This month my family and I were fortunate enough to be able to go on a trip. We picked a very lucky time as it ended up being -35ºC in Calgary while we were away basking is 23ºC. In our family of three, two of us are physically disabled, and there are food allergies, so we have learned to accommodate travel to fit our needs. There always needs to be a kitchen where we go and we often do less than most people would do because of energy levels and physicality. But we have honed the method to such a level that we enjoy every second of it and can remove ourselves from the everyday reality to give ourselves a mental and physical break. This doesn’t mean that we came up with all the accommodations on the first trip! As the years have gone on, and our bodies have changed, we have had to shift our changes to travel. Part of this is learning to let go of things that you can no longer do and to be able to work through the grief of that. Part of it is doing lots of research beforehand and at the end of each trip asking ourselves if we could have done anything else/different to make ourselves more comfortable. And the final part is making sure we enjoy ourselves. And so we find joy and fun in the new things that we are able to do together as a family, and we make sure that what we can do we are excited for. The planning and anticipation is just as fun as the actual vacation!

I would like to offer my assistance to those who would still like to travel but are not sure how to go about travel with new chronic illness and/or disability considerations (or your friends or families conditions!). You can book a Chronic Illness/Disability Support Meetings ($20 for 50 mins) with me and we can talk about everything involving travel. From medical letters to bring all your supplements/medications with you on the plane; finding places to stay that fit your needs; navigating food allergies in foreign countries; actively planning days of rest; and much more! I would be happy to chat with you and can share my own experiences plus those that I have encountered through Sava Wellness.

Travelling with accommodations is a large picture item to see how a chronic illness and/or disability can change the structure of your life, but this doesn’t mean that accommodations don’t happen in day-to-day life. The way you travel in your city, the food you eat on a regular basis, and the jobs you have can all change suddenly—and sometimes drastically—when your chronic illness/disability starts or changes. This means that we should be open to how everyone navigates their space and not judge them for what they have to do in order to go about their lives. Everyone is different and so is their experience, so we should try to remember this and be mindful that other people may do things differently than us.