Beds, traveling, and medical equipment

[Shay]

Hello this is Yona, Shay's partner.
I have been trying to figure out what Shay will need in our trip overseas.
Wondering if other than the grabber that laid_up_doc mentioned is there anything else? Toilet raised up a few inches? I told her about the bottom buddy, but she doesn't believe me that will be necessary!

I hear beds in Europe are notoriously hard. I am considering taking an extra bed cushion in our checked bags for comfort and wondering your opinions on comfort level after surgery in bed?

How much can I expect Shay to be able to be in a car the 3rd week?
She's trying to keep her fitness level as much as possible, knowing this will help in recovery. She has a fantasy that she will be able to be a tourist in week 3. Other than walking around close to home base, is this realistic?

Will she be able to do a long travel day home or should we break it up somehow?
Other than pillows, buckeye's, pain meds, what else will help with comfort during travel?

Since it will be COLD i am also considering heating pads and electric blanket which we use daily at home. Wish this could happen in summer, but not to be.

I need to consider how I will manage luggage, travel, connections etc without her help, any suggestions that worked?
I have my own limitations so need to be creative. I think it would be best to get wheelchair assistance thru airports, but that still leaves, trains, buses, with little help from Shay. Paying taxis for long stretches is not budget friendly.

We typically travel cheap and simple but clearly comfort is important on this trip so trying to figure out how to balance the cheap part with the comfort.

Thanks for your help!
Yona

[Jstuckey]

Have you gotten closer to when/where you are going? That will make a difference. I know you were interested in Spain and England, if I remember correctly. Traveling around once there is very different in those 2 locations, and was discussed at some length a couple of weeks ago. Need a car in Hampshire, England. Don't need a car in Barcelona.

Only speaking for myself, but here are my thoughts to some of your specific questions:
1. The hospital had a higher toilet seat, but I didn't need one once discharged.
2. Other than the reacher (very handy - offered by the therapist in England but I had brought my own), I had a long handle sponge for the shower. Also very handy those first 3 weeks until I felt comfortable standing on one foot. I also had a sock aide and stretchy shoe laces - but I'm an OT so I brought all possible gadgets at my disposal. You can bring your feet up on a bed out in front of you within the first few days, you just can't bend over to the floor. I bought a shower chair for home - I've never used it. Standing in the shower is not a problem after the first few days post-op.
3. My long day of travel was not painful - just tiring. I flew at 3 weeks post op to the day on regular seats. Full pain meds (plus a glass of wine per surgeon blessing!) , moving frequently, and day time flying were my magic prescription, (especially the day time flying so I didn't try to get comfortable for sleeping.) We used the electric carts that airport personnel drive to get around between flights in Heathrow due to distance. Small and lightweight carry ons only. She'll be able to carry a purse or something light.
4. Tourist? Yes for me and many others. I actually was in a pub the same day I left the hospital. The only thing you CAN do for awhile is walk, so why not walk around the cool places? Will you be able to hop on a bus and travel 2 hours away - no. Can you see the cool neighborhoods, cathedrals, museums closeby - yes. If you haven't traveled overseas before - everything is different and exciting. You don't have to go far.
Week 3 for me was very comfortable with minimal to moderate amounts of pain meds with my 2 level (1 ADR, 1 fusion). I could travel an hour by car, and be up and about with position changes all day.
If you end up in England - we have lots to talk about!

[annapurna]

Can't comment on the beds. Every time we've been overseas, we found them comfortable but we also find sleeping on very stiff beds comfortable at home. My overall advice is to, above everything, pack so that your return trip isn't burdened by a lot of stuff. If you do want lots of gadgets or foam cushions, I'd look for cheap solutions and consider leaving some or all behind when you travel home. That way the non-operated person isn't burdened with a pile of stuff and can offer little helps, like running over to the water fountain, buying a snack, etc. and the patient can concentrate on taking it easy.

Heating pads aren't a bad idea but remember that you'll have different electrical power in Europe. Looking for a hot water bottle or microwavable heat pack might be a way to cut down on complexity but still get heat. We bring chemical heat packs but also rarely plan for more than a few days away, now that we're beyond surgery and into continuing care.

