In the next 10 months I am going to have to travel to another state 700 miles away, to look for a new house, and then actually move to this new house once it's bought and our current house is sold, as hubby's job is relocating us.

Long before MG or anything, when I was young and healthy, when I flew I would get SO plane sick. Miserable the entire flight, wedged in my seat with the belt tight to hold me steady, head wedged into a corner on a pillow, eyes shut, hands holding my head solidly, slowly counting my slow deep breaths attempting to fight the dizziness and nausea and keep me from looking at my watch every two minutes in misery ("I won't look again until 1000 breaths..."). Descent and landing was always an experience in record-setting barf-bag usage. Then I'd just sit and be the last one off the plane waiting for my legs and all to steady, and still the people greeting me would look at me in horror and strongly suggest I sit down for a while, I have been told I am actually green after some rougher flights.

So, now I'm old and unhealthy and have MG or something like it (docs still won't label me without a positive blood test for something!), and am always short of breath no matter what I am doing. And facing a couple unavoidable trips (I've just given up on thoughts of traveling for fun. It's not fun.) We have been talking about taking the train instead of flying, since my last time on a plane was so miserable I honestly would not have minded if the plane crashed as long as I got out of the air.

Train ride will be long, but less chance of motion sickness. For the house-hunting trip, it will add at least 2 days to the trip, using vacation days we will need later on.

Considering driving for the final move, instead of train, but we have to be here for the packing up, and then beat the movers to the new house for unloading. I don't drive anymore, and hubby cannot do 700 miles in one day anymore, so this creates a problem with the moving schedule.

So, now thinking I should just jump on the plane to get down there, and tough out the extreme motion sickness. But I have not been on a plane in quite a few years, and not since being so badly 'broken' in the big accident, and not since the MG and other issues became so prominent.

Am I nuts to consider flying, when it used to take such a toll on me when I was young and healthy? What are the risks of MG and air travel? I know we can arrange help/transport at the airport and all, I'm just worried about the actual flight part, because once you're up in the air, you have no options.

Have you tried meds for the motion sickness? I get it fairly easily myself and find that meds do the trick for me.

The problem is that you haven't been thoroughly assessed as to how you are doing, and don't know all of what is going on.

Were you ever assessed for pulmonary hypertension (via an echocardiogram)? And I mean recently!

Can your husband fly to look at housing, without you? Then take lots of photos to email/text or show you when he returns? I think that would be best! You don't want to risk your health right now. You're seeing a rheumatologist in Dec, right?

One's O2 on a plane can tank. That would cause you to turn blue, not green! You don't want to risk a heart attack or stroke, just because you have to move!

Then, when you are ready to move, you can take a train there and your hubby can fly. To me, that's the most sensible approach. That way, he can meet the movers, and your health isn't at risk. And movers will take a while to get to the destination. They can also time it to suit your needs!

Just make sure that the new house is near a GOOD hospital/HMO.

I'm sorry you have to do this right now. But be smart. Nothing is worth risking your life.


Annie

Motion sickness meds MAKE me sick (I'm the supreme empress of weird side effects). Used to use the scopolamine patch behind my ear with some success (could avoid puking, at least), but they took those off the market some years ago.

No recent echocardiogram, I know that, not sure if I ever had one for pulmonary hypertension, I have a good cardiologist, as was the one before her (who left the area) and they checked out all kinds of stuff, but I don't know if it would have included that. Would it be a cardiologist or would it be a pulmonologist? The pulmonary doctors here are awful ("yes, we saw how your breathing slows and gets shallow when you were sleeping (sleep study) and rolled off the pillows so you were lying flat....you may have AN apnea, but it's not SLEEP apnea, so you don't need a cpap. Goodbye." Not kidding. they didn't know what it was, (I specifically asked) nor did they care, since it wasn't what they were looking for.)

