I’ve never experienced a long haul flight and, as we prefer to drive when we holiday abroad, I haven’t been on a plane for 15 years but I am booked to go to S Korea next week to visit my granddaughter who is currently teaching in Seoul. In August I was diagnosed with Large Vessel Vasculitis and the consultant has said there is no problem with me still going. I have today reduced to 30mg of Pred and currently feel super fit with lots of energy for walking and doing touristy things and haven’t been feeling any symptoms of GCA/TA. I would take all the usual precautions of drinking plenty of water, regularly getting up and moving around and wearing compression socks but don’t know how I would normally get affected by going on such a long flight even without the complication of Vasculitis and steroids. Any comment from your experiences would be gratefully received. Also advice on adjusting when I should best take my breakfast dose of pills both during the flights and after arriving in and back from S Korea which has a time difference 8 hours ahead of the UK.
Does anyone have experience of how Large Ves... - Vasculitis UK
Does anyone have experience of how Large Vessel Vasculitis (GCA /TA) may be affected by a long haul flight?
I flew to NZ with GCA, albeit further along and at a lot lower dose that you with no issues.. and many others in the PMRGCAuk forum have as well. Just make sure travel insurance company are aware [sure you have done that] - made no difference to costs for me.
As for meds etc see this - posted on PMRGCAuk forum, but you should be able to read okay -
healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk....
Enjoy…
Many thanks I'll try the link. We have annual travel insurance through our bank and fortunately no hassle as they said I'm fully covered as booked before diagnosis.
The link is on the dedicated PMRGCAuk forum where you will meet many more others with GCA than here.
I have travelled all over the world on pred though not at quite as high a dose as you. You may feel super-fit but that is the pred talking and you may not be quite as fit as you think! I always book airport assistance because you never know what might turn up - at Seoul for example the check-in desk insisted it was only a very short distance through security and to the gate and it was indeed. With no people around it was less than 50m to security and 100m to the gate the other side, depending on how many shops you looked at. But despite the priority card offering a supposedly faster queue, I stood in that queue, surrounded by families with screaming children and crew pushing past to get to their flights, for over 45 mins. The other queue wasn't any better though. And when I got to the gate when we were called, there wasn't a seat to be seen. Then I played the priority card at the desk and we were taken to a different area on the next floor - seats and quiet! Without that airport assistance card I'd have been exhausted before even getting on the plane. In Munich, a not very large airport, we docked at the extreme left of the terminal, baggage reclaim was at the extreme right, couldn't have been further apart, And there were stairs and long corridors. Without airport assistance, I'd really have struggled. If nothing else. they sort out gate changes for you and you arrive at your destination feeling more human than without.
That’s really good advice. I do realise it’s the meds that are making me feel hyper but as I’m so mobile I would never have thought of booking airport assistance. I’ll look into it thanks
