WIBU to fly abroad with pneumonia and DC with a chest infection?

[OreoBiscuitPie]

We are due to leave on Wednesday to go to Canada. DH’s sister lives there, he hasn’t seen her for 15 years and has never met his niece and nephew who are 11 and 4. There’s a long complicated story as to why it has been like this but basically his family are from a poor country in Eastern Europe, managed to emigrate to Canada eventually, but DH’s mum couldn’t get residency so they all got deported and essentially banned from the country, the sister was allowed to stay as was an adult had a Canadian partner by then. DH was only a teenager at the time. After years of fighting with the Canadian immigration system and an appeal involving an immigration lawyer we managed to get the ban overturned so he can finally visit his sister for 2 weeks. We don’t earn particularly well and it took a lot of saving.

We’re going with our 3 year old. This trip has been planned for 2 years. Sod’s Law, we all caught Covid about a month ago. DH recovered very quickly. Me and DD recovered quickly too but have since both developed chest infections. It seemed to go away then come back. DD has been checked out at a walk-in centre a few days ago and now on treatment, she is recovering and only has the lingering cough now and no temperature or chills but she’s still not 100% herself.

I went to GP yesterday to finally sort myself out. I’ve had the cough, green mucus and headaches etc but I’ve not bothered about myself as I’ve been so worried about DD. With her finally on the mend I’ve finally found the energy to get myself seen. GP didn’t like sound of my chest and sent me to walk-in centre where I was diagnosed with fucking walking pneumonia. Advised by doctors that it’s not recommend to fly but that if absolutely necessary then I can.

I was so excited to meet DH’s sister and kids and vice versa. DH desperate for his daughter to meet his sister. I feel as though we have to go, and I want to, but my family are worried and telling me not to. I feel there’s no choice. We’ve been advised we’re not contagious to others. In a way I think it might help me recover as we’ll be guests so I can take things a bit easy and have someone cook for me, not be cleaning or cooking etc like I would be at home, so maybe it will help me recover? AIBU?

@OreoBiscuitPie
How are you doing a few days later?
How is your little girl?
What happened with your insurance provider?
I just wanted to sympathise with you and would love to know how things are going, or not going.
Bless you all. x x x

Do not underestimate the cost of medical attention in the air or in Canada . You are talking at least in £10,000s
my mother was in hospital with pneumonia -and sepsis in Madeira for five weeks including icu.
she was on holiday with us . First two days before insurance kicked in. £10,000 just for two nights . Luckily we had excellent insurance with saga who paid for it all.

in the end the whole bill ran into nearly £200,000 including repatriation with a doctor on a normal flight but in a private area .

I think you would be very silly to go now. the air pressure means your lungs cannot work as efficiently in the air . My mum was on full oxygen on her way home to keep her stats up . It’s also very frightening for you and family . Imagine being unable to breathe in the sky with your husband and child there .

let him go on his own with daughter . Follow on if you can, if not it’s their holiday. But don’t go there unwell spread it around the plane and then spoil the trip by being too ill to join in and everyone feeling they can’t do fun things .

Think also of others.i am asthmatic,if you were on my flight,i would no doubt get your infection and be ill for my holiday,and many others the same.not fair.

I think it would be unreasonable of you to travel - you may come into contact witb people who have compromised immune systems from cancer treatment or because of medication and if you pass your pneumonia to them, it would be very serious.

Then he should travel on his own.

When I had pneumonia I could even get out of bed let alone get on a plane. But look into getting clean Lungwort capsules, really helps with clearing the lungs. I use them from British Supplements and they stopped my coughing.

He has a good point there. Children are resiliant and recover faster than adults. If he goes alone you will probably end up looking after a healthy active child while you are sick.

I understand that you are worried about letting DC go and missing Mummy when she is recovering, but your DH wont be alone in Canadá, he will be with his sister and family to help him and the Canadian healthcare system is good. I think we mothers are often overprotective and with hindsight would have been more permissive. I would let them both go and use the time to recoger, so you are fit when they return.

children also go downhill faster too.

If her doctor signs DC off as fit to fly, then it should be ok. If not, obviously she cant go

Is this trip so important you'd risk your health? That's essentially the decision you need to make. Hopefully you'll feel much better by the day of the flight, but personally if you're still ill I wouldn't risk it.

If you already have travel insurance in place it may cover cancellation/rescheduling costs

Seriously ... just reschedule the trip to a time when you are all well enough to undertake it. Long haul flights are tiring in themselves, let alone the time difference you will encounter at the other end. The idea that you would want to do such a journey even slightly unwell is foolhardy - dangerous to both your health and the health of your fellow travellers. The air in aircraft cabins is just recirculated through filters, and if you've ever seen them, you'd be aghast at the muck they can contain.

But it’s not contagious you said? Ok… 🧐

Spreading germs how terrible that you even thought it would be acceptable.

Sounds like all the more reason for them to have some daddy-daughter time. Cut the apron strings a bit.
Hope you feel better soon.

@oreobiscuitpie check your travel insurance it could well be invalid if you travel knowing you have pneomonia and your family should also check. You should disclose everything as I’m sure your insurance will say no to any claims for whatever reason even if not relevant if there is medical information that they have not been told about

I’m really sorry for your bad luck. I understand you asking the question but you are making the right decision. You are very ill and a long flight could be dangerous for you. I’d just try reschedule all the flights for in 3 months. Give yourself plenty of time to recover. Have your DH stay home and help. It suck but nothing you can do. You won’t want to die and leave your child and husband alone.

If you don’t have travel insurance then once you reschedule your flights, get some. If you have any now then you could claim back for the flights.

I already said that if the doctor says your DD is well enough to travel, let her go with her father. He will not be alone with her, apart from.the flight as his family will be there to help. You, on the other hand will be left at home feeling ill with a recovered 3 year old demanding attention.
Dont be overprotective and let them go. She may be upset for the first ten minutes but she will probably have enough to divert her on the journey for her to forget about it and enjoy the trip.

Just my opinión.

Did you fly op?

Goodness, he needs to learn how to handle stress a bit better

This. It makes no sense that the sister didn't visit previously. Why spend possibly thousands to visit a place that doesn't want you to.

Most travel insurance covers cancellation due to accident or illness which means you can't fly. Like pneumonia. Not aure why this wasn't a case of get the money back and reschedule. Disappointing but shouldn't involve a huge loss of money

They must have returned by now?

Oh the DH probably had a nervous breakdown