Since the age of 14, I walk this earth thanks to my prosthetic knee. Thankfully it has improved my quality of life and general health, but not being able to walk on your own bones makes certain things a bit uneasy or sometimes even difficult. Travelling for instance. That’s why I want to dedicate this blog post to (young) people with reduced mobility that still seek to discover new places in a comfortable way.
Transport
Choosing your means of transport, is where the journey begins. In order to reach Dublin, the most convenient way to travel is by airplane. The entire group agreed to go to the airport by train and the train ride from Hasselt to Brussels Airport Zaventem only takes an hour. Travelling by train is quite okay for me as long as I have the space to sit comfortably. For example by crossing my legs or stretching them in front of me (and alternating these positions from time to time).
Next up is the airport. I never really had any trouble finding a place to sit and rest for a bit before our flights took off. But then there are these great safety controls: “Please remove all metal objects, such as keys, mobile phone, coins, wallet from your pockets and take off your belt, and place these items in a plastic tray.” Not quite possible when the metal is inside your body, right? Exactly, the alarms will go off, but I never had any trouble with it. You just inform the security guard about your prosthetic, or any medical or other reason the alarm might go off and they’ll screen you accordingly. When you inform these guards, they will friendly ask you if they can touch the prosthetic piece or if it could hurt you. And if you’re lucky, that’s the only thing they’ll have to screen you for!
Sitting in a plane for me is never really a problem. I’m not very tall, so I can always stretch my legs in front of me.
In Dublin we also travelled a lot by public transport. Busses, trams and trains are great, as long as I can somewhat extend my leg. That only was a problem when we drove from the airport to the hotel. The seat in front of me had a fixed back, so my knee was bend a bit too far, luckily the ride didn’t take too long.
Walking vs strolling
This is a huge issue for me. when strolling too slowly, my knee gets overstrained almost immediately and it gets painful very quickly. So I walk most comfortably at a constant pace, which is hardly possible in big capitals.
The “walk load” of our days was divided quite well. Except for Monday, our first day in Dublin by the way. The organizers from Business and Languages were informed about my condition, so they made sure I was okay with their plan to make a city walk. And it went quite alright untill the end. First day. One walk. Overstrained already. It was definitely predictable, but I never expect it that early during the day. The city walk was followed by a visit to the Guinness Storehouse museum. Greatly interesting, but sadly also very painful because of the strolling, waiting, standing still and all that after a city walk… In that case only lying down for a day or two could get me on my feet without too much pain, but on an organized school trip, that isn’t really possible.
During the planned business visits and their presentations we always sat down, which was an ideal way for me to rest a bit while still receiving useful information from these companies!
Recovering
When travelling alone or with family, I preferably make a travel plan that includes a lot of resting, especially for myself. This wasn’t really possible during this incentive trip, but I could always indicate that I was uncomfortable or in pain, so the organizers made sure we walked a bit less sometimes or that we made a few more stops on our way to or from certain places of interest.
Another way to help you recover a bit quicker after a heavy day, is by using a cream or gel that relieves pain and inflammation of muscles and joints. Always make sure you are informed well about the product you’re using and rub them in properly, otherwise it may seem like they don’t really work.
Aftermath
Ater our trip I didn’t really notice any pain or discomfort because the gel I had with me worked pretty well!
I hope this blog post gave you an insight to my physical condition and how it is to travel with a prosthetic knee. I even hope I can help some people overcome their fear of travelling with reduced mobility!
Thank you for reading!
Sofie
Dublincentive 