At 1.30am I was awoken by cries of pain from the Lounge area. Karen was in agony again. She hadn’t been able to sleep and looked in the nicest possible way – awful. Apart from wanting to take the pain away from her I was now seriously worried about whether she was actually fit to fly.
I made the decision to call the medical assistance number through our Platinum travel insurance to get her checked over as the flight was later this evening. The first guy I spoke to was very helpful and reassuring. He passed me through to their medical partners – Europ Assist. Whilst the lady was helpful, though she was based in Spain and English was not her first language.
She tried to arrange a doctor to visit which I thought was optimistic in the middle of the night and eventually said that this was not possible. Instead, she said she would arrange for us to visit a medical centre when it opened in the morning. Her advice was for us both to try to get some sleep until then.
Just having this conversation brought some relief to Karen who did then try to settle down for the night or it might have just been the pain relief tablets kicking in.
By 7am we were both up again waiting for the call of which medical centre we had to go to. At 8am I Europ Assist, and they promised to call back. I suspected they were having trouble arranging anything before anywhere opened until 9.00am. It was 9.10am when we got the call and they sent me an email saying the address to go to was clearly detailed on the top of the letter.
I put the details into Waze and couldn’t believe it was over 40 minutes away but nevertheless got Karen into the car as quickly as I could and set off. The drive was horrible, and it wasn’t helped by my need for a toilet stop.
We got to the address, which was a big office complex, went to the 4th floor only to be told this was their admin centre and not a medical centre. They were less than helpful. I pulled the email up I had been sent. I had driven to the address on top of the letter but hidden more than halfway down it also had the address of a medical centre which was just 10 minutes from the motel.
I was furious not only with Europ Assist but also myself for in my haste not going through all the paperwork in detail. Karen was in too much pain to complain.
We found the correct medical centre. My first impressions were not good.
The receptionist ignored us for a while, then proceeded to read then reread twice the paperwork Europ Assist has emailed through. I was then given a device on which to fill in pages of totally irrelevant details. It kept asking for a phone number but would not take one so was asked to make one up. It would help if I knew what format it wanted.
Eventually that was completed and were told to wait further but to expect it to be around 2 hours until we were seen. I explained we had a flight to catch, and he just shrugged. Steam was now coming out of my ears.
After waiting 70 minutes we were called back up to the reception and I asked where we should now be going? Incredibly I was told that we hadn’t been fully checked it yet and he would now need to do so. I remained calm reminded him again about our flight and asked how much longer. He said he didn’t know but they were busy. I could understand that but there was only one other person waiting (he had turned away the guy who walked in carrying the top of his finger in some tissue paper as they now had a 4 hour wait).
Fortunately, after only another 15 minutes we were called through where Karen was checked by a couple of nurses and then a doctor. They took her an X Ray and I could hear Karen screaming as they tried to manoeuvre her leg into position to do so. A few minutes later the doctor said nothing was broken and she could fly home. She was given crutches to us and fitted with a sturdier knee brace. They also prescribed strong painkillers which I was to collect from the nearby CVS. The look of relief on Karen’s face was palpable.
I drove us across to CVS where I had to wait 15 minutes for them to open after lunch. Typically, they were out of stock of the drugs prescribed. The pharmacist then phoned around loads of other stores until she found one that had them and I drove a few miles to queue up yet again, then had to wait a further 30 minutes for them to be dispensed.
We got back to the motel at 3pm which was the time I had originally planned to leave for the airport. We took a further hour grabbing a quick lunch, I then showered and had the fun of putting on my own compression stockings which is always a performance. As Karen didn’t want to disturb the newly fitted knee brace, she decided not to wear the expensive and elusive stockings I had managed to track down for her the day before.
Karen could not get on with the crutches. It was like trying to watch someone try to pat their head with one hand whilst rubbing their tummy with the other. In the end she resorted to just using one of them.
We set off for the 27-mile journey to the airport. After 30 minutes we hadn’t even made it 5 miles. It was a nightmare journey, and I was getting myself more and more stressed. In theory we still had loads of time, but I had no idea what challenges lied ahead.
After almost 2 hours we made it to the car rental drop off garage. The Avis staff were pathetic, and I will be complaining. They did not know anything about wheelchair assistance. They could not and would not help. There were no luggage trolleys, and they wouldn’t help with that either. I was left with all the bags and a wife who could barely stand alone walk.
