Daily Life with a C4/C5 Spinal Cord Injury

Immediately, we knew holidays were no longer going to be simple. So much to think of!

Cruising from Southampton looked our best option – no flying, limited travel time.

How do we plan? Well, it takes Military planning & precision!!

Limited cruise ships sail from Southampton, and we need to have hospital style bed. This limits our options as some cruise lines limit the number of medical beds. We chose Celebrity Cruises – no limits.

Once the cruise is booked, it’s time to hire medical equipment from Mobility at Sea. What a wonderful business! Couldn’t cruise without them 😍 So helpful and reassuring.
We need hospital bed, air mattress, mobile hoist, tilt in space shower chair & a return stand. Hire doesn’t come cheap, but if you need it, you need it!

With the cruise booked, the equipment booked, we move on to:

• Accessible parking
• Transport
• Medical stores
• Medical test equipment
• Medication & emergency bags
• Wheelchair servicing
• Travel insurance
• Carers – who to take, funding, risk assessments
• Arranging catheter changes & other medical appointments around cruise dates
• the list goes on!

One issue we always have…luggage! How to fit all the luggage into the wheelchair accessible vehicle & for dad to still have enough room. It’s like an episode of the cube, only we don’t win a prize 😂

Accessible cabins need to be booked months, if not years in advance. They go really quick. This means plenty of time for planning and a very long days to go countdown.