Putting a boot into our original Easter plans… COMPLETED 5/3 - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Plans look great and you are certainly packing in a lot for your Easter weekend getaway. All the sites look good and especially Aerospace Bristol, which I'm sure was Mark's choice.
Yes it was, although I liked the look of it too.
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Pretty cool that this is the final home for the last Concorde to fly. I never flew on one of them but have a cousin who did many times for business trips to London. You get to your destination quick but there is not much room inside as so narrow. I once saw the Concorde land when I was young from the window seat of our plane. My parents were taking us to Florida. Pretty amazing to see.
We've been fortunate enough to see a couple of the Concordes that are still in museums and you're right, they're ridiculously narrow. One thing I do kick myself about is that I was once offered the chance to take an hour long flight in one free of charge and I said I know, I know. I think it was because I knew how narrow it would be. What was I thinking? I don't know is the honest answer. I so wish I'd said yes now.
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So sorry we may have had the chance to hook up in Holland! But as I said on FB, I think I’ll likely be able to show you Easter is just a tad too early this year. Any suggestions for Delft? I think we’re stopping there on the way to Keukenhof as what I’ve read is the light is best in late afternoon at Keukenhof.
Your trip sounds great, and probably better given your ankle situation.
So sorry we may have had the chance to hook up in Holland! But as I said on FB, I think I’ll likely be able to show you Easter is just a tad too early this year.
I am so gutted about that and can't believe I was planning a trip at the same time you'll be there. What are the chances? It is possible that it may be a bit early, but I hope not for your sake.
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Any suggestions for Delft? I think we’re stopping there on the way to Keukenhof as what I’ve read is the light is best in late afternoon at Keukenhof.
Delft is one of the places I'd like to go to whenever we get to Keukenhof, as we've never been there, so I can't help. Good to know about the light, as I was thinking of applying Disney logic and going first thing in the morning....
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Your trip sounds great, and probably better given your ankle situation.
Pre-trip report – part three: a fairly big wrinkle to our plans…
So, as you could tell from the previous instalment, everything was in place and we were ready to go, but then there was a fairly big wrinkle put into our plans… in the form of my right ankle.
This is a problem that dates back many years. It may date back to my childhood, as when I was about four years old, I injured my ankle while jumping down the stairs (the silly things kids do, right? ) and my left ankle was bandaged up. I remember being in pain the whole time and telling my parents that the other one hurt and so does my mother. Hmmm…
Anyway, on Friday 13 October 2000, I fell down stairs at work and hurt my ankle. I remember the date clearly because of course it was Friday the 13th, but also because it was the day of terrible flooding in the town where we lived. I got home to a number of answerphone messages from people asking if we were Ok, having seen the flooding on the news, and I had to call them and say we were fine, but I’d managed to damage my ankle.
It healed over time and I thought no more of it. That was until I was driving home one day and a truck pulled out in front of me without warning. I slammed on the brakes and came and came to an emergency stop, but as I drove the rest of the way home (another 40 miles), my ankle was hurting. By the time I got home and got out of the car, I could barely put any weight on it.
A visit to the local hospital followed, who were useless. When they made the national news headlines a couple of years later about how bad they were, I remember my mum being shocked. I wasn’t. They sent me home with one crutch and told me to “rest it for a week”. I’m sure you can see what’s coming here. You rest a part of your body totally for a week and that’s it, it starts to lose its ability to work properly. By the end of the week, we had to go to another hospital, who gave me exercises to do and it was another three weeks off work.
After that, I had continuing problems with it until eventually I underwent what we now think were cortisone injections. I don’t know, as I didn’t want to know. I’m a big baby when it comes to anything health related. Show me a needle and I’m gone… you get the idea. I remember at the time that they said it should work for about 10 years and I think that was about 2005.
Fast forward to the end of April 2017. I was working at home and we were due to go out for a family wedding that evening. I opened up a kitchen cupboard and a tray came flying out of there. In the freakiest of freak accidents, it hit a small stool we have in the kitchen and ricocheted straight off it and into… yes, you got it… my right ankle.
I cannot begin to tell you how bad the pain was that night. It was horrendous. At one point, I took myself off and just sat in our car in the car park, as I didn’t want to be so miserable at what should be a happy occasion. We were booked to go to Iceland about a week later and I had to have special assistance in a wheelchair at the airport and took my trusty crutch with me. I couldn’t walk long distances.
Although it did start to improve, I had a feeling that this was the start of the latest set of problems, given my experience previously in the early 2000s. I made an appointment to see the doctor, after the problems did indeed persist for a few months and he referred me to an ankle specialist. When the appointment came through, I was surprised to find that it would be at the private hospital just down the road from us, albeit paid for by the National Health Service. Ok, works for me!
