So much pain!
I already shared it last week, that my health was not great the week before my trip to Madrid. I spent most of my time offline and most definitely not behind my desk, besides throwing a few tips around most of the days.. After three days not publishing any content, I wrote one again and hoped to get back into the daily routine.
What happened?
Well, it's not a new issue to me, but it is a new issue since having a new bed and mattress to wake up from pain in one of my hips. I've known forever (since I was pregnant the first time) that my hips are not aligned and as my grandmother had a hip replacement I always considered that one day in the future, I'd be blessed with hip issues myself. For many years, I had no pains besides having a "clicking" sound while walking for years. This didn't hurt btw, it was just annoying but I never went to the doctor for it.
Years of shitty beds
And then we had a few years of sleeping on shitty beds in other people's apartments when not having the funds to upgrade our bedding ourselves. We just had to deal with it. It was so bad that in the last home, I was constantly pulled to the middle part, which meant my back and hip were in so much pain every day that my boyfriend moved himself to the couch which was also a bed inside the living room so at least we didn't have the "rolling to the middle" issue anymore.
Even if we wouldn't have had that issue, the bed was a hard wooden plank, which is always been too painful for me personally. It was not a bed you could just remove, neither did we have storage so you can imagine the relief when we were able to move to another place and had the funds to replace the bedding thanks to receiving back the full deposit and a month's rent.
Getting older and rustier
Surely didn't add to the issue of my hip declining (so it seems at least) but I did not expect to happen what happened the week before having to fly to Madrid and having a travel itinerary filled with restaurants and activities to visit. After all, I hate having to spend so much money on flights and hotels and a passport because a government wants it) and then not being able to make the most out of the trip.
Finding the best options
I spent weeks checking for options and reserved a few tables as well as made a flexible plan with a list of possible restaurants to visit in case things go different and I forget which ones to check for as it's kind of overwhelming otherwise, especially if I'm in pain.
So much pain!
A few days before the trip, I woke up at 6 AM one day with extreme pain in my hip. I managed to get up and get myself to the toilet and get back in bed, but since that moment I'd only been moaning from the pain and trying to find a comfortable way to lay down with a pillow to support my back, butt or knee lol. Getting older sucks!
I had to ask my boyfriend to bring the kid to school and take my meds in the morning which at least took off the edgy pain. I barely sat down that day and kept moving and cleaned our very dirty (filled with dessert sand) windows to make myself useful without putting too much pressure on anything.
That day went ok-ish
I even woke up with less pain the next morning and brought the little one to school while doing some groceries afterwards. We had a good walk that afternoon as well and I didn't need my meds at all that day, which made me so happy! We decided to go back to these daily afternoon walks now that the treadmill has been returned (waiting for a refund though) because it was broken from day 1.
Laughed too soon
Sadly, the next morning, I woke up at 5 AM (gosh, even worse!) from the same pain and again, didn't sleep properly anymore after, had to ask my boyfriend once again to bring our daughter to school. To get the rough edges off, I had to take the meds again in the morning and went for the afternoon walk anyway because I hoped to "walk it out".
Sadly, I got into more pain instead. Oh well, at least I tried to walk it out.
I needed a good sleep
So I took another painkiller in the afternoon and hoped this time at least I'd sleep properly (which I did) but then again, I woke up with the same pain, this time not during the night but when my daughter walked in at 8 AM to ask for breakfast. This was on Saturday so I felt really shit about this because the flight was going to be in a few days. Thinking about all these plans I made and how I'd be able to manage getting to public transport as well as wandering around all day was making me feel sad. I felt the trip was going to be ruined due to me being in so much pain.
Back-up plan
I needed a back-up plan for the day we'd fly back, assuming that I'd be ok the first day because worst case, we'd not go out for dinner to a nice place but eat in the hotel and get into bed early or something. After all, we have beds there so that was my worst case scenario for day 1. Spoiler alert: day 1 was worse than day 2, lol. But more about that in a following part.
Departure day
I wondered how to overcome the issue of not being able to walk properly anymore, thus traveling would be such a burden on my hips and back. I already booked a locker in the city so we'd not have to carry around the trolley all day but could just be in the centre (and closer to the airport as well) after the passport appointment. But there's truly no fun in having to sit in a chair on a terrace if you're in so much pain all the time, I already felt the whole plan for day 2 was ruined if I'd wake up with this pain.
Airport VIP lounge
Then I realised that there are airport VIP lounges and they cost money but they also provide food and some have resting areas and showers if needed. I started to check the options at the airport and I looked through the pictures and prices. It would cost me about 60 euros for the both of us, but it would give me some peace of mind being on the airport without rushing and also we'd be able to eat and drink the food available so no need to wander around for a nice place to eat meaning we'd have to travel even more.
Exhausting
I find travelling by public transport exhausting, even more so when I'm in pain and some times it means I have to take a few days of rest to recover if I really overdid it. I'm fully expecting this to happen if I don't take it easy the day of the departure so my back-up plan in case of pain was, get the passport application done, go for lunch and slowly make our way to the airport a few hours earlier and access the VIP lounge to just sit it out there without being rushed.
Exploring the possible lounges
I've checked which lounges there are and had to find out the correct terminal for my flight, I made a call to the lounge and found out there was only one I could use. Costs: more than 60 euros for us both. Then I realised that I've access to lounges through Revolut Metal in case my flight is delayed (I don't see it happening with this domestic flight though) and found options to buy these passes in the app without having delays. Costs: 24 euros instead of 42 plus a kids pass with discount costing more than 60 euros total. Instead, the new total would be 48 euros.
Still costly, but probably a smart move
And worth it considering the fact that you are allowed to go there 4 hours before your flight leaves and if you cut the costs by the hour, having a decent lounge chair to sit in with no stress to rush to the gate and having to run around the big airport is probably going to be worth it as it will make it less exhausting and probably painful in the end.
Refund possible
I can even buy them and ask for a refund if not used but I will probably not buy them until the day of departure depending on how I feel that day. Imagine I feel wonderful that day and rather go back to that one cute place as they have the best chairs to sit in.
I'm really relieved that even as a non-business traveller I can have access to a lounge pass, I never knew this before and thought this was only available for business class travellers.
Spoiler alert
I ended up using the VIP lounge passes and I will share that in another part. This was probably the best thing I planned for this trip! If you're curious to find out the best way to purchase these tickets, stay tuned until I get to this part of our trip because it could save you a lot of money!
But first I will share our experience flying to and arriving in Madrid..
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Plaza Mayor VIP Lounge Image From The AENA website