week to actually get up into the bed. I slept on the floor, and went down late that morning for work.

My wife spent a week in bed at a hotel in Yemen in between visits to two different local hospitals with bronchitis. At least the second hospital was of a good standard... the first one made us decide to just take our chances at the hotel.

Came in on a train to Amsterdam to visit a friend who lived there. He was working during the day, so I walked around and ate a brodje, one of the ones with egg and cheese. About 90 minutes later, I started feeling sick, and then spent most of my time at my friend's new flat in the bathroom...4 days. WAs more than a little nervous about the flight back to the US. And there were some bathroom issues. Pretty awful experience.

I was in London in August this year. We were there for a couple of days, and I decided to go out and do some laundry. When I returned, I had the chills and a horrible fever. We lost a full day on the trip, but at least the hotel (HR Churchill London) had the best chicken soup ever!

In the mid-1990s, I was visiting three of my client's offices, in London, Oslo and Frankfurt. No problems until my overnight in Oslo (after the client visit) - I came down with one of those 48-hour fevers that seemingly came out of nowhere. Thankfully I had a day off between Oslo and the client visit in Frankfurt, so I laid low at the hotel. I did buy a thermonether at a pharmacy, and discovered that my temperature was 103.2 F. Twenty-four hours later, it was completely gone, and I finished the trip and flew home in perfect health.

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As far as hangover stories, I'm not much of a drinker, so have none of my own. However, my co-worker had a good one. He and the project team flew from SFO to New York for a client meeting, checking into a Midtown East hotel the evening before the meeting. My co-worker, a native of NYC, decided to get together with some of his old high school buddies.

The next morning, he was a no-show at the team breakfast (last chance to go over issues before the client meeting). A team member left the breakfast to knock on his room door, to no response. In a panic, hotel security was summoned and, when the door was unlocked, there was my co-worker, drunk as a skunk and out to the world. The male members of the team got him up and into the shower, while a pot of coffee and a pitcher OJ were ordered from room service (he was essentially force-fed these liquids).

The most surprising thing was, he sobered up quite quickly, and the meeting ended up being quite successful.