As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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I am on blood thinning medicine for a pulmonary embolism and will be for at least six months. I am still planning to go to Disney World this fall with someone that I do not want to disappoint. A hospital employee teaching me about another condition that I have told me that she thinks that going on a vacation might be the best thing for me because she can tell that I am a worrier and going somewhere where there are distractions from the things that I worry about would probably be a very good thing. I have a question for anyone else here on blood thinners.
Which rides at Disney World did you find the most entertaining without being really jarring? I would love to be able to just go and do everything since none of us are getting out of this life alive anyway, but I don't want to get sick and upset my companion and perhaps the other people who will be there with us. Some of these people are people that I don't even know but who are on friendly terms with the person that I am going with. Therefore, I really want to play it safe and suggest things for us all to do that would not put me at high risk for injuries that I don't want to make other people witness but that wouldn't wouldn't bore those who don't have medical issues.
Do you have any suggestions? The others who will be with me are adults so I don't want anyone to have to do anything too childish on my account.
I take Coumadin and have since 1997. i've been to disney 6 times while on it. Maybe i can help you out. I try not to stand still for long periods of time but when i'm in line for a ride or attraction i do those lege exercises that they give you to prevent blood pooling in the legs. last time i rode splash mountain, and btmrr and everything else that i wanted and had no bruising. btm did cause my back to hurt after the second ride but that is an issue of my bad back not the blood thinner. remember to eat a constant diet so your blood work remains within the same ranges. pm me if you want. i also found out i'm diabetic this last summer so we have some things in common.
Yes, we can talk about this off of the message board as this topic would be boring to the general population here. I am just glad to know that there is someone else like me, even though I would never wish my conditions on anyone else. While I don't wear makeup and therefore don't carry all the stuff that many women consider "normal," I have a handbag that I take with me to to bring my own personal pharmacy with me when I go out. I am laughing now, but I sure wasn't when I was out at lunch, having just ordered food, and realized that I didn't have my insulin. At least I understand what the insulin and Warfarin are for. I don't really understand why I am on Levothyroxine. I just swallow it.
Hi Mary! It is good to "see" you here. This is a fine place for this discussion!
I'm not sure just how strict your bruising precautions are, so I'd be afraid to tell you which rides are OK and which are not. I would definitely stay away from the safari bus in Animal Kingdom, though.
I would suggest using a balled up jacket, pillow, or soft purse as a cushion for some attractions.
Hi,
My mom is on Coumadin and has been for years...she has a bad heart, only 1/3 of it is working. She is 83 and was diagnosed a few years ago with Congestive Heart Failure. She loves Disney and was worried not so much about rides, but about eating.
We talked with her heart doctor, and our family physician and their responses were about the same...it is for a week, go, have fun. If you feel tired rest. Don't be sedentary. She takes a scooter, but needs to get out of that and walk around because all that sitting could cause congestion, which is something we don't want to have to deal with.
As for diets..the first year we went after finding out she had CHF, she was very, very careful at every meal, some of which meant eating plenty of carrots, tomatoes and not much else. The second year she was a bit more flexible, and everything was fine. In November she talked with the Doctor's again and they said, "Just go and have fun...its a vacation not a lifestyle". She was careful, but not "overly" so. This year, she said she is just going to have fun!!
Mom doesn't go on the bumpy rides, but I think that's more of an age thing than any thing else. She has gone on the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Its a Small World, Peter Pan's flight, The TTA...things of that nature and never has she had a problem.
just another thought--pay attention to what foods/drugs interact with the blood thinner. i'm constantly amazed what doesn't play well with my blood thinner. that doesn't mean that i have to give up things just that i have to be aware of their effect on my protimes.
Yes, we can talk about this off of the message board as this topic would be boring to the general population here. I am just glad to know that there is someone else like me, even though I would never wish my conditions on anyone else. While I don't wear makeup and therefore don't carry all the stuff that many women consider "normal," I have a handbag that I take with me to to bring my own personal pharmacy with me when I go out. I am laughing now, but I sure wasn't when I was out at lunch, having just ordered food, and realized that I didn't have my insulin. At least I understand what the insulin and Warfarin are for. I don't really understand why I am on Levothyroxine. I just swallow it.
No topic is too boring here I have rambled on about my Fibro & Depression without anyone throwing anything at me (yet)
All info is helpful to our members, You never know who you might be helping with any info you may have learned from your experiences..
Glad to have you here..
Well, I have always bruised a little easily. It might have something to do with low blood pressure, which is normal for me. My husband was watching my monitor in the ICU and couldn't believe how low my blood pressure was. He asked me "How do you do that?" when he saw what he now says was 79/45. I don't know because I was alert when he asked me that and remember having a "Do what?" reaction.
I rode whatever I wanted while Scott and I were at Disney World in 2007 and had no problems, even though I had already been treated for the lousy circulation in the legs. It is the blood-thinning drugs that I am concerned about because I was not taking any back then. Yet I really don't believe that the injuries and even deaths on Disney rides were really the fault of either Disney or the fans. Anytime you get 100,000 people together, somebody is going to have a heart attack.
