How soon after your TAVR did you fly? Trying to work out if I can get to my granddaughter's wedding

#1Marlene K(Joined Mar 2026 · 31 posts)August 22, 2026, 1:04 pm

A cheerful problem for once. My granddaughter has finally set a date and it is a four hour flight away, seven weeks after the date I have been given for my procedure. Everyone in the family is assuming I will be there and I have not had the nerve to say I do not know.

What I cannot get a straight answer on is the flying. The nurse said "should be fine, ask at your follow up", which is not a lot to book a non refundable flight on. Some of it is the insurance too, because the moment you mention a heart procedure on those forms the price goes somewhere silly. And there is a small voice asking what happens if something goes wrong at 35,000 feet with nobody who knows what a TAVR is.

So, people who have travelled since. How long did you leave it, did you tell the airline, what did the insurance cost you, and did anyone regret going too early?

#2TwoNightsTerry(Joined Feb 2026 · 63 posts)August 23, 2026, 7:41 am

Six weeks for me, short haul, and the flight itself was the least eventful part of the trip. What caught me out was the airport rather than the plane. It is miles of walking with a bag, and I had badly overestimated what I was up to at that stage.

Book the assistance. I felt like a fraud requesting it and then was extremely glad of it by gate 47.

#3Ron Castellano(Joined Feb 2026 · 47 posts)August 23, 2026, 7:15 pm

The pacemaker adds a wrinkle worth knowing about if you end up with one. I carry the device card and show it at security rather than walking through and hoping. They take you to the side and do it by hand, takes an extra two minutes and no drama at all.

Have not flown long haul yet. Doing four hours in October and I will report back.

#4frankm1952(Joined Apr 2026 · 19 posts)August 25, 2026, 9:58 am

Insurance is where I came unstuck. I declared the procedure honestly and the quote tripled, and the first two companies would not touch me until three months had passed. Third one was reasonable once I could say I had been signed off at my follow up.

Worth ringing round before you book anything, and worth having the date of your follow up appointment in front of you when you do, because that is the question they all ask.

#5Marlene K(Joined Mar 2026 · 31 posts)August 27, 2026, 4:22 pm

frankm1952 said:

worth having the date of your follow up appointment in front of you

That is useful, thank you, and slightly alarming, because my follow up is currently a fortnight AFTER the wedding. I am going to ring on Monday and ask whether it can be brought forward, on the basis that it is not much use to me a fortnight late.

Never occurred to me that the appointment date and the insurance were connected.

#6Edith R(Joined May 2026 · 12 posts)August 29, 2026, 11:36 am

Reading this with interest because my son keeps asking when I might come out and visit them, and I have been vaguely saying next year.

Marlene, I hope you get there. My honest reaction reading your first post though was that seven weeks sounded soon, and then I read Terry doing six with no bother. Which rather proves the only person who can answer it is the one who has your notes.

#7TwoNightsTerry(Joined Feb 2026 · 63 posts)September 1, 2026, 8:20 am

One more thought Marlene. Whatever they say about the flying, plan the days around it as if you are slower than you feel, because you will be. I went to a christening at about the same stage as your wedding and I was fine for the church and useless by the evening.

Sit down for the reception, take the room upstairs rather than the sofa at your cousin's, and go home when you want to rather than when the taxi was booked for.