Instead of using the crutches (which I then had to carry as well), Karen managed very slowly and very painfully to use 2 of the bags as surrogate crutches. By now I was really spitting feathers all to no avail.
We walked slowly and via a lift and a long corridor made it to the terminal building. I spotted people with empty wheelchairs and headed for them. They refused to help as we were not with their airline. I asked where I could get help and they just said at the BA check in desk. My argument being I couldn’t get to the check in desk fell on deaf ears as they walked away. Karen was now crying.
She kept on going and I stopped another girl who initially said the same thing and then saw Karen and immediately said she would help. Christina from American Airline – we both salute you and will be writing to your airline expressing our deepest gratitude. She got us to check in and insisted on staying and talking to Karen until another wheelchair arrived. Karen’s tears were now just of thanks to her.
The guy checking us in did so perfunctly but without any sympathy. There was no offer of an upgrade so Karen could put her leg up, but they may have been because the next class up was fully booked.
We checked 4 bags in which included our usual hand luggage and just kept back the barest essentials. If you know Karen, you will know how much pain she was in that she allowed this to happen.
Security was interesting as although we were both PSA approved, we had to go through the wheelchair channel which was busy. I was stopped as they were suspicious of the knee brace I was wearing. For some reason they wouldn’t then let me take it off to put through the scanner separately.
My plan had been for us to go into the nice new Centurion Lounge, but BA recommended we didn’t as it was in the wrong direction to the gate. I asked if under the circumstances could we go in the closer BA one but was refused. Instead, we were told we should head to the Turkish Airlines Lounge. This involved a small lift ride for Karen.
It was busy, nothing to write home about and all the food was Turkish which for us wasn’t well appreciated. We made do. Karen’s wheelchair assistance came back and wheeled us to the gate on time. Our seats were upstairs which where accessible via a slope.
For the first time in our lives, we were the first on the plane. Karen smiled at the thought but said she never wanted it to happen again.
Now in the past I have had many complaints with BA. Not this time. Irrespective of getting ice for Karen’s knee, the service and food were both top notch. I will be giving them that feedback. We both enjoyed the champagne and beef. Karen watched some box set whilst I settled down to try to get some sleep. The flight took off and landed early.
At Heathrow we were asked to wait for the wheelchair to be brought to us. The guy wheeled Karen off and I thought he would stay with us, but no. He handed us to another person who again had poor English who put us on what must be the slowest electric vehicle ever along with 6 other people. He checked and scanned everyone’s boarding card at least 5 times before we set off.
We went via a special lift down to the train level at T5 and then instead of getting on the train went through some special tunnel. The journey seemed to take longer than the flight itself. We were driven through passport control.
We were made to get off just before baggage reclaim. He looked surprised when I said how did he expect me to get Karen down to get baggage area and then out of the airport. We had to wait to allocated some further assistance which was involved a different peculiar machine where the guy stood on with Karen seated in front of him. By the time we got to our carousel our bags were the only ones left and were going round sadly together.
I called Sonny and he said we had time for a toilet stop and where to meet him. The guy drove Karen through the airport and up the lift to the meeting point with me hobbling by now quite slowly behind him with all the luggage.
We were so glad to see Sonny and I think Karen would have given him a big hug if only she could have stood properly.
The drive home was uneventful although I was shattered through lack of sleep and stress. I stopped at Starbucks to get Karen a coffee on the A11 before heading straight to A&E at the NNUH. I checked Karen in and then left her to take the bags home and get myself a drink.
Despite A&E being very busy as usual (including to Karen’s amusement 2 prisoners in handcuffs) she was ready to be collected 90 minutes later. She was like a different person when I got her back in the car. Still in loads of pain but grateful that she had been seen by ‘people’ who cared and knew their stuff’.
They would only look at her knee as that was the current emergency. They did another X ray (which apparently involved even more screaming) and said her knee has degenerated further since the last one 6 years ago and think that her patella had slipped. They told her not to use the crutches nor the newly fitted knee brace. Instead to keep it elevated when possible, in-between walking increasing distances each hour and gave her loads of exercises to strengthen muscles to try and hold the patella in place. They advised contacting her GP to get more painkillers when needed.
And with that we were finally very relieved to be home. I was in bed asleep at 8pm.
This is one trip we won’t forget in a hurry. I started off as the injured one hobbling. I returnd still hobbling but as the relatively healthy one.
Next trip is supposed to be back to Miami in 37 days – That is in severe doubt and we will have to make a decision in a few days.
