How do I make air travel less painful after surgery?

December 23, 2011 9:27 PM

How do I make air travel less painful after surgery?

I am an American who travelled to Finland to get an operation (tenetomy, fasciotomy) to repair my hamstrings from bilateral chronic hamstring syndrome.

The surgery went well, and I am on crutches, and in a lot of pain (but ceased pain killers on the 3rd day after surgery according to doctor's orders) and I am flying back to USA on the 28th of December, 8 days after surgery.

I am very concerned about pain on the 3 flights back to USA that I have. I currently can not sit down for longer than 30 seconds due to excruciating pain. The doctor recommended not sitting for more than 1 hour, and bringing a soft cushion on the flight.

If I can straighten my legs and lean back when I sit, as if I were in a recliner, it takes weight off of my hamstrings, and the pain is then tolerable.

I was wondering, is there anyway to either upgrade to business class for medical reasons for free? Or some way to ensure I can at least get a bulkhead row so I can stretch my legs out as far in front of me as I can?

I will be calling the hospital and asking for temporary strong pain killers for the flight back to USA, but they suggested ibuprofen would be enough :(


Does anyone have any other tips or ideas for making this trip less excruciating?

posted by crawltopslow to Travel & Transportation (10 answers total)

The best answer is to put off the flight. The next best answer is to call back the hospital until they give you some proper pain relief i.e. narcotics. You're setting yourself up for some real hell.
posted by facetious at 9:36 PM on December 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

There is no way you can guarantee you'll be able to more or get up during any portion of a flight. Even if the crew wants to be accommodating there are periods, including taxi and take-off and approach and landing where they simply can't let you move or stand. When everything goes well this is not usually too long (maybe 20-30 minutes?) but it is also possible at this time of year for delays and other factors due to weather to stretch it out. Turbulence or gusty winds in flight can also make for strict seated only with seatbelt fastened time. I just had a flight last week where we had to go around on the landing, which added an extra ten minutes or so to the normal approach. This after they declined to do a final walk through the cabin to collect trash because turbulence got bad after we began our descent.

That is a long winded way to say that any solution which doesn't work for you in a seated position is not a solution. It sounds like you need more time to heal, followed by first class tickets. I'd beg, borrow or steal to get better tickets, and good drugs, if I was in your position.
posted by meinvt at 9:44 PM on December 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

I just want to point out that the 28th is a long way away in terms of recovery. While I would not expect to be feeling chipper, I think you will be doing much better than you are now. BUT, I would push my doctor hard for strong painkillers, muscle relaxers, etc to get me through the flights.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:32 PM on December 23, 2011

Airlines claim to keep a few seats in bulkhead unassigned just for people like you. So...

Call all the airlines involved and ask them to put in a note of medical necessity regarding your seating request. Ask for wheelchair assistance to transport you between flights.

Make sure your doctor writes a note noting the reason for your request. Having crutches or a cane will be helpful physical evidence. Present this upon checking in for your flight.

Then get to the airport ridiculously early for the first leg of your flight. Repeat request, show medical note, be as sweet and as polite as possible to the ticketing agent and gate agent. Pray and hope for mercy.

YMMV. Anecdote - I was recovering from a serious illness and had to take three flights home from the east to west coast USA. I was pretty weak and needed a cane to walk. My niece and i had spent the night before "blinging" my cane with fake gems (I was embarrassed about the cane, figured blinging it out would make it so noticeable that I HAD to get over it). Above actions got me bulkhead seating on all 3 legs due to the kindness and mercy of a very kind ticketing agent in Philly on AA.
posted by HeyAllie at 12:57 AM on December 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: My #1 plan right now is to re-schedule my trip for a week or so later AND beg the docs for strong pain killers.. Although I imagine changing flight dates will probably incur a significant cost.
posted by crawltopslow at 8:07 AM on December 24, 2011

Best answer: go for the combo pack: delay + request no change fee on grounds of medical necessity + request bulkhead seating like HeyAllie suggests + request real pain killers. got nothing to lose by asking.
posted by facetious at 12:11 PM on December 24, 2011

Has your surgeon actually cleared you to fly? Because my surgeon wouldn't let me fly for two or three weeks. And the swelling when i did was still fairly epic. This does not seem like a well-thought-out plan to me.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:25 PM on December 24, 2011

Response by poster: The surgeon is one of the best in the world at what he does. He said the standard for him is 8 to 9 days for people who want to fly.

I had surgery on 20th and bought ticket for 28th to go back home (9 days).

I also am surprised now that he said this, and I have triple checked, and he said yup, 8 to 9 days.
posted by crawltopslow at 1:34 PM on December 24, 2011

I think the surgeon is looking at this not from a pain standpoint, but from a 'will flying for many hours have a negative effect on the surgery and the recovery. Pain is pain. I had a spinal fusion and flew to China, a 12 hour flight following a 5 hour flight from NY to LA. The trip was 3 weeks after the fusion. The discussion between me and my doctor was centered on the ramifications to the success of the fusion. Pain was a secondary consideration from his standpoint (and mine). I ended up going with vicodins and muscle relaxers. Quite frankly, I did not really feel up to it in terms of recovery after 3 weeks, but from a medical standpoint, we agreed it was a reasonable decision to go. (The car crash on the highway from the hotel to the airport in Shanghai was a whole other issue!)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 3:28 PM on December 25, 2011

Response by poster: I went to the hospital, saw a different doc and got a prescription for 100 (wtf?!) vicodins.

I tried to change my ticket, but "medical necessity" just gets them to MAYBE discount or wave the change, fee, but I still have to pay the difference in ticket price, about 500 dollars, and they said in my case the fee probably couldn't be waived, cus it's different on every airline (i'm Air Berlin). +30 dollar change fee to change it, makes it a total of about 700 dollars to change it. (the ticket cost me 1000 in the first place).

I'll be going on the flight I guess, taking a cushion to put under my butt/legs,, and I'm taking crutches (even though not necessary now, more for looks!), I got a letter from the doctor and I'll be requesting first class or bulkhead row from the ticketing agent, and from flight attendants on the aircraft.

Anything I'm missing?
posted by crawltopslow at 3:39 AM on December 26, 2011