I wrote a post last year about how great travel can be when you have a mother who has money. Two seats in economy comfort works best for me. It's not really that comfortable but it's OK. I can't imagine having less leg room. I could never afford two seats.
I have always been resistant to AMA medicine. I would still rather do anything alternative. The gall bladder surgery was AMA and needed to be. And I get the cortisone shots for my knee, one of which I got right before I left for Asheville. The doctor said I was more likely to throw a clot during flight so soon after the surgery. Other than some pings and throbs I had no trouble. It was the cortisone that made a huge difference.
In the past few years part of any experience included worry about pain. Walking from the car to the check in desk could be excruciating. It's always hard to figure out which line to stand in and you almost always need to stand for some amount of time. I get a wheel chair but the wheel chair doesn't get there until you check in. It would be better if they met you at the curb. This time my knee held up through it all. AMA drugs. Not so bad. I would not have made it through the terminal but the wheel chair got me through.
In Atlanta I deboarded and was left in the wheel chair at the gate. I had a flight to catch at the other end of the airport. I needed to use the bathroom. I sat there. Helpless. A young woman finally came and took me but was on her way out the door. She left me at the gate. I had enough time to get myself to the bathroom with my walker and my drugged up knee made it possible to do with out much pain. When I came back the wheel chair was gone. I got to the plane with my walker. It worked out but it always feels so precarious. Needing help. It feels terrible.
I had some really sharp knee pain in flight. I always wonder why. But there is no doubt the shot makes a huge difference.
Mom with money enough to buy two seats and cortisone. Good. Nothing to protect me from being stranded in a wheel chair on the wrong end of an airport but ...
It seems like it should be ... something. More caring? More efficient? More better.
6 comments:
at the risk of being told to fuck off, I will say I was imprestsed that in your earlier post, for the first time I recall, you referred to 'disordered eating.' this seemed to me a milestone. previous, in your blogging and emails you promoted fat acceptance. We argued, a bit, but I accepted your rationale and integrity.
But, I'm here to tell you that disordered eating, whatever the rationale. is the cause of obesity and the physical disabilities that result.
I get it that all sizes and shapes should be accepted, but when one can't walk, has health consequences from simply being overweight and can't enjoy life's experiences to the fullest, fat-acceptance is little satisfaction.
We have similar background and experience. I don't often disagree with your opinions about food and acceptance. But when I purposefully lost 130 lbs. I changed. My life changed. I did things I thought were impossible.
I still struggle with overeating, but with different ideas, thoughts and challenges. Defeatist acceptance IMHO is not acceptable. I'm fat because I eat too much. Plain and simple.
Figuring out how to exist without accommodating my food addiction is the key to my survival. I don't want to die fat!
I won't tell you to fuck off. You've always been supportive of my blogging even when you don't agree. You're misinterpreting what I mean by disordered eating. My digestive issues cause me a lot of confusion and some anxiety about food. Post surgery things are still in flux. I will die fat. I am fat. It's just the way my body is. You must surely know I won't debate the overly simplistic ideas about why anyone is fat. We are all different. I usually feel a little sad when I hear your ideas about your own body but I do get that you have found a thing that works for you.
I do gotta say that you reading that I was abandoned in a wheel chair leads to a comment about weight loss makes me tired.
The airport wheelchair thing has gotten super tricky, Tish. I've needed one for three years now, and I've often ended up being helped by someone whose job it wasn't, but who responded to my desperate and deliberate eye contact.
And I can see why the comments here make you tired! Relevance?
I'm torn between being sad you've had the experience and happy that you get what I'm saying.
Post a Comment