I’m sitting in the Rome airport ready to board the plane ✈️ home after a great Europe vacation to celebrate being done with cancer (hopefully) and our 20 year wedding anniversary.
Having Ankylosis Spondylitis (AS for short) means airplane travel is risky. About half the flights I take will put me directly into a painful AS flare. That means painful back, knees, wrists, ankles and neck. The fatigue is powerful. I want to sleep all the time. Which is particularly not good if I’m traveling for work.
I wanted to enjoy this trip- badly! And I knew with how long the flight was the risk was high so worked with the pain clinic doctor ahead of time and provided with some medicine just in case so I could plow through if and when. I also brought my cane.
Overall I got pretty lucky, I had normal levels of back and neck pain during flight over and during the first 5 days. With AS there is no such thing as a day without pain – but no flare. Super lucky.
But oddly, the short flight between Barcelona and Rome which is only 2 and half hours hit me hard. It could be that my body was already tired, eating different foods, and just off. So a big flare hit me. I still really loved Rome. Big time. But I used the can on days that we did a lot of walking. Stopped often. Napped in the afternoons. Used some of the pain medicine the doctor gave me.
At this moment I am not looking for to the next ten hours of flying home but it was all worth it. I will put myself through it all again in the future. However, I learn a little bit more about my body with each trip and how to manage better.
My Journey 