Home at last, The Great Adventure

Well, yesterday we had our adventure getting Felix from San Diego to Hutch. Rita took us for a quick drive tour of a little of San Diego so Felix could see something more than just a hospital room and whatever was outside the window. Then, it was off for our (Felix, Louise, and John) little adventure. It first starts with our luggage check-in. We chose to check as much luggage as we could so that we would have our hands mostly free to handle Felix. When Felix and Louise went to Mexico, they didn't have to pay to check luggage since it was a flight out of the country. But......since this was a domestic flight we were hit with an additional $70 in charges to check our luggage!!! What a rip! Then it was off to the security screening. I had to wheel Felix in a wheelchair to a special area and park him there to be screened specially, since he had a defibrillator implanted. Louise and I then had to go through the regular line. Well, I got stopped and my luggage got completely searched because I forgot I had a can of pop in my backpack. After, I got thru, I went to see if they had finished screening Felix. When I got there, they insisted that he stand up so they could pat him down..... (thank you George W), so I had to help him stand. Then, after that we had to wheel him over to a area where they could scan his shoes. (After all, Felix looks like a dangerous terrorist). Then, it was off to our gate. Before our flight, I had to help Felix with a restroom stop because we knew that it would be next to impossible to have him use an airline restroom. Now it was time to board the plane. The airline wheeled Felix up to the door of the plane and we had to move him to a special wheelchair that fit in the aisle. The chair had so many straps on it that it looked like we were sending Felix off into space. The problem with these special chairs is that they assume the rider can easily bend his legs to place his feet on the small foothold. That was impossible for Felix. His legs are so stiff that you'd think he had rigor mortis in them. I finally had to hold his feet while they backed him down the aisle. At least it wasn't too far, only 2 rows back from the door. Ahhhh!!!, finally on our way to DFW. For some reason the plane was very cold. Even I was cold and that usually doesn't happen. Felix had 2 blankets on him and was still cold. Typically, when the airline handles a handicapped person, that person is loaded first and unloaded last. When we left San Diego, our flight was 20 minutes behind and we didn't have a whole lot of time between flights. We decided that we needed to have Felix walk (with our help) the short distance to the exit. As we began, pulling up to the gate, we realized that they were not going to use the same door that we came in on, and instead use one at the front of First Class. That meant we had about 10 rows to get past now. We just decided we had to go for it and Felix said he was up to it. When the plane stopped, I hopped over Felix, got him up and had him wrap his arms around my neck. I then picked him up on my back and carried (dragged) him for as long as he could take it (about half way). He then slowly finished the remaining distance. At the plane entrance, they had a wheelchair ready and they wisked us off to catch our next flight. When we got to the gate, they were already boarding and were ready for us. They had even changed our seating assignments so that we were in the front row (after first class) I usually gripe about American Airlines, but they sure were helpful in this case. We were a little nervous about just getting onto the plane because we had hoped to have a bathroom break in between flights but Felix was ok with it and had no problems. Finally, we made it to Wichita and we got Felix out of the plane and into a wheelchair, where the airlines had one more shot at Felix. This time the person pushing the wheechair wasn't paying attention and bumped his arm in the doorway. His skin is so thin that it ended ripping a big gouge in his arm even through the sweatshirt he was wearing. He really didn't care. He was just glad to be in Wichita and closer to home. We had a shuttle waiting for us when we arrived to get us home. After we got Felix into the van. We took off and he sat quietly and awake for the whole trip (2 things that are hard for him; being quiet and staying awake while sitting). The next thing we heard out of his mouth was "There's 56th Street". Soon we were home...more later.