emeraldcity

10 hours ago, D4 said:

OMG … the ambulance driver tried to talk you out of going to the ER??? 😱 That is so wrong,  

I got the impression she was trying to guilt me into sending them away. Her last attempt was "You have to understand, with Covid and all, it will probably be three hours before they even triage you." and I said "OK". Really what was my option? If I had to wait, so be it. But the thought running through my mind was that the Covid numbers were plummeting in Florida, (I had specifically checked it out on the internet the night before) so her information didn't sound solid.

Of course, when we got to the ER, nobody was rushing around stressed, gurneys weren't lined up in the hallways, people in full protective PPE were nowhere to be seen. "Whatcha got." "Seventy-something female, ankle injuries from a fall." "Room 6." And I was wheeled past a large number of treatment rooms, at least a dozen of which were empty.

5 hours ago, Chloesimon said:

One word. Lawsuit.

Two words. Not interested.

2 hours ago, SG65CB said:

 

Can you share the name of the skilled nursing facility? I understand if you don't want to due to privacy, but it would be good to know where this care is available in the NEO area. 

 

The Welsh Home in Rocky River. It is a not-for-profit facility.

2 hours ago, D4 said:

I’m curious … were you walking alone when you fell?  Did you call 911?  Thank God you weren’t hit by a car when you were waiting for help in the center area of a highway.

Yes. I was alone. And I fell on the very soft dirt of the medium strip. It had to have been soft, because I landed on my shoulder and I never had any pain in the shoulder from the fall. Several motorists who saw me fall pulled over and ran across the medium strip to help me. One woman practically carried me to her car and got me into the back seat. She then drove to the hotel door and practically carried me into the lobby. After some discussion about options (which included a conversation with my daughter back home) the desk clerk called 911 for me. The ambulance came within minutes, but it was clear the driver had better things to do. She challenged everything I said and tried to talk me out of going to the ER. At one point she said I should have my "friends" who were standing there take me to an urgent care center. "I don't even know this woman's name," I said. "She is just someone who stopped to help." I strongly hope that the local residents get better treatment from the service their tax dollars are supporting that this unfortunate tourist received.

I appreciate your well wishes and thank each of you for taking the time to respond.

I know I will come out of this with a new found appreciation for the difficulties of negotiating life's byways in a wheelchair. One of the ladies at the skilled nursing facility advised that I would find everything takes longer in a wheelchair ... for instance, just opening a door and going through it and then trying to close it behind you. Wow! She is so right. I really had never thought about it.

1 hour ago, BND said:

I dislocated my kneecap and dislocated my ankle and fractured my fibula in Aug 2019.  I had surgery and a plate put on my ankle 10 days later.  My OS said, nope to our Nov 2019 HOTS b2b and WDW trip and he was right.  Ankle/fibula healed fast and really well but knee is still an issue although it is much better than it was.  It was two years after my accident before I could cruise.  Covid made it easier to deal with.  You really learn to appreciate so much when you can't do a lot.  There are things I will never do again because of my knee.   Did you have surgery?    Whether you did or not, you will more than likely get back to doing everything you want to. 

No. I didn't have surgery. The Florida hospital pressured me heavily to agree to surgery, but it pays to get a second opinion. Here in Cleveland they indicated that surgery was not immediately indicated and they would re-evaluate three weeks later. That eval took place two days ago and after more imaging, they delivered the welcome news that the area of concern was doing well and no surgical intervention was necessary. The key factor was whether or not the bones were out of alignment and apparently they are not. So I don't have to also recover from surgery, I just have to recover from the initial injury.

I did not have a very good experience with the Florida hospital, but my care here in Cleveland has been top notch. The plane was met by an ambulance waiting for me on the tarmac and I was taken directly to the Fairview satellite of the Cleveland Clinic. After several days in the hospital here, I went to a 5-star skilled nursing facility where my daughter-in-law works. It was a little taste to what life might be like down the road if I ever need long term care. They were very warm and welcoming, and I valued the caring staff and the stories they shared of their lives. My PT and OT sessions went well. I have transitioned to the Cleveland Clinic Home Health Care group and I anticipate they will be very effective. I am highly motivated to get my life back and intend to do everything they tell me to do.

Being non-weight-bearing on both legs is particularly challenging, but I've become pretty proficient with the use of the transfer board to move between the chair and the bed or the commode. But transfer to a car is weeks away. If I have a doctor appointment that becomes necessary before I can handle that, I have arrange another very expensive ride in a vehicle that can take a wheelchair bound passenger.

Three hours after checking into my pre-cruise hotel 2 days prior to the cruise, I was returning to the hotel after lunch. There was no crosswalk in view in either direction, so I crossed the highway and started to cross the dividing medium strip. What appeared to be a concrete sluiceway in the medium strip to handle excessive rain runoff ended in what looked like a scattering of leaves. It was actually a hole filled with leaves. (My cruise friend checked it out later and told me it was 7 inches deep,) I went down hard and broke both ankles.

It was to have been a girls cruise ... the three of us hadn't seen each other since a cruise group get-together in New York City two and a half years earlier. Once I got confirmation that the ankles were broken, I had to cancel my reservation. I'm still awaiting the FCC. I urged my friends to go on the cruise and have a wonderful time and send me lots of pictures.

I spent two days in a hospital in Florida before flying home after a great deal of work on the part of friends and family to get me back to Cleveland. As the plane took off from FLL, I kept saying to myself "Don't look. Don't look. Don't look." But of course, I looked. And there was the Odyssey with the unmistakable Northstar stretched across the top ... and I buried my face in my hands and sobbed for quite some time.

