Cancel or not?

[alibeau]

A tricky decision indeed

I really couldn't say what we would do in your position Like you have already said, your wife is going to have to take over a number of your 'duties' so would she be happier staying at home or going away? She might be grateful for any extra support she may get from family/friends at home? equally she might be happier taking over duties in the land of mouse?!?

Personally I would base my decison on what your doctors say on Tuesday as they will be able to advise objectively based on your medical condition....

Feel so sorry for you Hope all goes well on Tuesday and you manage to reach a decision.....

Good luck with everything

Ali

 

[brightspark]

Oh no this is so horrible for you and your family. What a nightmare situation... I can certainly see your point about needing help somewhere nice, being better than having all the trouble at home - we've used that sentiment before.

On the driving front, we hired a car on one of our trips with the assumption that dh would do all the driving. I drive loads here, but didn't want the stress of driving in the US - I was terrified at the thought. However dh got sick on the plane and I ended up doing all the driving. It was far easier than I expected as there are no roundabouts to cope with, and dh made a brilliant navigator. One thing I would suggest is that you find a way to give your wife experience with an automatic before you go... that was the biggest issue for me.

Good luck with all your debating... hope you find the right decision soon x

 

[aoifesmom]

Hi

Firstly really sorry to hear of your dilema, must be devestating. Thought I would add my two-penneth ! My cousin's husband has caused a similar situation which I though might help. He went out mountain biking (against my cousins express wishes ) a week on Saturday and as you can guess fell off ! due to fly out to Spain the following Wednesday to see his Mom who they haven't seen for 3 years as well as the kids not seeing their Nan for 3 years. He was in serious trouble !! Anyway he basically fractured one wrist, but they think this could be an old injury and have done nothing with it, the other he dislocated the wrist which required a bolt and the arm is fractured requiring a pin and back plaster to his arm pit, he will probably need to have this changed to a full plaster at some point and could be in plaster anywhere from 4 to 9 weeks. He did it Saturday lunch, was in hospital on morphine until op sun night, due to fly on the Wed. Knew wouldn't be able to fly on Wed but hoped to go following weekend.Basically even though said was going to his Mom's and would be doing absolutaley nothing, was told there was absolutaly no way he could fly beacuse of the risk of infection. So really just wanted to say prepare yourself that the decision may be out of your hands

Best Wishes

Jo

 

[london75]

In some ways I hope they do take the decision out of my hands, I've gone from we're going to how do we tell the kids about 5 times today!

 

[crabbie1]

Hi

Firstly really sorry to hear of your dilema, must be devestating. Thought I would add my two-penneth ! My cousin's husband has caused a similar situation which I though might help. He went out mountain biking (against my cousins express wishes ) a week on Saturday and as you can guess fell off ! due to fly out to Spain the following Wednesday to see his Mom who they haven't seen for 3 years as well as the kids not seeing their Nan for 3 years. He was in serious trouble !! Anyway he basically fractured one wrist, but they think this could be an old injury and have done nothing with it, the other he dislocated the wrist which required a bolt and the arm is fractured requiring a pin and back plaster to his arm pit, he will probably need to have this changed to a full plaster at some point and could be in plaster anywhere from 4 to 9 weeks. He did it Saturday lunch, was in hospital on morphine until op sun night, due to fly on the Wed. Knew wouldn't be able to fly on Wed but hoped to go following weekend.Basically even though said was going to his Mom's and would be doing absolutaley nothing, was told there was absolutaly no way he could fly beacuse of the risk of infection. So really just wanted to say prepare yourself that the decision may be out of your hands

Best Wishes

Jo

I think flying a week after surgery is not a good idea but the OOP wont be flying for a month. I dont think they would stop him flying because of infection.More likely the risk of odeama, or a blood clot although anticoagulants are given routinely after any surgery. Also the risk of the plaster being too tight but this can be noticed quite easily as fingers swell and tend to have a nice blue tinge.I remember doing a back slab on someone once who had it put on whilst on holiday in portugal. He had to wait 24 hours before I could reapply it as his arm was so swollen from the plaster being applied too tight.
London,take advice from the consultant. He will advice you the best. We can only give opinions. He will not string you a line at all and if you do have to cancel he will be more than willing to do you a letter to whomever you need it. In such a circumstance I cant see why DCL will not transfer your booking. You are not cancelling at a whim ,it would be detromental to your health. Have you spoke to them abt this.

 

[london75]

I've not spoken to anyone except a provisional call to the insurers just yet. I'll wait to see what happens Tuesday, some people seem to have a bad time of it and have weeks of pain, others are back on mountain bikes 2 weeks later. The Internet is great but factoids are rare.

If I feel well later in the week and we can make sufficient changes for DW to be confident with the driving she'd have to do, we might go. Otherwise, bank the money and wait for next year. It's really only just over 3 weeks after surgery we'd go which feels close to me but who knows.

 

[aoifesmom]

He was definately told he could not fly due to infection, he did go into the medical reasons, but I didn't take much notice at the time,
! I'm not medical in anyway,and obviously appreciate every case is different. Just advising Consultant may say cannot fly, health needs to come first, not worth risking it, even for a disney holiday . By time has surgery on Tues will only be 3 weeks to holiday.

Good Luck with your decision


Jo

 

[mackay_j]

just wanted to say good luck tomorrow, at least the pain should start to die down after the opp.

 

[london75]

just wanted to say good luck tomorrow, at least the pain should start to die down after the opp.

Thanks, I've gone into work today and delightful colleagues are questioning whether insurance will pay up as I was doing something I wasnt trained to do in inappropriate footwear lol. They do work for an insurance company though so they're not just being mean. It's got me thinking that it's not clear cut getting the money back and could mean a fight.

