Holiday

I’m back from a week in Fuerteventura and it was amazing. This was the holiday I never, ever thought I would get to go on as the last couple of years my health has been so bloody awful. I couldn’t really talk about it much before we went as we were flying out to surprise Hubby’s brother. He had turned 40 a couple of weeks ago and his wife had booked for them to go on holiday as his gift. Almost a year ago when she booked I had joked that we could go out too and be the babysitters for my niece and nephew and my sister in law was up for it. But having been so poorly I didn’t think we would ever actually manage to go. That was until 6 weeks ago when we booked it after I had managed to stay out of hospital for a while (Do you know it’s over 3 months since I was last in? I can’t quite believe it myself!) 

So we managed to surprise my brother in law and we had a fantastic week all together. And while I am grateful for the week in the sun with my family I have to be realistic and say that preparing for the holiday was a logistical nightmare. I explained in my last blog post about what flying with TPN is like but incase you missed it I will give you a recap. And as they say, a picture tells a thousand words…

What you see here is my luggage. Just my luggage. In the 4 white polystyrene boxes are 2 bags of feed and 2 ice blocks with each box weighing in at around 7kg each. The black case contained over 30kg of medical supplies ranging from the sterile items I need to connect and disconnect my feed, a spare pump incase mine broke while away, my medications, tena pads and medical paperwork in case of an emergency. The bottom case contained my clothes like any normal traveller. 

While I was packing my medical suitcase I had my first ever panic attack. I think the worry of forgetting something and being so far way from home in a country that speaks another language completely overwhelmed me. I worried that if anything went wrong or I became unwell it would ruin the holiday and leave my family with the kind of memories that you don’t really want to make on holiday. And it all became too much. I can’t tell you the amount of times I packed and repacked that case, checked and rechecked the contents against my list. And zipping it up and putting the padlock on it the morning we went to the airport felt terrifying. 

We had booked with Jet2 because that’s who were selling the holiday at the hotel my sister in law had already booked. But I knew from the TPN group I’m part of on Facebook that other people had gone away with them and had a positive experience so I felt reassured. Their special assistance line was brilliant and the staff on it could not have been more helpful. They confirmed that I could fly my medical luggage for free and that I could take an extra hang luggage bag on board the plane containing medical supplies. And even when we got to the airport and found that my medical luggage was over the agreed weight limit of 32kg there was no issue and they sorted it all out with no fuss. 

We got to the airport 4 hours before the flight. We couldn’t all fit in one car as we had 5 cases and my 4 polystyrene cool boxes to take so luckily as we were flying from our local airport my Dad agreed to drop the kids off. Hubby and I decided to book the car into the meet and greet section of the car park as it was the parking closest to the airport and wasn’t much more expensive than putting it in the ordinary short stay area. I wanted to make sure we had enough time to check in incase there was issues with the medical luggage or going through security with bags of saline and other medical supplies in my hand luggage. So we got to the airport about 4 hours before our flight was due to take off. But I needn’t have worried. Although I did get selected for a thorough search and had to show the medical letters I had for the saline and other medical supplies at security we didn’t really have any problems. So we had plenty of time to look round the shops, do a bit of duty free shopping and grab a bite to eat and a drink in the bar. But I would rather have gotten there early and had time to spare than been running for the plane if we encountered problems. I think if (or when) we go away again I wouldn’t arrive quite so early- maybe just 3 hours next time!

The flight was uneventful and my cool boxes were through the oversized luggage part in Fuereventura before our suitcases appeared on the belt. Once I had everything and knew nothing had gone missing I felt I could finally relax. The hotel was only a 30 minute transfer from the airport so we were there and checking in in no time. The only bad experience we had was checking in at the hotel. Obviously the suitcases were on wheels so were easy to manoeuvre but the cool boxes had to be carried. I asked if they had a trolley we could use to take them to our room (which of course was the furthest part of the hotel from reception) but they said they didn’t. So I asked if someone could help us carry them and they said no. So Hubby and the kids had to struggle with them. And we had to pass through the courtyard where the evening entertainment was taking place being watched by my brother in law with all these cases and coolboxes. We really wanted to surprise him so didn’t want him to see us walking past. Luckily my sister in law sat him in a chair facing the other way and we snuck past! After dumping all the cases we went and tapped him on the shoulder and his face was an absolute picture! To see Hubby and his brother have that moment together was priceless. 