Of course, drugs in general scare me. Ooooh was I mad when I heard that my diabetes diagnosis was rare at my age and that I was going to be insulin-dependent because I would rather be Type 2 and control it more with diet because insulin can be very dangerous. This may be a case of the grass always looking greener next door though. There is one Type 2 man in my diabetes class who is always going on about what he ate, what he is going to eat, and what he would like to eat. It is strange to listen to him and feel both sad and amused, sad because I suspect he always feels like he is starving and amused to see someone so obsessed with food that I am wondering if he lives to eat.
it may be the first time that that man is actually paying attention to what he eats and how much. since i'm diet controlled there are times i sound like him, especially in WDW where i had to plan my days/meal to allow for some of those awesome desserts!! and now i have to blend the diabetic diet with some foods interact with the blood thinner,
i avoid things/rides that put pressure in one spot for a period of time, but other than that, i don't pay much attention to it. watch to see how you do in the months preceeding your trip and pay attention to your Protime/INR.
I do wear a medi-alert bracelet that lists my bloodthinner as well as diabetic.
My parents have both been on blood thinners and been to WDW, as long as my DH. None of them avoided any rides because of this, and didn't seem to have a problem. Mom ended up with a few more bruises than she usually has, but nothing other than that. I'd say the roughest rides at WDW are Dinosaur at AK and Big Thunder Mountain in MK.
For your embolism, and the circulation issue with your legs, I personally wouldn't go on Mission:Space. DD Samantha has circulation issues and when she did it, her legs swelled and took a few days to return to normal. You can always do the attraction in the "Non-Simulator" section.
Other-wise, I say you go and have fun!
This is probably much ado about nothing because I have been on Disney roller coasters before, and went twice on the milder version of Mission Space and once on Kennedy Space Center's shuttle simulator with no problems in 2007. I might have gotten bruised then before any blood thinners and just don't remember. I just have a thing about making a scene. I cried when the doctors told me that I was Type 1 diabetic because I wanted to be Type 2 if I had to be diabetic. I just didn't want to be caught injecting myself and have people assume that I was an addict pushing something possibly illegal into myself. A few bruises from my blood thinners aren't anything that I can't handle because two days ago I still had noticeable bruises from IV's from at the hospital, which were covered by my sleeves anyway. I just don't want to create the sight of blood for people who really bothered by it.
I will need to check into the medical bracelets already recommended for me. What I am worried about could happen right here too if I were to take a tumble while standing on a packed subway train or something. I was thrown out of my seat once and onto the floor of the streetcar during a sudden stop and got a bruise the length of my thigh over ten years ago. My husband tried to grab me, but the stop was faster than he was. It looked bad, but we had no insurance so I ignored it. It went away by itself.
it may be the first time that that man is actually paying attention to what he eats and how much. since i'm diet controlled there are times i sound like him, especially in WDW where i had to plan my days/meal to allow for some of those awesome desserts!! and now
He was in diabetes class tonight talking about food again. I am jealous of him that he doesn't need insulin, but he might trade places with me too. My doctor has been following my diet and told me today that I don't need to change my habits. She is just going to change my insulin to accommodate my diet so I don't run high after breakfast and then drop off to sometimes dangerous lows overnight because I eat most of what I am going to eat for the day in the mornings. I don't know why I am losing weight because I am eating pretty much what I want to eat; but I weighed 121 lbs. at 5'10" today so I have lost about 12 lbs. since weighed while in the hospital. Meanwhile that poor man, who is also about 5'10" with a larger bone structure to nourish, is always being told to stop eating.
. I just didn't want to be caught injecting myself and have people assume that I was an addict pushing something possibly illegal into myself. ..... I just don't want to create the sight of blood for people who really bothered by it. .
i was afraid that people would be freaked by my just testing my blood. but nope, they see the whole kit there and it doesn't seem to bother them at all. people walked past some parents testing the bs, then drawing up insulin for their baby and injecting her. nobody even stared. mild curiosity yes, but nothing out of the ordinary. i agree that the first aid station would be an excellent choice for doing insulin. the resorts will provide sharps containers when you ask. i totally admit to feeling like i was the first diabetic to go to disney because it was MY first trip as a diabetic. just remember to put those all important snacks in your bag for your day in the parks. that small bottle of juice, pb crackers and the like won't draw attention. these are all good questions and concerns. i'm so glad that you are asking them!
With the diabetic in our family, we were told the same thing about eating what he wants -- we just adjust the insulin according to what he wants to eat and how his blood sugars are at pre-meal testing (correcting later if he goes high.) Now, there are some foods that cause him spikes and we do limit them at times, or balance them with foods & excercise that help even things out.
When we went to Disney last March (prior to his insulin pump start), he did experience significant lows in the parks -- mainly from all the walking and the excitement. Other T1Ds experience highs from the adrenaline in similar situations. My advice would be to make sure you have what you need to deal with either extreme.
Most of all, have fun and enjoy yourself, but listen to your body and do what feels right for you.
Of the more physically demanding rides, I'd keep in mind that Everest, Primeval Whirl, Big Thunder Mountain, Star Tours, Space Mountain, Dinosaur, and Barnstormer (to name just a few) will toss you around in your seat, which might result in some bruising. Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Rollercoaster (and even Mission Space) are rather smooth rides, without the jarring. The PassPorter has comments on how rough the ride is for each attraction -- that might help you!
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I have rambled on about my Fibro & Depression without anyone throwing anything at me (yet)
just remember to put those all important snacks in your bag for your day in the parks. that small bottle of juice, pb crackers and the like won't draw attention. these are all good questions and concerns. i'm so glad that you are asking them!
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