I saw the consultant and he wasn’t quite sure what the problem was, so I got sent for an MRI scan. The results of that came back and my consultant still wasn’t 100% sure what the problem was, which didn’t bode well. In his words, the MRI scan wasn’t “definitive” and he suggested surgery, although he warned me that he wouldn’t know what needed doing until he “opened me up”. Surprisingly, given my hatred of needles, I was fine with this, as by then, I was in so much pain, I just wanted something to cure it.
This was early December and I told him we had a holiday booked in January, so he asked me if 6 February would work? At first I said then remembered, we had tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil show Ovo (amazing – see it if it comes anywhere near you!) and for the Winnie the Pooh exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum (also very good!) on 10 February. Without missing a beat, he said “27 February then?” I couldn’t think of any reason not to, so that was the date we agreed on.
Fast forward to the days before the surgery. The weather forecast was not promising. They were saying that we’d get snow and a lot of snow too. I appreciate some of you guys get a foot or so and life goes on. Not over here.
The forecast would fluctuate. One minute we’d be due nothing, the next we’d be due a lot of snow. As the date neared, they became more certain that we would get snow and a lot of it… I went to bed, more terrified about the snow than the operation, barely sleeping a wink.
When we woke up, we were greeted with a lot of snow. Mark was immediately outside and clearing the driveway, so we could get on to the main road. Bless him… look at how much he’d cleared…
We set off in plenty of time to get to the hospital in time for the 7:30am admission time we’d been given. Our road was Ok and the roads down to a certain point were fine too. Then they started to get worse. I will confess to clinging on for dear life, just praying we’d get there in one piece.
So that's the complete history of the ankle. It goes way back, wow! I wonder if you didn't have that freak kitchen accident last year how long it would have taken for the ankle to get painful again - because I'm sure it would have at some point!
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So that's the complete history of the ankle. It goes way back, wow! I wonder if you didn't have that freak kitchen accident last year how long it would have taken for the ankle to get painful again - because I'm sure it would have at some point!
I agree. I'm sure it would only have been a matter of time sadly. Of course, once you have a weakness in your body, you always seem to continue to damage it.
I wonder if you might have broken it way back when you were 4?
My daughter hurt her ankle at gymnastics, and we went to the ER where they said it was only a sprain. She thought it was worse than a sprain, but after putting a wrap on it for a week or two, returned to training. A year later, she was having pain and we went to the orthopedist. He took an X-ray, and asked about her prior break. We asked “what break?” and he showed us right on the X-ray where she’d had a prior break - probably the year before. So, she was doing gymnastics on a broken ankle!
Hopefully this surgery will have taken care of it once and for all!
I wonder if you might have broken it way back when you were 4?
Anything's possible?
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My daughter hurt her ankle at gymnastics, and we went to the ER where they said it was only a sprain. She thought it was worse than a sprain, but after putting a wrap on it for a week or two, returned to training. A year later, she was having pain and we went to the orthopedist. He took an X-ray, and asked about her prior break. We asked “what break?” and he showed us right on the X-ray where she’d had a prior break - probably the year before. So, she was doing gymnastics on a broken ankle!
Oh my goodness!
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Hopefully this surgery will have taken care of it once and for all!
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That's crazy about the ankle! I know that you've had a problem with it for many years in your various TRs. I remember that freakish accident you had in the kitchen. You talk about bad karma and the minute chances of that happening and what the tray hit. Pretty slim, but did!
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All the sites look good and especially Aerospace Bristol, which I'm sure was Mark's choice.
I once saw the Concorde land when I was young from the window seat of our plane. My parents were taking us to Florida. Pretty amazing to see. 
I know, I know. I think it was because I knew how narrow it would be. What was I thinking? I don't know is the honest answer. I so wish I'd said yes now.
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It is possible that it may be a bit early, but I hope not for your sake. 
Good to know about the light, as I was thinking of applying Disney logic and going first thing in the morning.... 
In his words, the MRI scan wasn’t “definitive” and he suggested surgery, although he warned me that he wouldn’t know what needed doing until he “opened me up”. Surprisingly, given my hatred of needles, I was fine with this, as by then, I was in so much pain, I just wanted something to cure it. 
then remembered, we had tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil show Ovo (amazing – see it if it comes anywhere near you!) and for the Winnie the Pooh exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum (also very good!) on 10 February. Without missing a beat, he said “27 February then?” 
Mark was immediately outside and clearing the driveway, so we could get on to the main road. Bless him… look at how much he’d cleared… 
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