Laura and I have always done the full travel in a single day. We do, though, occasionally stay at our destination airport overnight rather than risk an hour's drive home after 26-30 hours of air travel. I think that I remember you as being in the Northwest, so you'd have even more travel than we did from Utah. I'd really look hard at overnighting somewhere if you can't get first class/business class seats. For what it's worth, I discovered that I can't sleep on an airplane so the travel for me is particularly bad; more of an endurance trial until I land in my home airport. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, much less a post-op patient.

After too many trips to Germany for knees and backs, we've gotten to the point where we can go overseas, in winter, using two carry-on sized backpacks. For spine trips, that's revised to a backpack and a rolling suitcase so I can haul everything for Laura. We wash out our clothes each night by hand and buy food there. Entertainment is used books that we read and discard during our travel so we lose weight in our baggage throughout the trip. We've slimmed down electronics to a bare minimum of cell phones, 1 book reader, and 1 netbook and use the netbook's USB ports for charging. Life there is a little spartan but it meant that the return trips through the airports were more or less effortless (important at travel hour 26 to 30).

I'd really think that you should plan on a little tourism while you're there. An inflatable seat cushion might be nice as Laura had problems sitting on hard benches at first. Wintertime travel will probably necessitate some kind of footwear additions to deal with ice, such as YakTrax or the like. I darn near ruined a knee surgery trying to crutch over a solid sheet of ice that didn't look like ice.

By and large, Laura didn't need much gadgetry but we did take a serious look and reorganize the house each time based on the trip's problems. Back surgery meant that smaller portions of all daily necessities were placed such that she could grab them without bending or stretching. Heavy things were either placed for easy sliding or abolished from use until I could get there and move them for her. You're never going to fix everything but a little careful though will make most days and tasks easier.

Consider using transit instead of a car for some of your tourism endeavors. We found that Laura could take a train or a tram to one stop, walk along seeing the sights, and get to the next stop for tram just about the time she'd want to relax and ride back to the hotel. A great deal of Munich was toured between two U-Bahn stops.

[JEVE19]

For me personally,

I took my cane.
I took a cushioned lumbar support that I bought from a medical supply store.
That cushion was a life saver!
I used it on the plane, in the car, in the restaurants, I took it with me everywhere.
Of course, this would be most helpful to lumbar patients.

Because I purchased 3 seats, I could take extra luggage.
I had a carry on bag that was nothing but my pillow from home that I'm used to, two blankets, an eye mask cause I can't sleep unless it's dark, ear plugs to drown out noise, bag of all my prescriptions, a snack (sometimes you need a snack so the pills don't eat your stomach), tablet for playing games.

In my check in luggage, I did take extra pillows and a blanket.
The lodge had everything so I didn't end up using them.

I sooo wished I had brought my heating pad.
My hubby ended up taking warm water and putting it in a ziploc bag and then put that inside another ziploc bag. When my guts were soar from irregular BM's, the warm water bag helped but I had to keep worrying if it was leaking. The heating pad would have been great to have.

We bought two power converters. I plugged my blow dryer into it along with phones, pc, tablet, garmin (navi), etc. I wanted my electronics to be safe and used the converters just to make sure nothing was harmed. All was fine. Make sure you get converters and not just plug adaptors. I bought mine from Best Buy and they were $35ea.

My tip for hard beds is to make them give you an extra comforter at the hotel.
Not a blanket, they always want to give you an extra blanket but you have to fight for a comforter. This plushy of the comforter is what you're after.
We take the sheets off of the mattress and then put the extra comforter down.
Then put all the sheets back on. It gives you a little extra cushion that usually makes a difference if the mattress is too hard.
I've only been in one hotel that had a mattress that was beautiful.
The Waldorf Astoria in Orlando. OMG, the best bed I've ever had while traveling.
Other than that, the bed is always too hard for me.

The garmin was essential for driving instructions and finding restaurants, pharmacy, etc. My hubby was super happy we brought it and said it was a life saver.
Again, not sure where you are going and if you are getting a car.

IF you are driving, please go to my post where I gave the link to UK signs if you are headed here. The signs are very different from that of the US and my hubby starting reviewing them a month before we left.

As far as help with luggage.
We always had help. Maybe because I had the cane, but as soon as airport personnel saw me standing with that cane, they always came over to help my hubby with the luggage. Even in Europe, a guy came with a cart as soon as he saw us to help with our luggage. Get a wheelchair and use a cane, these are clear signs of you needing help and it sure worked for me.

