lexdevil

We are scheduled to fly to England to visit my father-in-law on 19 July, though I expect we will have to cancel if the 10-day quarantine is not lifted by that time. The 28 June announcement will probably settle the question. We thought about doing the 5 day TTR, but it is ridiculously inconvenient from the village where my father-in law lives.

If, however, we are lucky and the quarantine is lifted in time for our trip, I have a related concern. I need to have knee replacement surgery before the start of the school year (I am a teacher). I've been planning to have it done immediately upon our return (probably on the 5th or 6th of August). School starts on the 24th, so I really can't afford to do it any later. Do you think they'll make me delay the surgery if I have been out of the country? My surgeon knows my plans, but I'm still concerned that there might be an issue. I don't want to show up, fill out a form saying I've been out of the country w/in the past 30 days, and be told I'll have to wait.

DYKWIA

Surely this question could be answered quickly and easily by a quick call to the hospital, rather than asking on a random internet forum?

dwugson

Every hospital has different criteria related to this. At the best, if you're vaccinated and test negative for covid within 72 hours of surgery you'll be OK.. But, you might suddenly return to find a passenger on you flight is positive which would mean isolating and cancelling the surgery. Do you really want to risk this.
If the surgey is that imporrant cancel the trip and travel later once healed and under a less stressed situation

lexdevil

Thank you for the warning re: the flight. It's a tough call. My father-in-law is in his 80s. We probably can't go next summer, so this may be our only chance for a while.

Regardless of whether you think this was the appropriate venue, I'm glad I asked because the comment about being exposed on the plane was useful. In addition, after being bounced from department to department (on the phone) to try to get this question answered, I can assure you that it's just not that easy.

mikeyfly

Ten day self isolation will not be gone by 19 July so it’s TTR or postpone I guess

CDTraveler

Two points:

As someone who has had multiple orthopedic surgeries, I ask if you're allowing yourself enough recovery time between a pretty major surgery and the start of school? Aren't you going to be on your feet much of the day in the classroom? The replaced joint needs time to securely attach to the bone (my Mom had that surgery 3* times, so I've seen the recovery process. *she actually wore out one of the replacements and had to have it done again)

As someone who has had 2 surgeries during the pandemic, I would say there is a better than 50% chance that returning from a country with significant COVID numbers will get your surgery postponed. Right now it seems like the Delta variant is spreading rapidly in the UK and is apparently more contagious. And it's not just how many days before the surgery that you return, you need allow for a certain number of days for pre-op testing that has to be done with X number of days before surgery.

Good luck with the surgery.

lexdevil

Thank you so much for your advice and good wishes. I'm definitely not leaving myself much of a window for recovery, but I'll take an additional week off if needed. I can also remain seated during classes for a bit if required (I teach high school speech and debate and the kids are great). Debate competitions will continue to be online for most of the fall semester, so this gives me a chance to recover fully before I have to start driving students and flying to competitions. I'm also hoping to get lucky on the recovery front, as I was able to return to work a week after a microdiscectomy a couple of years ago. I even took a group of students to England 4 weeks later!

I don't want to put this off until next summer, at least in part because our son is getting married then and I want to be able to help out as needed. In addition, I'm really eager to replace this stupid knee. In March when I returned to teaching in person, it was a rude shock. Our campus is quite hilly and after a year of distance learning I did not realize how badly my knee had deteriorated. It was immediately clear that I can't do my job with my current knee; it's simply got to go.

If I were betting money, I'd put it on our trip being canceled (allowing me to move the surgery into late July), but if the situation changes, I do think it's important to visit my father-in-law. The family is not prolific, so he's got no close relatives left in the UK. We're his closest family and we're 5k miles away. I know it would be wiser to cancel, but I just hate abandoning my husband's father.

CDTraveler

Any chance you can flip the situation, and have your father-on-law come visit you in the fall, assuming he's vaccinated and the U.S. allows Brits in the country by then? Is he able to travel? Because, to put it bluntly, if you push too hard on the knee replacement too soon, you're going to end up 10x worse than before. Saw that happen to an older friend of the family, and it was really miserable for him.

lexdevil

Unfortunately, he will not fly. I bought him a first class ticket to visit us a few years ago and he got his doctor to write him a note to get out of it. He claims he can't fly due to peripheral neuropathy and a bad back. Were that true, I would not be able to fly either, lol. I really think he's just too depressed and anxious since the death of his wife a few years back. His only grandchild (as I said, not a prolific family) is getting married next summer and he's not coming for that either. The situation is very sad. He loved to travel (mostly cruises) when his wife was alive.

I do appreciate all of the advice not to push the knee too hard too soon.

dwugson

Understand your dilemma. Wish I could think of some way to coax him to travel - if he's first with a car service at both ends he should have no problems regardless of his excuses. My husband is 89, bad back, neuropathy and unable to walk any distance however he manages to travel with me although I will agree it can be stressful. SAGA offer trips with assistance and, more important for the US, insurance and maybe he could be persuaded to come using one of their flights or with a 'companion' to help him through the airport. Are there any familly friends in the UK who could help and encourage him to visit? or even travel with him.
Don't underestimate rehab for total knee - it's a lengthy process and not worth risking any short cuts.

lexdevil

Thank you for the tips. Unfortunately his closest relatives live 160+ miles away in Bolton (and they're not especially close relatives). Most of his friends are similarly ancient and/or in the US, where he lived for a decade. His isolation is one of the reasons it is important for us to visit. There are things that need to be done at the house, including replacing his decrepit computer, which he uses for weekly skype calls with my husband, his only child.

I'm pretty sure that the issue is that he won't travel, rather than that he can't. He seems quite dedicated to being miserable.

lexdevil

I've accepted the inevitable and canceled our 19 July tix to LHR.