Some advice needed

[Noah122898]

My husband is somewhat disabled. He has a very bad hip and is in need of a replacement soon. We want to visit WDW before his operation but he refuses to use a wheelchair or ECV. My question to you is which onsite hotel do you recommend for the LEAST amount of walking to and from restaurants and buses and pool? We recently came back from the AKL and although we were upgraded to a Savannah view, we were extremely far away from everything (except the animals . Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

The specific answer to your question is the Contemporary in the Tower.

However, please ask your husband the following questions. Here are the suggested answers to go with them.

1. Are you disabled (even temporarily)? Yes.

2. Do the people you are travelling with, such as your family, know you are disabled? Yes.

3. Do you expect to meet anyone you know during this trip who may not know you are disabled. Probably No!

4. Do you expect to meet a bunch of people who you will probably never meet again in your life? Probably yes!

5. Is there any reason at all that you should care what these people think about you? Absolutely No!!

6. Will using a wheelchair or ECV make for a better vacation for you and your family? Absolutely YES!

 

[zumbergc]

My aunt uses a scooter at disney.
On her last trip she had one hip replacement. She however has issues walking. The scooter made things easier for her. She could go where she wanted and do what she wanted. Since then she has had to have the second hip replaced too. However she could go where she wanted and wasn't in extreme pain at the end of the day when using the scooter.

WDW has one of the most accesible areas ever. You see so many people in wheel chairs and scooters.

One thing to think about is that your husband will be happier and in less pain if he is using a scooter.

I would recommend looking in the stickey section at the top of the page. Bringing the names of the offsite scooter rentals with you. He may change his mind after the first day and decide a scooter is right for him.

He may not feel he needs to be in a scooter 24/7. However. Tell him you would be happy to ride in the scooter for periods so he can get out, walk around and get use of his legs. Another option, park the scooter to the side, and walk for 30-60 minutes (or whatever time feels right), check out the cool things in the area. Grab the scooter (remember to always take your key out so no one borrows your scooter) and head to your next location.

I use the scooter part time in the parks. Bad knees, hips, back among other things. So, i walk for a little bit, ride for a little bit. My husband is perfectly happy to take a break from walking and drive the scooter. Its hard that first time to use a wheel chair or scooter. It was a matter of pride. Plus, since i could walk thru the pain, i didn't see a reason to get a scooter or wheel chair.
Looking back on those first trips. I was in a lot of pain. At the end of the night, i would be icing because things hurt so bad, and would have a rough time sleeping. I would be in pain and have problems for weeks after the trip. For me thats a clear indication i needed some help during the days and walking full time wasn't a good solution.

Now i pre and sometimes post ice at the beginning and end of the days to just keep things under control because sometimes i will walk to much.
I make sure to do my stretches and exercises to help things stay strong even while on vacation. Overall when i look back at my first vacations i kind of remmeber being in pain and wasn't enjoying myself as much.

Some people have the mentality that they can walk thru the pain. If your husband is going to have the hip replacement. The best thing he could do is take it easy. Still do some walking, keeping things strong. I'm guessing he might have some pre-sergery strength exercises the docs may have suggested him to do to build up the muscles before sergery. That way when the muscles attrify because he has to be off them a little while after the sergery, he can get back to "normal" faster.

If he walks the whole time, he may have some serious down time after the trip and may have more intense pain and inflamation because of all the walking. Then when he gets home he is less likely to keep up with his pre-surgery muscle strengthing if things are so inflamed everything irritates it.
Yes this had happened during my first visits, everything all irritated.

Connie

 

[Andrew Bichard]

My husband is somewhat disabled. He has a very bad hip and is in need of a replacement soon. We want to visit WDW before his operation but he refuses to use a wheelchair or ECV. My question to you is which onsite hotel do you recommend for the LEAST amount of walking to and from restaurants and buses and pool?

As Cheshire Figment has said, the Contemporary Tower (not the Contemporary wings) is a good bet, because the rooms, restaurants and transport to MK and Epcot are all linked by elevator. Restaurants at Grand Floridian and Polynesian are a short monorail ride away and Wilderness Lodge a short boat ride.

Most other resorts are spread out horizontally and may well involve walking. Most of the 'Handicap Accessible' rooms though are located near the elevators to minimise walking distances. Remember too that the ammount of walking that you will do in the most spread out resort hotel will be absolutely nothing compared with the distance you will walk in the parks.

If you are visiting in the next couple of months (up to thanksgiving week), crowd numbers will be low and you will have a good chance of renting an ECV at the parks if it becomes absolutely necessary. Maybe you could convince your husband to get one in the middle of the day once he starts to flag! My wife did this a few years back when she was on a waiting list for a hip replacement operation. I wouldn't be surprised if having tried one, he changes his mind and rents one every day thereafter.

Andrew

 

[SueM in MN]

You already got some great information.
Here's a link to a thread written by Ray Sharpton. He sort of felt like your DH for many years and his visits to WDW meant pain. He was so enthuseastic after renting an ECV and having a painless visit that he has written some very helpful threads/posts to convince other people in his situation to do the same.

My FIL shoul have had both knees and I think one hip replaced almost 20 nyears ago - he should have, but didn't. He would not rent an ECV until 2 years ago. On that trip he finally rented one the last day of our trip. He kept commenting during the day that he was getting to things he hadn't seen for 15 years (because he had not ventured into the parks so far in that long). That day was the first day of WDW touring that he ended the day not in pain (usually by the end of the day, he can barely move and had to take pain killers).
The other thing that he didn't realize is how difficult it was for other memberrs of his party when he was just trying to get by. We were sad that he was missing seeing things with his grandkids and it was painful to us to watch him be in pain - he never complained and I think he thought he hid the pain, but we winced every time he moved around because we could see it hurt him.
So, tell him to get the ECV, if not for himself, for you, because you love him too much to see him in pain.

 

[Cinderella2004]

Hi!

Just some words of encouragement......My Father had his hip replaced last October 30th. We went to WDW 12/2-12/11!!!! He did great. He did rent a EVC, but many times didn't use it. (We rented from Randy's Mobility....less $$ and he always had it available) He said the HRP was the BEST thing he's ever done!!!

We stayed at POFQ, the compactness of the resort was great for him.

We went again this June, and he had NO EVC!!!! He felt GREAT-(except for the heat, which got us all....lol).

So, even though you didn't ask about HRP experiences, I just wanted to share with you a FANTASTIC success story!!

Good luck with your trip!