Since we spent our vacation money this year on MRIs, doctors visits and meds, my parents were kind enough to allow us to tag along on their vacation and even offered a companion ticket to cover one of the airfares.  So, we headed down to Florida with them recently to stay in the Fort Myers area.

I have been doing fairly well controlling pain and battling fatigue as long as I am mindful of getting tired and stop in advance of crashing so I wasn’t terribly worried about the trip.

It took me getting to the airport to realize that travel can be much harder than I expected.  My dad dropped us off at the door with the bags while he headed off to park and we went inside.  We checked most of the bags and carried on only camera equipment and my laptop.  All was well until we got through security.  Airports make people slightly scattered and I found myself having to pay extra attention to what was going on around me.  Folks stop, turn quickly, put things down without warning, and change direction.  I felt like I was in a human version of paperboy (that reference was brought to you by the 80s).  I found myself getting very tired very quickly and my ankle started to hurt from all the sideways movement and extra walking.

Since I have a US Airways card, I was given automatic early boarding.  Once on board, all was well until we landed.  I purposely sat in my seat until most everyone was off the plane so I didn’t have to stand longer than necessary or fight folks for space.  We headed to collect our bags and the walk was long.  Again, my ankle started hurting and my calf started to cramp a bit.  We then found out that the rental car pickup was on the other end of the airport.  I honestly wasn’t sure I could do it, so W headed off and borrowed a wheelchair.  I carried the heavy bag on my lap and off we went.

It was officially my first time being in a wheelchair by choice and it was just as humbling as you would expect.  All the same, I was immensely grateful that the airport made it available.