Friday (9/16/2016)

Update:

I had a wonderful week-long trip to Los Angeles with my brother, Kevin.  Two of my sons live in the LA area and we were able to spend a lot of time with them as well as spending an afternoon with our cousin who lives in North San Diego County. 

With my current prosthesis, I can walk short distances and wear it for a few hours at a time, which made this trip more enjoyable than the last one when I was totally wheelchair bound. 

My daughter got me and my luggage to the Minneapolis airport and she left me at security.  Because I could walk, TSA had me go through the x-ray machine, and then swabbed my hands and prosthesis.  My backpack and pocket items went through the regular security screening.  They took my wheelchair and swabbed it and did a visible inspection as well.  Overall, not much more than the normal traveler. 

I rolled myself out of security and found that my gate was only about 75 yards away.  Sweet!  I found my brother waiting at the gate and we ate lunch together.  The gate area was crowded and although they have a designated handicap area, there were so many people and so much carry-on luggage in the way that I couldn’t get near it.  My brother elected to stand near me outside of the seating area.

With my limitations and my wheelchair, I always arrive at the gate early and let the flight attendants know what assistance I need and that I have a wheelchair to stow after I roll up to the door of the plane.  I always call the airlines and let them know about my needs after I buy my ticket, but the word never seems to filter down to the gate, or the details get garbled.  The flight attendants are always helpful.  Usually I get moved closer to the front of the plane and sometimes end up with more leg room, which is really helpful with my sciatic pain.  I get to be first on the plane and last off the plane.  At the door of the plane, I have to take my foot plates and seat cushion off of the wheelchair and put them in the overhead storage compartments.  It is nice to have a traveling companion to do that for me; but the flight attendants have done it for me when I was alone.

I had enough leg room for the flight, although my sciatic pain kicked in almost immediately.  Glad I brought pain meds along for the flight.  Being able to walk on this flight was nice.  I got to go to the bathroom!  And they started the beverage service while I was in the bathroom, so I got to stand and stretch out my hip for a lot longer.  Nice!

My brother arranged for the rental car.  Enterprise has a shuttle bus service with a ramp so I just rolled right on.  We ended up with a Dodge Durango which had lots of leg room for me in my prosthesis, my wheelchair, and our luggage.

At the hotel, I always have to get the wheelchair accessible room.  I’ve checked out the regular rooms but my wheelchair won’t fit through the bathroom door (and there is always too much furniture).   It was a great room; although the bathroom door was a pain in a wheelchair.  I think that I left a few reminders of my stay scratched into the finish of the door.  It takes quite a bit of effort to get the door pulled closed.  I need to remember to bring along some cord to use as a pull cord on my next trip (I have that on my bathroom door at home).

One of the personal highlights of my trip was getting to go to the beach.  My current prosthesis is an elevated vacuum system and has way too many parts that have to stay perfectly clean.  A grain of sand could poke a hole in the liner or sleeve and the whole thing would be shot.  So for this trip (and other uses) I purchased an iWalk 2.0 for the beach.  It’s a crutch that you kneel on that straps to your leg.  I found that I still needed some assistance.  The smaller foot on the iWalk would sink into the sand more easily than my other foot.  Hitting areas of hard sand, then soft sand, etc. made balancing a difficult task.  But I got down to the water!!!  At first I took the iWalk off and crawled down to the water.  The first big wave was unpleasant in my face.  So I went back up and got the iWalk back on to walk into the water.  Between the surf and the sand washing out from under the small iWalk foot, I needed help.  My two sons walked on either side of me and helped me into the water.  Rather cold, but refreshing and it was a victory!!!  Sand got onto the knee pad and I was afraid of an abrasion or sore forming so I got out and enjoyed sitting in a beach chair.  My leg muscles were pretty shot, so when it was time to climb up the beach to the car, both boys helped me as I walked up the sandy hill.  Fortunately, my skin was just a bit roughed up and the sand didn’t cause a sore on my leg.  Great time!

California has some great handicap vehicle laws.  Normal parking restrictions don’t apply if you have a handicap placard.  My son’s neighborhood has some very restrictive hours and requires a sticker to park on it—those didn’t apply to me.  You don’t have to pay a parking meter or pay for parking at the state beach parking lots.  As we went out to different places, my son decided that I was very handy to have around for the great parking!!! Ha! Ha! 

The plane ride back to Minneapolis went smoothly as well.  I wouldn’t have been able to stand it with the pain med for my sciatica.  My brother’s connecting flight had already started boarding when we landed so he took off to catch his plane.  The flight attendants helped me get my cushion and footplates out to the wheelchair and pushed me up the walkway to the gate.  I decided to go it alone in the wheelchair to the baggage claim.  It turned out to be a much longer trek with a few uphill slopes, so in hindsight, I should have accepted some assistance; but I made it.  My daughter met me at the baggage claim and got me and my luggage out to the truck.  I was so glad to get the leg off.  It was starting to chaff and really become uncomfortable.

The trip out to California was great.  I had fun spending time with my brother.  He was an awesome help, especially pushing me through the deep pile carpet of the hotel, and loading my wheelchair up wherever we went.  It was great to visit the boys and my cousin.  Great memories and good times!

Some of the places we visited: La Brea Tar Pits, The Getty Museum, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Torrey Pines Golf Course, Malibu Pier for lunch, and Point Dume beach.

Next week I go on another adventure to Indianapolis for my revision surgery!  Glad I have a week at home to get some rest before flying out again on Wednesday.