Traveling
For those living with obesity, how has your experience with traveling been?
Have you made any specific accommodations or discovered helpful tips and tricks?
Traveling makes my feet swell & become painful. I get really stiff & sometimes it will bring on a psoriatic arthritis flare for days. Short easy trips are the best. I'm immobile & transferring from a transport wheelchair is also very difficult because I have a hard time turning my body around to sit in my car. So I'm homebound mostly. I never fly or even ride a bus. I didn't drive anymore. I used to love traveling but I've had to give that up too. So many things I can no longer do. It's discouraging!
Welcome to the community,
! My heart goes out to you. Do you have anyone to help you when you need to make short trips at least? If so, I have a trick that might make settling into the car easier. My father had MS and also had trouble turning once he got into a car. I would put a garbage bag on the seat and use it to help him turn his body after he sat down. You can find swivil devices for cars online, but I have found that they sink too deeply into the seat and often won't rotate.
Are you aware that we have a sister community for people with PsA, Psoriatic-Arthritis.com? If you are not already a member, you might want to check it out. You'll find lots of support and resources there. Does PsA pain make it difficult to exercise or lose weight? PsA can be such a debilitating disease. Are you on a good treatment plan? Gentle hugs. - Lori (Team Member)
I get most anxious when it comes to boarding a flight, getting comfortable, and buckling in. I fly almost exclusively Southwest and I can't tell you how many times I've hit "get boarding pass" exactly 24 hours before my flight only to see that I'm in Group C.
My mind will race through the scenario of having to walk through the aisle, my hips knocking into people, people glaring at me because I touched them, and the discomfort of trying to make myself as small as possible while also rolling through with a suitcase. Then, I think about the scenario of "what if it's a full flight and I have to squish through people to sit by the window or even worse, the middle seat?!" I finally decided that the money to pay for early bird check-in was worth it to silence some of the anxiety I would feel about it all.
I now either get early-bird check-in or, and I just learned this, if you check in 24 hours prior to your flight the way you normally would and want to upgrade to business class (boarding A1-A15) you can usually do that for only $30 more as a quick upgrade! Usually, business class tickets are hundreds more when you purchase them off the bat but this has been a fun little hack that I've found. I've done this a few times. All of that has helped me feel more comfortable when it comes to navigating those teeny tiny airplane aisles and seats.
What does everyone else do??
