Injury to make airplane travel unpleasant

[ctorres]

Time/Place: present day US... Ohio to DC specifically, although I can't imagine it's relevant
Terms searched: injury air travel, air travel medical restriction, similar such combinations, this article, and some followup on terms I didn't recognize on wikipedia

Comments

[mangosorbet007]

Having just had some very painful issues while flying with a cold, I'd suggest an ear problem that makes equalising pressure very painful or even impossible. No idea which problem specifically but it's a pointer, maybe...

[pekover]

Yeah, I was going to say something ear-related as well. I've flown with an earache and it was agony!

If you want something more obscure, you're not suposed to fly in a pressurized plane for a couple of years after a pneumothorax (punctured lung), so that might work...

[ctorres]

Pneumothorax wouldn't work then, because she's on a plane during more episodes in canon than not... I might be able to get somewhere with an ear infection, though. Thanks for the suggestion!

[custardpringle]

This would be my suggestion too-- I had to take a trip by air once while recovering from an ear infection and I don't exactly recommend it.

A blow to the head would probably screw up balance for a while; alternatively, anything that put her in a wheelchair temporarily (say a bullet wound to the leg?) might make air travel more hassle than it was worth compared to car travel.

[bwinter]

Does it have to be injury-related? A sinus or ear infection (possibly from falling into cold water) could do it just as well, especially if she has experience with the stabbing pain of flying with it.

[ctorres]

A sinus or ear infection (possibly from falling into cold water) could do it just as well

I could work with that. Suspect shoves her into water, by the time everyone's ready to go home, she's ill... hmm. Thanks!

[fides]

Ear problems were the first thing I thought of as well - flying with a cold can be really uncomfortable because of the change of pressure issue and runs the risk of doing bad things to your ear drums.

I did a quick google and found this article and not flying if you are sick. They mention fevers (although that is travel in general not just air travel), eardrum problems because of cold and flu and dental work (and cosmetic surgery but I'm ignoring that).

She could easily be injured during the pursuit in such a way that requires a little emergency dental work, especially if stitches are required, and that would probably do it.

[ctorres]

Interesting article... thanks for finding it, and for the dental work idea.

[lovecantsaveme]

the dr gives you a slip and you can get through fine.
i know this because my uncle had steel rods in his legs and we flew together.

[maroon_ed]

Odd. I have a steel (titanium, I'm told) rod in my left shinbone and, much to my disappointment, it has never set off metal detectors. A guy I knew, a VietNam vet, used to torment airport personnel because his metal did set off detectors. He'd go through the thing, get beeped, take off an item of clothing, and get half stripped before he'd "remember" about the surgical work. Of course, this was before 9/11 when they still had somewhat of a sense of humor.

[tinsolitus]

My parents and I were on vacation, and the last day, my mom slipped in the shower and really, really banged up her leg. She didn't break anything or anything like that, but she badly cut it and bruised it. Bad enough that there's still a bruise there almost two years later. Because it was the last day, and we had to get home, we did fly, but it was really uncomfortable for my mom. (It was an cross-Atlantic flight, very long.) Also, when she went to the doctor's back home, he told her that she really should not have flown because of the danger of blood clots. So, to make it short, some kind of blunt trauma injury to her legs could put her at a much high risk of blood clots. Try googling some combination of blood clots + flying + injury.

[sapphorlando]

That's what I was going to suggest, anything involving the threat of blood clots or thrombosis, which imperils and endangers many fliers every year. Once in awhile, someone even dies from it, so doctors will often recommend that at-risk patients avoid flying while the threat is believed to still exist.

This link offers some information, and may lead you to better sources. Part of it suggests that certain injuries or medical procedures can increase a person's risk of problems with flying.

[ctorres]

Interesting... thanks for the link. That could maybe work.

[ctorres]

Ow. I'm glad your mom was okay.

I hadn't thought of just bad bruises, but there's any number of ways to beat up on a character with that result... thanks for the suggestion.