I never left my passport in the room. Always kept it on my person.

I checked the weather before leaving and knew we needed warm clothing and jackets.
I brought clothes to layer with and made sure to bring comfortable and supportive shoes. You will be walking alot and supportive shoes are important.

Hopefully, a travel companion can go with you.
I would have been lost without my hubby's help.
Being a lumbar patient, I couldn't bend to even dry myself after showering.
Having a companion was nice to help me get up and down, hold me steady while walking, get me a tea or food, anything I needed help with, I had it.

I think you will be surprised at how soon you will be able to get out and sight see.
The trick is not to over do it. When you start feeling tired, stop. Your body will let you know when it's ready to rest. Listen to it.

I loaded my pc and tablet with music. I found this very comforting and it took my mind off of things.

Make sure you have a real credit card and not just a debit card because some places only take a real credit card (like the car rental company).

Also, pain meds don't help me sleep. I'm one of the lucky ones that it actually makes it harder for me to sleep. On the plane, xanax (or ambien) helps me to sleep longer. Again, I ended up having four seats to lay across so once I took my pills, I slept through most of the flight. I never even played a game or watched a movie.
I was laying on my down pillow, had a little pillow between my knees, a blanket over me, eyes covered, ears plugged...LOL Hubby tickled my hair and I slept!
Flight to England and back was fine. I thought it was gonna be awful but it wasn't.

Hope this helps, trying to remember all things I did that helped me.

[Shay]

Thank you All!
Great ideas and thoughts. We usually travel with 2 backpacks, but having to take winter clothes.. yuck... makes it more challenging.
Shay has not made it official yet about her choice of surgeons, so I am respecting her process by not saying more than I should.

But that doesn't mean I can't plan!

Being the planner in the family is a good thing. Logistically speaking, this is up there on the difficulty scale. Reminds me when we chartered a sailboat for 2 weeks and had all the gear to contend with.

A lot of these details I wouldn't have to consider if we were just taking a holiday. But it seems like we'll have to travel a little different, slower and with more help which is challenging for an independent women like Shay to accept.

If driving, the Garmin would be great. Converters, check.
I'll read thru your ideas again and show Shay.
I've been creating MEGA lists to help with organization with all your ideas, when I finish I should find a way to export them and put them on Google Docs or something.
It helps me deal with such a daunting trip by focusing on the details.
I feel blessed that we have all of you who have gone before and are willing to share your experiences. Thank you!
Yona

[laid up doc]

i found i only needed adapters, not converters - all i brought were computers, phones, and camera battery charger that work find on Europe's current w/ a plug adapter.

if you're bringing personal care stuff, you do need converters. i was planning to buy a heating pad in Spain to just use there were I to need it, but never really did.

i highly recommend a "spinner" large suitcase - so much easier to move around than backpacks/regular suitcases. i got one on overstock for about $80.

[annapurna]

Thinking about Vicki's comment, we carried our passports with us but left a photocopy of the picture page locked in the hotel room just in case.

For winter clothes, we did well with wool and secondhand cashmere. The straight temps weren't too much worse than what we saw in Utah but the wind and higher humidity made the nights pretty raw.

[laid up doc]

i emailed myself copies of my passport, SS card, and drivers' license some years ago - update as needed. you never know what you'll need....

did the same w/ my credit and debit cards before going to Spain.

Also kept paper copies in my luggage - and I don't carry my actual passport unless I'm going somewhere that they will require it (this is really rare). i just carry a laminated color paper copy, and my DL.

[JEVE19]

Another thing I forgot to mention, I brought a mask for the plane ride.
I brought it just it case and was glad I did because I had a person not too far away that
was doing quite a bit of coughing. Also, brought a very small size hand sanitizer.
I always wipe the tray off with it. Sounds paranoid but I was trying to avoid anything interfering with a good recovery.

[Shay]

I get the sanitizer! I carry one in my purse. And neosporin that I can use in my nose too. It's great on planes. Last thing I want to worry about is catching something on the plane. lol. but it happens. Try to be as healthy as possible before hand I guess. I think eating different than at home lowers your immune system, if its already stressed. I try to bring lots of food to eat for the first 24 hours until I can find a health food store. It's like packing an extra bag.
I hear a lot of herbs are illegal to buy or import into the EU now. Excepting personal use, I hope.
Thanks!