Having just spent 2 months with my parents, I traveled from South Africa to the UK this week. I left home around 3 pm on Tuesday and left Durban heading for Dubai at around 7 pm. I flew Emirates Air. Despite the kind staff and their efforts , it was a difficult flight with pain and discomfort throughout. I can't sleep under conditions like these. Taking tablets is dangerous as I may sleep through a pressure point, which can cause dangerous pressure sores (skin circulation is cutoff due to prolonged pressure , causing the flesh to die).So I stay awake or just doze a little. A good friend gave me a travel pillow and this helped reduce the fatigue .
The flight to Dubai lasts 8 hrs. We had a 3-4 hr wait for our connection to Birmingham. I was tired when we landed and planned to have a rest in my Wheelchair while we waited. Now, for those who don't know, to be seated I have to be lifted from my wheelchair onto an aisle chair. This a manhandling procedure. Takes several men to lift me and deposit me on a narrow aisle chair, which is used to get me to my seat, where the process repeats to place me in my seat.
In Dubai disaster struck when ground staff sent the chair off to baggage claims. I was already on the aisle chair when someone realized. At this point time stood still and I was pressured and pushed to just use a standard wheelchair. I was tired and sore from the narrow aisle chair. I had been parked leaning against a wall in the plane doorway. I knew that the moment that I left the plane I would lose my leverage and any hope of getting my wheelchair would be lost. So I refused to move whilst the captain and his crew screamed at the ground staff. They couldn't leave until I did.
My chair was found and ferried back across the vast runways and terminals of Dubai .An hour had pass I was in agony but I had won! Having my wheelchair back meant that I would get 40 mins rest before we began the next leg and boarded for Birmingham.
So I am home. I spasmed and squirmed for 5 hrs of the 6 hour flight but I am ok, despite long scratches down my sides and every joint aching. I am recovering and will be fine in a day or two.
