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laid up doc
10-30-2011, 07:16 AM
for future overseas travelers, a few bits of advice:
1. DEFINITELY request wheelchair service at the airport!!! you will breeze right through checkpoints and the lady flagged down a skycap to handle my luggage in customs. had a letter from Dr Clavel about my lifting restriction of 10kg, but they never even asked for anything like that. i will caveat that if you have a tight connection,

2. i can also highly recommend getting Envoy or similar seats if you can - US Airways has Airbus 330-200 aircraft w/ 180 lay flat seats on certain route including LHR and BCN. the BCN flight is only on the weekends though, i THINK. i called TWICE to make sure i had what i wanted to pay for. the lay flat was priceless in both directions - discogenic pain on the way there, and incision soreness/muscle spasms on the way back. sitting is still what i'm least able to tolerate.
- you go right in that short line to check in -- not an issue in the US but in BCN that line was outrageous. i would have been miserable standing in that line w/ my luggage!!!
- 2 free checked bags, flagged priority to get offloaded sooner
- first class on domestic legs - usually nice and wide, more access to overhead bins and help from flight attendants
- i had the same wonderful flight attendant both ways for the BCN leg. checked on me frequently when i alerted her to my pain and need for scheduled meds on the way over (needed to time some before meal), then asked if i was ok a lot on the way back. will definitely be sending a happy gram to US Airways about her.
- fed very well so i didn't have to scramble for food in the airport, plus free alcohol if that'll help you relax (i didn't drink much b/c on nsaid and lovenox, plus i feel funky when i drink while taking cymbalta and zanaflex)
- "bed" is plenty long but not necessarily wide - i'm 5'8" so definitely liked to stretch out. nearly everyone in the cabin appeared to be asleep and/or comfortable when i was up walking around.
- power plug and USB power port right at your seat to power your toys/gadgets
- another pillow and blanket waiting for you when you get on the plane - i brought my own as well to position myself as best i could.
- more room to stand/walk around/stretch

3. wheeled carryon luggage is a must for the way home. i had to go to the "china store" in BCN to get a cheap rolling backpack, b/c i didn't do this. was willing to tough certain things out on the way over and didn't plan as well for the trip back when things are at risk. if you go to Spain and need cheap crap like that - ask for the nearest "tienda de Chinos". (sounds like a racial slur sort of, but it was definitely the answer for cheap household items!!! other stores were SO overpriced - in the major dept store in Spain, El Corte Ingles... the prices looked familiar, 'cept that they were in EUROS not usd!)

4. most meds in europe are CHEAP - bring more expensive/harder to find ones, but most things seemed to be cheaper even than a copay back here (mine is $10 for generics)! think 30 diazepam for 2-3 euros ($3-4) and 40 500mg naproxen for 4 euro ($6). so were dressings for my wound. just show the pharmacist your current bandage, and they'll come out w/ something similar. much harder to find and more expensive in the US, for sure.

5. beds in europe are HARD - no conforming to your body at all. it was my experience and had heard it from others. i should have just brought an eggcrate from here, b/c i couldn't find one there despite asking around several places

6. food in europe is EXPENSIVE, and finding an american style breakfast is very hard and would have cost waaay too much for what i'd imagine would be a very mediocre job (used to GREAT breakfast as I am a native southerner). did breakfast in daily and a few other meals in as well.

Jstuckey
10-30-2011, 01:48 PM
An option for those of you (like me) scared off by the price of "1st class" or whatever it's called by each individual airline, I just stayed one week longer. The cost of my housing and food I figured was about half of the price jump for the lay-flat seats. Had I traveled at 2 weeks post op, I would have been in trouble without the special flight accommodations. For me, traveling at exactly 3 weeks post op was no problem at all in the cheap seats!

Housing: We saved money by renting a cottage vs a hotel. Not only was the actual rent less expensive, but I'm sure we saved a bundle by having a kitchen and buying groceries for meals. Also, when you are having the enevitable bad day, going out to a restaurant would have been out of the question, so having room and ability to cook at "home" was a necessity. We found our cottage from the nearest "larger" town's website which had many local housing options, B&B, etc. Downside: bad bed in our place, but sounds like that might be unavoidable no matter where you stay. Homeaway.com, etc work for searches too. We thought anything within a 5-10 mile radius of the hospital would suffice for therapy appointments, etc. We could have actually stayed further away and been OK.
Take a washcloth if you accustomed to using one. Europeans often don't provide these.
England: I'd recommend an automatic transmission rental car. Driving on the "wrong" side of the road is a challenge enough, but shifting a manual on the wrong side as well was probably downright dangerous. We definitely needed a car where we were.

annapurna
10-30-2011, 03:39 PM
Another thought to those put off by travel costs: use rail within Europe to get close to London and minimize the time required to cross the ocean. I can't remember exactly but a flight from Heathrow to NYC requires just about the same time required to cross the US. Once you get across the water, you can rest for a day in NYC, if needed, then move on.

