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From previous trips, we learned that planning is extremely important. Well, we had all our reservations, trip insurance, new camera and netbook, lists of everything we needed or might need (first aid, snacks, books, etc.). We even finished packing early in the evening the night before our day of flying to Alaska. We got up in plenty of time to get ready for the cab to take us to the airport. Everything was fine…………..until fifteen minutes before the cab was to arrive.

I was fully dressed, and just taking down some towels to the laundry room, when I missed the last step of the staircase, and fell, fortunately, head first into a soft chair. My head and body were fine, but my right foot was not as fortunate. I knew right away that I was in big trouble. (I’ll tell you here so you’ll understand why I knew that: in high school one day, I fell two steps and broke the 5th metatarsal bone in my right foot, enough said.) I figured it was either a broken bone or bad sprain. Shelley helped me put a constricting bandage and ice on it while I elevated the foot. (Not for nothing do I know RICE: rest, ice, compress, elevate; I’ve sprained my feet a number of times.) We had all of a couple of minutes to decide what to do: cancel the trip and hope that the trip insurance would cover it all, and we’d be able to go next year, or go and hope for the best. We went.

When we got to the airport we got a wheelchair, and we were courteously escorted through security with our luggage, and taken to our gate. Then the wheelchair was taken away. Sometime between then and when the plane arrived, I realized that I had to use the restroom. We were at Gate 13, and the nearest restroom was at Gate 7; no choice but to walk. I managed it, thanks to an urgent physical need, determination and a very high tolerance for pain.

We were schedule to take a plane to Atlanta and from there, to Anchorage. We missed the connecting flight by ten minutes due to thunderstorms in the area. The Delta people were very helpful: planned a new itinerary that took us to Dallas/Ft. Worth, Salt Lake City, and then eventually to Anchorage. They got me wheelchairs at every airport, got me on the plane first, even changed our seats, when possible to give my right foot more room. Each flight provided us with a beverage and our choice of mediocre cookies or peanuts. Shelley did manage to get us sandwiches during one of the stopovers, but there wasn’t time for more than that. Snacks we brought with us did help. We left Philly at about 8:30A, EDT, and wound up in Anchorage at 3:30A, EDT (11:30P Alaska time). We were escorted to the baggage area with me in a wheelchair, and then left there. Fortunately, our luggage had flown directly from Philly, because the rest of the people on the flight had to wait a while before theirs came. However, we had another problem: we couldn’t find a cab, and the cabs couldn’t come curbside. We called our hotel, got the number and called Yellow Cab, and asked Delta for help. Part of the problem, which Shelley encountered, was that when a cab did come by, Shelley had to come back into the baggage area, where I sat in a wheelchair surrounded by four suitcases. By this time we were both exhausted, and the pain was the worse for my having to walk to my seats on the planes, and sit without leg space. I must have really looked totally forlorn, because a nice couple came up to me and said that they had noticed that Shelley had been trying to get a cab. They offered to drive us wherever we had to go, but just at that moment, Shelley came: triumphant, because we now had a cab and a driver who would help with the luggage. We drove to the hotel, where we dropped off the luggage, and then drove to the hospital.
During our “airport breaks” we used our time to good purpose: we called the travel insurance company, my health insurance company and the Anchorage hotel. The hotel arranged for a wheelchair for me while I was there, the health insurance company told me which Anchorage hospital ER I should go to, and the travel insurance company started a file on my accident and worked with the Holland America cruise line and the Vancouver hotel regarding wheelchairs and other issues. They were terrifically helpful.

At the hospital, which was in the “not so nice” area of Anchorage, I was treated very well. The x-rays showed a slight, but definite break in the same bone I broken before. I was given a hard shoe, crutches and vicodin. I accepted the first, tried the second, but took them knowing I wouldn’t use them because other parts of my body started complaining very loudly. I argued with the doctor re the pills, but he convinced me to take one that night so I could get some sleep. The remaining pills I delivered to my GP when I saw her yesterday, so she could dispose of them.
Back to the hotel, a wheelchair awaited. We had planned on a day of sightseeing in Anchorage before going on the cruise, but that was out of the question. However, we spent some time arranging with the cruise line, which had a meeting room in the hotel, for wheelchair transport to the pier, and on the ship, etc. I experienced for the first time the problems a person in a wheelchair encounters. I didn’t realize how narrow aisles in gift shops are. And, wheelchairs don’t come with rear view mirrors, or back up or turn signals. Not being a motorized vehicle, Shelley pretty much had to push me. (He came to say that this was his first opportunity to push me around.) I didn’t have the upper arm strength (but I do have arthritis) to turn the wheel continually. Carpets and slopes didn’t help.

Finally!!! We got though all the paperwork, etc. at the pier, got in the ship’s wheelchair, got up a very steep ramp with the help of one the crew, and got to the room. Words cannot express our feelings when we realized that the wheelchair would not fit through the cabin door. END OF CHAPTER ONE (to be continued)

Labels: Alaska, Holland American Line, vacation, Veendam

We saw Buzz Aldrin at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 21, 2009. He talked about his life and about his new memoir, Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home.

On the 40th anniversary of the historic moon landing, Buzz Aldrin - the lunar module pilot for Apollo II and the second man to set foot on the moon - told us about the tense moments of the Apollo II mission and his life afterward as he stuggled with depression and alcoholism. In his new book, he reveals how close Apollo II came to aborting its landing less than 60 feet from the moon's surface, how a computer overload almost jeopardized the entire mission, and how he and Neil Armstrong had to manually land the spacecraft with a mere 20 seconds of fuel left.

We highly recommend his new book, Magnificent Desolation.



::Shelley
August 20, 2009

Labels: Buzz Aldrin, Free Library of Philadelphia, Moon