I finally got home yesterday to a house that has seen considerable modification by my mobilized family to accommodate a mom in a wheelchair.

I have subsequently cancelled my March cruise and am holding out hope I can go on the one in May.

When I was on the Anthem last week they said that the TWO-70 show is a "C" show right now, which means no aerial portion. Apparently when all the ships started up pretty much at the same time, there was a shortage of riggers to set up the aerial equipment. Looks like Odyssey managed to have riggers, since you have one shot of an aerial performer. 

Thanks for all the tips on seating selection. I'll keep that in mind next week.

I was on the NCL Breakaway in November and discovered they have thoughtfully installed lighting that illuminates the safe when you open the door. Maybe they got tired of trying to return lost items.

2 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I weighed 171.2 on Friday morning.  We'll do damage control next Monday

I was rather delighted when I weighed in for iFly ... I was only up two pounds. And then we had that rough day at sea and I scaled things back to eat light and be on the safe side. I weighed in this morning to find that I was back to my pre-cruise weight after 11 days at sea.

So very nice.

21 minutes ago, msuspartabigten said:

I am still confused why these are necessary if you have to be vaxxed to get on the boat. If it's because kids 11 and younger don't have to be vaxxed, then maybe just everyone under 18 should wear them. You can't tell me you might mistake a 21 year old for an 11 year old lol

The problem there is that those youngsters would just cut them off. And it is possible (although highly unlikely) that someone who is not vaxxed could get an exemption for medical reasons to sail.

OK. I finished reading the whole thread. I got a kick out of the iFly pictures. Everybody looks the same ... cheeks bunched up around your eyeballs. They shunted me off to the photographer after my flight to give me the sales pitch ... $30 for this action shot in a great leatherette folio with a certificate of the event. I passed on it. The only reason I could think of for getting the photo was for the amount of merriment it will provide my survivors when they come upon it while they are going through the estate. I can see the two oldest literally falling out of their chairs laughing.

Anyway, if you don't get a prime iFly reservation, consider my experience. I stayed on board the Anthem at one of the ports and was walking laps when I passed the Ripcord. "Oh, what the heck", I figured. Might as well check out what is involved. The schedule was wide open for the day and I could do one minute for free at 2:00. So I booked it. I was the only one in the time slot. One of the guys who was standing around agreed to be my official videographer and he filmed the entire minute, along with some still shots. I did just fine, but my damn butt checks were sore for two days afterward.

One and done.

The photos of me look like what you see when you peek out your sideview mirror at speed and get a view of your dog in the back seat hanging his head out the window.

Just logging in to catch up on things, having just returned yesterday from my first cruise on a quantum class (the Anthem). Loved the layout. Looking forward to the Odyssey ... which coincidentally is the next 8-day cruise to Aruba and Curacao sailing Feb. 12. I need to shoot a message off to my cabinmate Kathy so she can tune in on this thread as well. Hopefully you make the ports as planned. I came home to an email of a cancelled excursion for Curacao.

Last cruise? Got off Anthem yesterday. It was fantastic.

38 minutes ago, gottagoacruzn said:

Hey thanks guys. Now, do they still have formal nights, repeater's party, meet & greet other CC's members an is the stinkin mask also worn?

Formal night? Yes.

Top Tier Event? Yes

Meet and Mingle? I was on a 6-day, so it wasn't a "thing" anyway, but it's apparently in suspension for my upcoming 11-day.

Stinkin Mask? You bettcha! Bring some extras so you can swap them out periodically to avoid the grossness.

And bring an upbeat attitude -- you'll have a great time (despite the mask). I had a wonderful cruise and am so very much looking forward to the next one.

My cabin steward advised that they don't have the hard copies anymore ... and when he saw the look of dismay on my face, he quickly said that he'd be happy to come up with one for me each day. And he did.

Thank you for the replies. I think I'll go with the booster date then, since that was November.

Getting my ducks in a row for my upcoming cruise. As I recall from last month's cruise, I will be asked to note the date of my last covid shot and I put down the date of the second shot (as advised by a poster on this site) ... not the booster. Has that advice changed? Should I enter the date of the booster shot?

Unless you plan to add a chunk of time in Paris at the end of this vacation, I side with everyone else who says you might want to rethink this.

I intend to go with the flow ... and I'll have a great time. I just found out on the roll call that St. Lucia has been switched out. Too bad. I was hoping to get to the Pitons this time, but I have to say that the view of the harbor in St. Thomas is one of the most beautiful in the Caribbean. It just takes my breath away.

And hey! I may get to the Pitons yet. I just checked My Calendar and it shows that my shore excursion is still there for "Cruise to the Pitons". I expect they may have to extend the timeframe a bit or get us a jet boat. 🙂

Another poster who starts a new account just to see how many responses he can score. While some of you out there have genuine issues ... I really doubt this person has any and I question whether he(she) has any cruises booked at all. Most of us get it ... and are just reading along for entertainment value, but I feel badly for those of you who have been stung by cancelled cruises ... I've been there and it is painful.

Thank you for posting your experience. I've actually been trying to figure out how I'd get home if I tested positive and couldn't fly ... and a rental car was what I was toying with. You mentioned that they actually offered you a rental car? I was thinking I'd have to cover the cost of a one-way rental myself?

The other thing I'm wondering about, would be whether I could get any flight credit for the return flight I wouldn't be able to take home. Since you didn't fly in, I understand you can't help out there, but maybe someone else following this thread has some idea. I booked my flights through Air2Sea, so I'm hoping they would assist me with that as well.

I took my five-inch one on my last cruise and it just didn't move enough air. I'm thinking I need to up my game.