[Jstuckey]

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.