First cruise vacation with NxStage

[vcarmody]

My husband and I just got back from our first cruise vacation.  It was a ten day cruise, we went from NJ to Bermuda, St. Marteen, St. Thomas, Porto Rico back to NJ.  We arrived on the ship on Thursday, April 29, and about 2 hours before we set sail I realized that NxStage did not send any MLA's.  After a frenzy of calls back and forth to NxStage our Nurse from the center and guest services on the ship, it was finally realized there was no way anyone was going to get then to the ship in time for us to sail. Both our Nurse from the center and NxStage were going to send them FedEx to the port in Bermuda, but we were told they may not get through customs and to us.  We debated getting off the ship and going back home but we did not have our luggage yet and there was no way I was leaving all my stuff behind.   We were not arriving in Bermuda till Saturday, meaning my husband was going to go with out dialysis for 3 days if we got the MLA's, if not we were going to fly home from Bermuda (I was really concerned about this option because we only had the soft suitcase for the cycler).  It was a nerve wracking wait in Bermuda but they finally cleared customs and were delivered to the medical deck and then delivered to us. We are going on another cruise in September and I plan on packing my own MLA's, just in case. 

[Trikkechickk]

I do Nxstage; but what are MLA's?

[looneytunes]

MLA's are "multi line adapters" and they connect all the bags that are hung to the warmer bag.  Hope that helps. 

[vcarmody]

MLA's (multi-line adapters) are also know as the express fluid warmer disposable sets.

[Dianejt]

So besides the troubles in the begining how was this cruise? Did you have the time of your life? Tell us about your fun.

[M3Riddler]

My husband and I just got back from our first cruise vacation.  It was a ten day cruise, we went from NJ to Bermuda, St. Marteen, St. Thomas, Porto Rico back to NJ.  We arrived on the ship on Thursday, April 29, and about 2 hours before we set sail I realized that NxStage did not send any MLA's.  After a frenzy of calls back and forth to NxStage our Nurse from the center and guest services on the ship, it was finally realized there was no way anyone was going to get then to the ship in time for us to sail. Both our Nurse from the center and NxStage were going to send them FedEx to the port in Bermuda, but we were told they may not get through customs and to us.  We debated getting off the ship and going back home but we did not have our luggage yet and there was no way I was leaving all my stuff behind.   We were not arriving in Bermuda till Saturday, meaning my husband was going to go with out dialysis for 3 days if we got the MLA's, if not we were going to fly home from Bermuda (I was really concerned about this option because we only had the soft suitcase for the cycler).  It was a nerve wracking wait in Bermuda but they finally cleared customs and were delivered to the medical deck and then delivered to us. We are going on another cruise in September and I plan on packing my own MLA's, just in case.

Vcarmody,

A vacation well deserved...Glad you were able to go on a cruise. Can I ask if you had any issues with the cycler and using the soft case to travel with?  Did you check the cycler with the soft case? If so, what steps did you take to insure that it would be on the plane? Where there any issues with the cycler being banged around that you know of? Where How did you transport the iv pole?
How did you handle the saline bags? Did you get them locally or did you also have to ship or transport them on the plane?

Regarding the MLA's. Another option would be to call a NxStage center near your location to see if they have any on hand.

///M3R

[vcarmody]

We had a great time, Chris got sick the 3rd day, most probably because we missed 3 days of treatment, and we had to adjust his treatments because they did not send enough dialysis when we finally got the MLA's (he usually does 25 liters but we did 3 days of 25 and 2 days of 20).   ///M3R, everything went well with the soft case, we didn't fly we drove to the port and we were told by Royal Caribbean that all medical equipment should be carried on so that there was no chance it would get lost, damaged or delayed.  I had one suit case that was dedicated to all our supplies (scale, saline, blood pressure cuff, needles, IV pole ect.) Thanks to Aleta and her packing list nothing was left behind    I'm sure if I asked the access dept at Royal Caribbean if they could supply the IV bags they would have. They asked if I needed a sharps container months before we sailed and when we arrived at our cabin it was there waiting.  The room steward took all our boxes and garbage away with no questions (I did tip him extra, being that he was so helpful). Everyone at Royal Caribbean was great, not one person gave us a hard time and they actually held the Cycler at guest services when we got on board until our cabin was ready, they then wheeled it to our room for us.  It was a great experience, especially sense I was expecting problems because when our travel agent first started looking for cruises for us, a few company's denied the use of NxStage on there vessels.    We are taking another cruise in Sept, this time on NCL, I am hoping it all goes as smooth as this one did!!  There are lots of pictures on my Facebook, please feel free to take a look.  http://www.facebook.com/vcarmody?ref=profile