A Swiss spring break with friends TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 6/27 - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Great plans for Montreaux. How can you beat chocolate and cheese experiences in Switzerland on the same day? That's odd with the Freddie Mercury and Queen experiences in Montreaux as I thought the UK would be more like as that's their home country!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Pre-trip report – part five: walking back to health
With the plans all set, the one thing I should mention here is that I’m still recovering from the ankle operation I had at the start of March. I’m not going to go into all the detail of the original injury, the operation (and the non-starter of an operation) or my rehab until late March, because if you want to read all about that, you can find the details in the pre-trip report for our Easter break – putting a boot into our original Easter plans.
Since then, I’ve made a lot of progress – at least that’s what everyone keeps telling me anyway. I had no idea how long the recovery would be, certainly much longer than the “couple of weeks” that my consultant predicted before the operation anyway. Let’s just say he’s obviously hopelessly optimistic…
My physiotherapist has since told me that feet take the longest time to heal, much longer than knees. Apparently it’s got something to do with how many different muscles, tissues etc. there are in there. I’m learning so much.
Over Easter, I was walking very short distances in my protective boot - the most I’d done in one go was 0.2 miles on Easter Saturday – and I’d had to book wheelchairs and mobility scooters to help me get around. I worked hard to get to the stage where I could walk much longer distances in the boot, over a mile.
The next challenge was then getting out of the boot. At first I was literally just walking around the house, then it progressed to a few steps (and I really mean a few!) outside. Then I’d start walking along the road, going just one or two houses further each day. Eventually again, as with the boot, I got myself up to walking over a mile, which was quite an achievement.
However, it’s not quite as straightforward as it sounds. This is all walking along generally even ground and usually I’m walking on my own, so not in crowds. I don’t have to worry about anyone hitting my leg by accident.
The next thing I needed to do was to try and get out of the boot, as it holds your foot completely in place. I needed to start exposing it to reality. Once again, I started with walking around the house either in bare feet, just in socks or in trainers (tennis shoes) and then I started going outside, again very short distances and just increasing it by a few paces every day. It got to the stage where I was just about up to walking to the shops at the end of our road, which is about a half mile round trip. I was still only increasing it by tiny amounts.
Then one morning, my ankle wasn’t playing up as much as it had done previously. Usually, I’d notice which house I’d walked to and could just about force myself to go a little further, but that day, it seemed perfectly happy. That was the start of walking much longer distances – adding two tenths of a mile or a third of a mile each day. Eventually, I was up to walking over a mile – the same route I’d previously taken in the boot.
I did mention this in my trip report about our Easter trip to Sidmouth, but at that point, I was walking an average of 5,000 steps a day. Last week, I was up to an average of over 8,000 steps a day, which is a huge improvement. Just as well, as I have no doubt that we’ll be doing a fair amount of walking on this trip.
However, there were still times that I wore the boot. I went into London a couple of times and I agreed with my physio that it made sense to wear it then, because it’s a busy place and I wanted people to be able to easily see that there was a problem. It was definitely the right decision.
So what does this mean for this trip? Well, firstly I’ve asked for special assistance at the airport. It’s not an easy choice for me to make to actually request it, as I hate to ask for help. Equally, I want to be as active as I can and walking as much as possible, but sometimes it’s just not worth it. We’ll be doing a fair chunk of walking on this trip anyway, so it’s not as if I won’t get the exercise.
Secondly, the boot will be coming with me. I figure it’s just better safe than sorry. I’m certainly not at the stage where I’m ready to leave it behind. It’s always in the car with me (or us if Mark is with me) just in case I need it, so I wouldn’t leave it at home for this weekend. I have no idea how much I’ll use it while we’re away, but I’ll definitely use it around the airport, outside of special assistance, as again it’s a busy place and I don’t want it to get damaged accidentally.
I have contacted EasyJet about this to check it’s Ok and they’ve confirmed it will be fine. I went through their website very carefully and if you’re in a plaster cast, they tell you the situation (apparently you have to buy a second seat if your leg is in plaster, so thank goodness I’m out of that now! ), but there was nothing about protective boots and I wanted to just double check. Can you imagine getting to the plane and being told that I couldn’t have it with me? That was a risk I wasn’t prepared to take.
Well, that's it for the pre-trip report, as we fly out in the morning and head up to the airport tonight. I'll see you on the flip side! Have a good weekend everyone!
I'm so happy to hear the boot is coming with you! You just never know. Plus, like you said in London, it helps to obviously show others why you may be walking slower than average. Let's hope you don't actually need it very much though!
Fingers crossed for beautiful weather!
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Tanya
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Glad to see your ankle is healing so well. There could be a lot of strenuous walking while in Switzerland. Hope you don't overdo. Have a safe and fun trip. Your plans look great. I am envious and looking forward to following along.
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That's odd with the Freddie Mercury and Queen experiences in Montreaux as I thought the UK would be more like as that's their home country! 
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