For that matter, if driving in Europe is daunting, the rail and transit system is superior. We've never rented a car or used a car (other than a very occasional taxi) for all of our trips to Germany.

laid up doc
10-30-2011, 04:18 PM
joey sue -

i too didn't want a hotel, so i rented an apt i found through vrbo.com. got a 2 bdr/1ba apt w/ a washer/dryer unit, full kitchen, in a great area for less than 100 euros/nt. could have gone a bit cheaper but would have sacrificed a few things that mattered to me and my travel buddy.

i wanted no part of driving in another country - er, asking my friend to drive in a foreign country. imho, one of the biggest drawbacks to the location of Nuffield Hospital. public transit is dirt cheap and bus/train goes everywhere in BCN - i used cabs some but had i know the bus system better, could have used them less. didn't really figure that out til the end of my trip. you can get a 10 trip pass for about $11 that works for train or bus.

as far as the flight - i feel SO much better being at my own house... i actually wanted to come home a few days earlier when i realized how quickly i was recovering and how crappy the bed was, but i couldn't fly another day w/o sacrificing the lay flat seat, plus my apt was paid for... so i was just out and about more! i paid $3500 r/t - well worth it imho, and a drop in the bucket considering the cost of the trip as a whole. i would also have been absolutely miserable on the way over w/ my bad disc.

my travel buddy flew "economy comfort" on delta - an extra $80-100 for more leg room, power plug, more recline, and free booze. also at front of coach and earlier boarding. since he's 6'4"... absolutely necessary! another option for those who don't want to go biz class.

for future BCN travelers: the site for the apartments i used is Negre BCN Apartments: Your place to stay in Barcelona (http://apt.negre.us/). they had staff in the toys/paper store next door who helped w/ all sorts of things. you can pay w/ a credit card - big advantage b/c some places want you to pay CASH euros on arrival - necessitating carrying a large amount of cash for your trip and getting raped on the exchange rate.

neighborhood was top notch for my purposes - convenient enough and quiet enough, very safe, pharmacies/restaurants/shops galore withing walking distance. 5 min walk to Metro. wasn't touristy at all, which is a good thing b/c i felt safe walking alone at night b/c the area isn't targeted by the vagrants...

srajan0929
12-05-2011, 05:33 AM
isn't first class like almost 10gs from uk to america?

JEVE19
12-05-2011, 01:04 PM
Yes, and this is why we chose to buy three seats which was still way cheaper than one first class (envoy) seat and I would have had to buy my hubby a seat elsewhere in the plane and then he wouldn't even have been by me to help me with anything.

When looking at the flights, see what kind of airplane that flight uses.
In our case, it had 2 seats, 4 seats, 2 seats going across the plane.
So, the agent booked us three seats Isle, open, middle, Isle.
She purposely left the middle seat as the open seat because unless the plane is sold out, no one wants a middle seat.
If the plane would have been sold out, then my hubby would have switched the open middle seat with the person and let them have the isle. That way he could have sat next to the person and I still would have been able to lay on his lap and still had three seats to lay across. As it turned out, the plane was not sold out and I was able to have all four seats to lay across.

The good thing about doing it this way allowed us to have extra baggage as each seat still gives you baggage allowance. I took a carry on bag with nothing but pillows, blankets, snack, meds, eye mask, ear plugs, etc. We had three carry on bags.
One I held between my legs in the wheelchair which allowed my hubby to pull the other two. The airport valet pushed my chair. Never had a problem with extra bags.
Both US and UK airport valets helped us with this.

As far as having a car or not having a car...it depends on what you plan to do.

Once I left the hospital, I didn't have to go back lots of times.
My hubby went back once to get some more bandages.
I went back once to get my staples out. If you plan on doing lots of hydro therapy sessions, then you could potentially go back more but I ended up
only doing one session and that was while I was still admitted.
Looking back on it, if I didn't have a car, I would have just told them that we were using a taxi or bus and to stock me up so I didn't have to stop back.

The one misnomer about Boeree's office is that it's in the middle of no where.
This is not true. It's a city. That have taxi's, buses, etc just like anywhere else.
The Holiday Inn, Winchester Lodges, both are about ten minutes from Dr. Boeree.
The grocery store, etc was 1/2 mile away from the Lodge.

I think having a car was nice for site seeing. We could drive around and see whatever we wanted.
The service to takes you to Boeree from Heathrow costs the same as the car rental.
It's just a matter of your confidence in driving.
The first two days were scary getting used to it, but after two days, we drove around just fine. My hubby was fine to drive wherever we wanted to go.

If you don't want to get a car, then the Mercure Wessex Hotel would be the place to stay because it is right in the heart of stuff to do.
The Winchester Cathredral is directly next to it. You could walk out of your hotel and visit the chapel and then from there you walk up two blocks
and you are on High Street. As far as you can look left or right, there are shops all up and down this street. Places to eat, bakeries, antique stores,
clothing, you name it...it's on this street somewhere. This is a very popular destination, it's known for all of the shopping it offers.
From here you can take a taxi, bus, rail to anywhere. I believed Lizard (Nancy) stayed here and did use the public transport.

Dr. Boeree is one hour from London.
Most major hospitals are probably within that range anywhere you'd visit in the US.
The thing you have to be careful of is where you stay.
Some of the cottages are located in horse country which isn't as convenient but there are lots of places to choose from hotels, lodges, cottages, and bed and breakfasts.
For some reason, Dr. Boeree's location seems to be made out like it has nothing to offer, this is just not true. We had a great time there and I would have no problem going back.