IAN-UK

You seem to be batting away words of wisdom suggesting you stay home, so I'm guessing you're waiting for more encouraging posts.

Sadly, this isn't one.

Stay home.

PUCCI GALORE

Honey, go with what the Doc says. If he advises against it - under no circumstances go. If there was, God Forbid, a medical emergency and they had to divert and it was subsequently found that you were travelling against Dr's orders you could possibly be liable for the cost of same.

Frankly, I'd see what he said and if in doubt - then no.

HIDDY

I'd agree. ^

However I once flew to EZE with hellish fibrositis in economy to see the love of my life. On arrival I felt great!! I can only assume sitting bolt upright for 14 hours helped it.

13901

Without sounding patronising or anything, it can't be worth your vertebra. Back when I had a team I'd have never asked anyone there to fly while in this condition. Stay home and reschedule. You haven't bumped your little toe into the bedframe!

rockflyertalk

Go with your doc.

If your meeting is that important and you need to be there, go further than the docs 4 day bed rest and take between now and the 23rd to get 6 days bed rest. You’re in F so quite a nice way to travel. Getting to LHR and through LHR would be more of a concern than the flight!

Good luck. Rest up.

MSPeconomist

OP can request wheelchair assistance in airports and presumably book a good limo service for ground transport.

sweetsleep

As an American and ABA board certified physician, why on earth are you asking for anonymous and unqualified "advice' from an online chat room?
Madness!

HIDDY

To be fair they didn't.
He/she asked if anyone had flown before with such an injury and what was their experience. They did make it clear they would heed the advice of their doctor.

nancypants

Ok real world experience
i flew once with an unstable L5 fracture that ended up shifting and causing a cauda equina syndrome. Ended up spending one night in an airport hotel and turning around and coming back the next day

Highly not recommended although I will note that yours sounds like a significantly less substantial injury, and that the worst part of the journey for me (by far) was the car ride to the airport

(before anyone starts, I didn’t know it was broken and wasn’t really concerned about having back pain until I wasn’t able to pee on the flight home)

LTN Phobia

The thread has been moved from the BA forum to here to open up the discussion to a wider audience as it is not BA-specific.

LTN Phobia
Moderator: BA forum

abmj-jr

Another consideration might be your destination. Some places might be fine with you entering with strong pain medications and muscle relaxants while others might not. Some of my frequent destinations have made it clear that my prescribed medications are grounds for arrest if I enter with them and without jumping through all the governmental hoops to obtain permission.

PUCCI GALORE

As a British and probably certifiable CSD, I’d say that was not what he was doing at all. He is seeing his Doctor, but wonders if he’s wise to travel as he has an extremely important meeting. I would say that he is being put under a lot of professional pressure over this and is seeking the thoughts of other professionals. None of us are qualified to assess his injury, but we’re all qualified to give an opinion on the situation that presents itself.

aquamarinesteph

I have flown with a broken food once and another time with a fractured rib. For me the worst part was remembering to loosen the boot on my foot before takeoff. I've never flown with that kind of spinal injury, and I'd be hesitant to do so.

BUT - if your doctor okays you for travel - and you feel okay, no symptoms that you're ignoring at the last moment just to get the okay to fly - it might be safe enough to take the trip. Might. Maybe. I'd assess the value of the trip vs the potential loss of mobility & productivity & income if something happened on the trip to make the injury worse than it already is.

Either way, I hope that you feel better soon!!!

TraumaDoc

God, sounds grim. CES is a proper spinal emergency. I hope you made a good recovery!

Suffice to say I think we're in a slightly different situation with the OP, his injury has presumably been well examined and imaged. If there were any risk of CES he/she would not have been allowed to leave hospital and would in all likelihood been operated on before now.

nancypants

I’m veering massively off topic here but it was not well managed at all- in fairness some of this was my fault but for example I went through the out of hours GP service and was triaged for an appointment 12 hours later. Referred to ortho but in a hospital with no after hours MRI capability, then sent home from ED without seeing ortho (the GP had insisted on an ambulance rather than me driving myself and the ambulance crew decided not to read the letter, IMO considered me a time waster and dumped me in the ED waiting room, from where I was discharged by a fairly junior clinician). Situation only really resolved by the ortho reg coming to look for me (when does that ever happen?!), although I then still had a 12 hour wait for transfer for MRI and wasn’t operated on until that night, so about 48 hours after the initial symptoms). And I was 25 at the time and have had issues ever since (yay!)