I don't really have a GP anymore. Last time I went in (and they told me I had to), he came in and told me I was too complicated, I was beyond him, and all he was going to do anymore was keep sending me to specialists. And, not in such direct words, to stop bothering him. But the system here, when you get sent to a specialist, the GP has to tell them what he thinks it is and they see you as a "confirm or rule out" basis, so they won't investigate themselves, only tell the GP yes or no, and my GP won't even try anymore.

Yes, I am seeing a rheumatologist in December, on Christmas Eve at 2pm. You'll understand why I really have no hopes of that appointment producing anything useful (unless, we are joking, we are lucky enough that the doc is non-Christian so his head is in the office, not home under the Christmas tree.) Have no idea what the GP wrote in the referral, if he even did anything. I had asked him to just tell them to "figure out what is wrong with her" and he answered "It doesn't work that way." So, who knows. But I will go and smile and be a good little girl at 2pm on Christmas Eve. But as this is the fourth rheumatologist referral in two years, forgive me if I have no hope about this.

I cannot travel alone. I have severely compromised sight. My hearing is slightly cock-eyed, so while I may hear a car or baggage cart approaching, I cannot tell where it is coming from (very often I hear things opposite where they actually are. Little side effect from that massive car accident.) I have a touch of permanent dizziness, MG, fibromyalgia, bad back and knees (compliments of same car accident) and probably rheumatoid arthritis, or polymyalgia or lupus or the like (all are very real possibilities).

Hubby was given a severe concussion in that massive car accident, and was left with "post-traumatic hypersomnia", meaning he is essentially exhausted at all times, no matter how much rest he gets. He has pills that keep him properly functioning during the work day, but they only last about that long, more won't keep him fully 'with it' after that 6-8 hours. So, he should not really travel alone, either, we can't drive down in one day even tho it's technically possible (estimate 12 hours), and as far as him going to look at houses alone, or handle the movers, even before his head got whacked he's just not that kind of guy. He kind of just trusts that the world is telling him everything he needs to know and taking care of everything for him, and he doesn't even think of asking questions or checking on things. He's a very good guy, and he works so hard to take care of me and the kids and everything, but he's no good at all on his own.

I am hopeful I will be able to find better doctors at the new place. Certainly can't find any worse ones, unless they pull out rattles and snakes and start chanting....funny thing is, while looking at houses on Zillow, we found two that are right across from what looked to be a major medical center. Then I looked it up, it's just a big hospital, and with thousands of ratings, it scores a whopping 2.1 out of 5 stars!!!! So much for that place. At least we now know where NOT to go. (And we now know where the nuclear plant is, the major airport, the county dump, the strip mines, the plastics chemical plant, and some big mysteriously scary government facility of many giant warehouses sitting behind a big unmarked fence in the middle of some woods.......google maps is so helpful when looking at where you might live!)

It would be so easy to jump on a plane and be there in two hours. But honestly, the last time I was on a plane, I was so sick, as it was a very bumpy ride following the tail end of what had been a hurricane up the east coast and I was early pregnant and having a horrible time of it, that by halfway through the flight all I could think was "Get me on the ground!!! Please get me on the ground!! I don't care if we crash, just please get me down already!" and I meant it. That's when I decided I was done with flying, forever, no more dreams of Alaska or Australia or even just Florida or anywhere. but if I had to, I know the misery of motion sickness and I could deal with it. Heck, I had eye surgery with nothing more than topicals, c-sections under spinal only and nothing more than ibuprofen by 12 hours later (after 12 hours of induced labor (with no real drugs) failed because of a massive 9-1/2 pound, 22-1/4 inch baby who wouldn't fit) and ophthalmologists injecting with large needles into the muscles behind my eye, in the office hold-still-now-please, so what's another couple hours of massive motion sickness? Except for the MG and breathing thing....

Relocation package manager said we get coach airfare, when I mentioned the train they said then coach train seat only. Fourteen to eighteen hours (depending on day/route) in a coach seat??? No no no. Driving means staying overnight somewhere, and I cannot sleep in a bed, I sit up on a couch packed in pillows for support. I need a star trek transporter. Or a magic wand. Fairy godmother would be nice, although it seems they often mess things up badly, first time around....