How to Fly with Chronic Pain

This crazy girl decided to finally go on a long vacation with #leohusband.

Well, the vacation needed to be taken for several reasons. One #leohusband has been working himself to the bone and traveling all over the world. While that may sound very exciting, he spends most of his time on planes, in airports, and hotels.

If you had a conversation with him about it, he would tell you that he's working the entire time so sight-seeing is out of the question. He'd rather sleep in his own bed and have a home cooked meal from me.

So he needs a vacation.

Two, I need a vacation from my job of fighting my disease all the time.

However, the problem is I haven't traveled more than a 3 hour flight or a 5 hour car ride (with extensive breaks so I can walk, stretch, and rest) in my awesome air-conditioned super comfy car seat.

So where to go, not break the bank, or break me in the process.

We settled on Hawaii after seriously kicking around the idea of Venice, Italy.
How to Fly with Chronic Pain

So now I'm sitting on the plane, in Economy Plus thanks to #leohusbands fight miles, five hours into the flight, three hours to go, and I'm not dying.

I'm uncomfortable for sure. What all do I have with me? My bear pad and pillow for the seat. You can see #leohusband carrying both in the above picture. I've got my back brace on underneath all my clothes so it's definitely chaffing my skin. My old-fashioned ice bag is currently under my left hip and I'm probably going to switch it to my right in a few more minutes.

I'm getting up every single hour and walking around, taking the long way to the bathroom. I'm drinking as much water as I possibly can because staying hydrated is key to my success in this adventure.

I took my prescribed pain medication about 2 hours into the flight, right when I started getting above a 5 and luckily I've stayed at a 6.

I stretched for a few minutes by the bathrooms at the halfway mark.

I've also got my tens unit, although getting that on in the tiny airplane bathroom doesn't sound appealing. If I hit a 7, then we're about to try that out.

Lastly, I have a compounded topical pain relieving medication that my pain management doctor gave me to survive all the physical demands that this trip will do to my body.

I will have to write a separate post on the experience of getting this medication filled...because getting that medication required jumping through flaming hoops, in the middle of a lightning storm, on a dry field, in the middle of summer, covered with gasoline.

In other words, it was really difficult, but I got it, and we booked our flight, our Air B&B's, and our rental cars. I contacted my #sororitylil who lives in Maui, the lucky girl, and told her we were coming.

I'm doing it. I'm actually doing it.
What I really think I want to communicate with other chronic pain sufferers today is this, I spend every damn day of my life trying to survive. I never really feel like I'm thriving. I wake up and I fight my disease and it's exhausting. I have felt that my life stopped, or on sad days, ended, when I got Adhesive Arachnoiditis.

That's why this trip is important. If I don't make the effort to keep living my life and doing the things I've always wanted to do, then my life really did end April 14, 2016.

So I'm scared, and I'm probably going to have pain, and have bad days, but Hawaii is a place I've wanted to see and experience with #leohusband and I'm not going to let this chance pass me by.

I hope that this is the beginning of a new chapter where I still can dream big and see those dreams come true.

Except for Japan, definitely can't travel there with their super strict medication laws...sigh.