But I was in for a bit of a shock the next day as it was a bit warmer than I was expecting. It was 26 degrees every day and probably only as low as 20 degrees at night. So I was grateful I had packed plenty of extra saline as I needed to have an extra bag every day to stop me from dehydrating. This meant that instead of being hooked up for 12 hours overnight I was hooked up for between 16 to 20 hours in a 24 hour period. So my time off was precious and I tried to make sure I got in the pool during that time. 

I used the CathDry dressings for swimming- or the Hickman line condoms as we’ve nicknamed them, as that’s exactly what they look like. They look like a giant condom that you put your Hickman line inside. If the circle around the dressing turns red it means that it’s lost it’s seal and water is getting inside and it’s time to get out of the pool so all the family were on ‘red ring’ alert 😂 You can just see the dressing poking out of my swimming costume in the photo below. 

At times when I was hooked up I sat on the edge of the pool and dangled my legs in the water to keep cool. You can see me hooked up with my rucksack in the photo below and me hooked up on my sun lounger. I tried not to let it stop me from doing stuff and joining in with my family. The only thing I couldn’t do while hooked up was swim. 

In terms of my health everything went smoothly while I was away. I had a hiccup one night with my feed though. I had connected to a bag of saline about 4pm as we were going out at 5pm to have a drink down in a bar near the harbour before dinner. Not long after we sat down at the bar I noticed the bag my saline was in was wet. Somehow it was leaking and if the fluids can get out then it means bugs can get in. I knew I had to get back to the hotel straight away and disconnect this bag of saline hopefully before I got an infection. It was about a 15 minute walk back to the hotel but I was absolutely exhausted from the heat so we had to keep stopping every 50 metres or so. I wish I had hired one of the hotels mobility scooters!! That walk took me the best part of 40 minutes! And when I got back I still had to disconnect the fluids and put up my feed. Somehow I found the energy to do it but I slept soundly that night!! 

Other than that it was plain sailing. We spent the days in and by the pool playing with the kids and reading books and evenings out trying the different local restaurants. It was so nice to see Hubby really relax and switch off from work as he has an incredibly stressful job and often works 12-15 hour days. And it was lovely for us to have time together as family. Big Girl just loves the sun and the hot weather and wanted to spend every waking minute topping up her tan, whereas Big Fella got bored and after half an hour on a sun lounger was back to the room to watch YouTube or Netflix. But at the end of the day everyone did what they enjoyed doing, including the menfolk watching Forest play in one of the sports bars. 

While we were away I spent Thursday afternoon and evening in bed as I think the heat and travelling had finally caught up with me and then I was in bed all day on Sunday. To be fair that wasn’t bad going for me but I think it helped that we didn’t do anything particularly strenuous during the day. I think if we had gone on trips or excursions then I would have been much more worn out. 

The most unwell I felt was actually on the plane flying home.

I felt absolutely fine that morning when we left the hotel and even when we boarded. But about an hour into the flight my bowels suddenly started to spasm and the pain was really intense. I tried to ignore it but it got worse and I was suddenly very nauseous. I made a dash to the toilet and began throwing up. When I came out of the loo the cabin crew asked if I was ok, did I need any water or anything but I explained that I had bowel disease and just didn’t feel well. Every time a member of the crew went past my seat they checked that I was ok. To be honest at one point the pain was so, so bad I was beginning to think I would end up being stretchered off the plane. But I didn’t want the holiday to end like that. So I took 3x my normal dose of morphine and some antisickness meds and things settled down. Now I don’t recommend that, but I just wanted to get through the rest of the plane journey and get home. 

In all the catastrophising I had done prior to going away I never once thought about getting ill on the plane. I thought about being unwell in Fuerteventura and needing to see a doctor or go into hospital, I thought about forgetting some of my medical supplies or my medical case getting lost and me literally just getting on the first flight back to the UK without ever leaving the airport but I never thought about lasting the 4 hours on the plane. Now that that has happened I’m much more aware of getting unwell in what is effectively a flying tin can that you can’t escape from. And it’s made me think about the flight times of any future holidays we go on. I’m thinking that maybe 4 hours is my limit for now cause there’s no way I could have lasted any longer than that. 

Now I’ve been on holiday abroad I do feel more confident in doing it again and I’ve even started to look at where we could go next year. Going away in July or August is definitely out for us due to the temperature but maybe February half term or even Easter is a possibility. I guess a lot will depend on what the surgeons have to say when I have my appointment with them at the beginning of February.