This now has me 60/40 towards going. Only 24 hours now until we decide.

 

[mackay_j]

Do not make your mind up in the first 48hrs after the opp. You should wait as you may feel falsly worse/or better due to both being knocked out and the post opp pain killers. After my dd opp- she felt bad on day 1(bad reaction to going under). surprisingly great on day 2 then as the pain killers wore off as we had expected for the next 2 weeks.

The only people who can tell you if you are covered are your insurers. We Have had to cancle 3 holidays in the last 2 years 1 due to my DD and the other 2 due to me geting MS and being put on imuno suppresents (chemo type drug). We had booked holidays to Egypt and turkey (both booked before I took ill) and my consultant would not let me go to these places Egypt never and turkey not until bloods were stable. Sadly the Egypt one was to make up for having to cancel Mexico due to dd getting ill. I was dreading contacting my insurers for the 3rd one. But they were great- I then asked what would happen if I rebooked somewhere else for next year and had to cancle again if my blood count dropped. Everyone kept saying that I would not get cover and that there was no way I could dare book again, but the insurers were great and just said sometime luck is just bad for a while don't worry you are still coveredas long as consultants OK the trip, so on the day I cancled Turkey I booked to go to Corfu in 6 months time - Fantastic trip just for dh and I to get over a very bad few years.-I'm just back and now we have got both my consultants and my dd consultants go ahead to go to the states so my girls are finaly going to get that special family holiday that they were meant to get 2 years ago before everything went wrong (all be it that it is meant to happen before my dd went away to uni but I supose Orlando is one way to make sure that a 19 yr old still wants to come on holiday with us ) So I would phone and disuss it with them - ours 1 stop (aa/drakefield) were more than happy to discus our options to go/stay and were very helpful and understanding- even on the 3rd claim

 

[penlanspice]

Hope all goes well for you today, and im keeping my fingers crossed for you.

I was telling DH last night about you as we had something similar happen before our last trip (not as bad as you though) he fell and broke his toes and broke 2 bones in his foot, he had to wait 2 weeks to find out if he needed an operation which took us up to 2 weeks before we flew. We decided we were still going to go no matter what happened.
We don't have children so that wasn't a factor but I would of gladly pushed him around in a wheelchair and driven.

 

[london75]

Back from hospital and......

Surgery cancelled today due to earlier overrun. Try again tomorrow.

Sat there in a small ward for 5 hours, no one really said anything, no food or drink as it's a general anaesthetic and to top it all they wouldn't let my wife in, had to sit quietly on my own and send her home.

Silver cloud, I've been told it'll be bandages not a cast so might be able to drive sooner than I thought woohoo. No idea if that will be in Florida though.

 

[alibeau]

Oh how awful for you

Really hope all goes to plan tomorrow and that you receive the answers you want, whatever they may be

Take good care

Ali

 

[WiganTony]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but if you do decide to travel, be aware that should you have any health problems when you are away that could (no matter how tenuously) be attributed to your injuries, you may find it difficult if not impossible to get your insurance company to pay out for any treatment, as they may well class your injuries as a pre-existing medical condition. This would also extend to covering costs of accommodations and flights etc should be incapacitated and have to delay your return home (or indeed need to get home earlier).

Before making your final decision, double check with your insurance company to see if you are still covered or can make an additional payment to cover you for the injuries.

The safest bet wit the insurance company would be to cancel the August holiday - at least you would get the majority of your money back.

I would also be wary of driving with your injuries - should you be involved in an accident, there would undoubtedly be some comeback on yourself driving whilst technically unfit to do so.

Please be very careful when making your decision and have all the bases covered insurance wise if you do decide to go next month.

 

[joolz1910]

I was reading on the Dibb about someone who had a waterproof cast put on! That is something to ask about if they do want to put a cast on after all. They also said that they took out additional insurance because of the cast.

 

[london75]

I'll certainly be getting some specialist insurance tailored to my circumstances. Our Columbus policy is good but at £41 for worldwide family policy I don't doubt it'll fall short of tip top care if anything goes wrong.

I'll see what tomorrow brings, apparently I'm first for theatre, right behind a hip replacement. I didn't ask how that makes me first especially considering a hip replacement must be a many hour operation.

I'm torn between being tremendously proud of what this country has in the NHS to thinking there must be a better way.

 

[london75]

...I would also be wary of driving with your injuries - should you be involved in an accident, there would undoubtedly be some comeback on yourself driving whilst technically unfit to do so.

it's worth saying I don't condone dangerous driving so will only be driving if the doctor signs it off and I feel completely confident I'm not adversely affected, my family wouldn't get in if they weren't comfortable. I don't want anyone thinking I'll be taking risks with others lives.

 

[Pugsly]

I know the sinking feeling of "do we cancel or not?" 6 days before our last trip, I fell in the shower and fractured my cheekbone (can you say 'freak accident'?????). Had surgery 3 days later. And was cleared to travel with soft-food diet requirement and a restriction not to ride anything that may cause me to bump my face - until I was ready. RnRC 3 days after we arrived caused some discomfort (due to the g-forces) - but was well for it by day 5 - ! Seeing as I am female, the worst part was being told I wouldn't be able to wash my hair before we left!

All that said, and my situation being totally different from yours, I just wanted to add that I'm pulling for you to be able to go - as I would be absolutely heartbroken (as would DS) if I had to cancel such a grand trip. Best of luck tomorrow and hope the good surgeon gives you some incredible news!

 

[happyj]

Have been following this thread. For me if you wife will drive go for it. I am sure your family will rally round. Our holidays are so special!!

 

[Chilly]

Hope the op goes well today