illness/medical

Nineteen seventy-eight, I’m 17 years old, and flying from the US to take my grandfather home to England. He’d had a massive stroke, and needed a great deal of assistance. As his left side was paralyzed, I had to zip him up after he went to the bathroom. Since I was meeting relatives I hadn’t [...]

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About two years ago an opportunity came up for me to travel to India through a program with the university that I attended. I was a little nervous about such a long flight, and since I was flying coach I expected it to be a little rough. On the way to India I “lucked out” [...]

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Not long after being hospitalized for a terrible kidney infection, my fiance and I decided to fly from Tokyo to the Middle East to visit my family. We flew with a large Middle Eastern airline, which is usually wonderful; I stocked up on all my medications and supplements, and we began our trip.

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Flying Cathay Pacific direct from Hong Kong to Toronto one August. Let’s count all the things that went wrong: 1. I sat behind two babies, next to a couple with two babies, in front of one baby, and to the right of yet another baby across the aisle. None were enjoying their flight.

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My wife, our 14-month old son and I were flying from Baltimore to Los Angeles to visit my family for Christmas. Although we had been semi-frequent fliers, this was our first time flying with a child.

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Vomit on the back of the seat (1B)… Do you people take any pride in what you do? From my seat (2B) I could see L., our flight attendant in first class, having a gab session while the first class customers were thirsty. The attendants ate, drank and then took care of us…

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I’ve never enjoyed flying, but traveling the world is a passion of mine too great to give up, so flying is an obvious necessity. I’ve actually had positive experiences flying for the most part as well… until recently coming back from Cape Town, South Africa. 

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Perfume Lady

February 12, 2012

in Illness/Medical Stories

In summer 2010, my parents and I were on a 14-hour flight from Tel Aviv to Newark, returning from our Israeli pilgrimage. In a row just in back of us, a woman kept on spraying perfume like she was trying to kill a mosquito with bug spray. She would NOT stop spraying it. 

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On Wednesday my family and I took a flight from Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) to Germany. I hate flying, and have awful anxiety about it, so I decided to take a Valium that I got from the doctor. Earlier in the week, my brother caught the flu and was sick. We were all worried we would [...]

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Two years ago I booked a flight from New Orleans to Sydney Australia via LAX with United. Now, I know that by most people’s judgement I am considered a “slob” because I weigh 522 pounds. But there is a difference between people who eat a lot and me because I have a thyroid condition that [...]

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About 2 months ago, a flight I expected would be more pleasant than usual turned out to be a real flight from hell. Before my flight, I used my miles to upgrade to first class on an AA flight. I thought this would make my flight much more comfortable than usual… I was wrong. Next [...]

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I’ll say it right away: This one’s my fault. First, some background: I’m an American studying on exchange for a year at a Dutch university. I’d managed to arrange my classes such that I could leave the beginning of December and return in March. I’m a Floridian, see, and I decided that this time I [...]

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