Travel

[kitkatz]

My hubby looked at me like I was cazy.  I guess it is a no, here too. AWWW!

[Zach]

Anyone travel to exotic interesting places? Or just different places.

[livecam]

Check out the Bill Peckham dude.  He's been all over the place on hemo.  You should be able to google him up pretty easily.

[Mom3]

My son has traveled to No Va and had his hemo treatments there. No bad experiences. To the contrary--he found a couple of the clinics to be very friendly and nice. He had to plan a few weeks in advance through his social worker. He was really nervous about it, afraid they'd infiltrate him or something...

By the way Angie I'd be afraid of showing up at just any ER expecting to be dialyzed. You might be treated as a potassium crisis and give kaolate or whatever that awful stuff is!!! (Maybe if it was really your day--as an enema!)

Mom 3 (mother of hemo pt and a pkd pt myself)

[angieskidney]

Check out the Bill Peckham dude.  He's been all over the place on hemo.  You should be able to google him up pretty easily.

Bill Peckham even has his OWN website!

[sandman]

Isn't Bill Peckham a members of these boards?  Maybe he would have some info to share here with everyone concerning how to arrange for travel outside of your country?

[stauffenberg]

I did travel, but only rarely, while on hemodialysis.  As a Canadian, I was covered for foreign dialysis expenses by the Canadian government, but only at the set rate of CDN $360 per treatment, which was always lower than what I had to pay abroad.

However, I found all the bureaucracy involved in faxing medical records and getting special testing done to comply with various dialysis centers, as well as all the trouble involved in finding foreign units prepared to take me when I wanted, and then in complying with the special practices and rules of each new unit where I was treated, to be just too onerous.  I eventually preferred to stay home rather than put up with all the hassles involved in dialysis travel.

To cite just one example, I was invited to participate in an academic conference in Cambridge, England, and after two months of trying to arrange for dialysis treatments near enough to the conference center and at the right time period, I had to settle for dialysis at a unit 60 miles away from the conference in London.  The unit only offered diallysis from 10 AM to 5 PM, so that treatment schedule meant I had to miss every second day of the week-long conference, to which I had to travel, repeatedly, at night after dialysis.  The entire result was exhausting and only half what I needed, and the treatment cost me double the actual cost.

Whenever I have tried to arrange dialysis in the United States, I have always encountered centers which said, "We'll put you down on our waiting list and we'll call you when a spot opens up."  No one seemed to understand that I could not arrange for travel and a hotel on a day's notice, and that the conferences I was planning to attend were not likely to be postponed until a free spot opened up for me at the dialysis center!

[angieskidney]

Isn't Bill Peckham a members of these boards?  Maybe he would have some info to share here with everyone concerning how to arrange for travel outside of your country?

No but he is a member of D&T City.  I think you may have seen his name there.

[Zach]

Patients can even take a cruise with dialysis onboard.

[livecam]

...and it costs a bloody fortune.  A short 3 day cruise is within limits without dialysis and a 4 day is possible if you are really careful again without dialysis.  I tried the 4 day once and wouldin't really recommend it.  My limits were pushed to about the the max and by the 4th day it wasn't very enjoyable.  Then again if money is no object...

[Zach]

Yes, it can get expensive.  You would have to pay for the dialysis treatments onboard--Medicare does not cover them.  So beyond the cost of the cruise, you would pay about $525.00 per treatment=$1,575 for a seven-day cruise.  Although some secondary insurance plans may cover 80% of the treatment cost.

Here's an interesting travel article:
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-healthy2jul02,1,7361911.column?coll=la-travel-headlines

[Fighter]

I've only travelled for 2 1/2 day weekends at a time - London, Dublin, Vienna and Paris*2.

All of these were great, really got my mind off dialysis. I even felt normal for a while, although obviously not very long. I might try a week-long trip this year if I'm still on dialysis in the spring/summer.

My country is so small that if you take a couple of steps in any direction you're abroad!

[susie q]

I've just booked our third trip to Punta Cana Dominican Republic ... heading out Feb.3 
Very nice private hospital there offers hemo.  They have 6 machines but both years so far I was the only pt.  Neph stays in the unit the entire time..  great people. 

[Zach]

Sounds really nice!