RVing while using Home PD

[charlesc]

I am in stage 5 kidney failure but doing fine so far. I am preparing for PD and hope to avoid if possible! Don't we all.
Anyway, I have begun preparation at my home by installing a drain and sink near my bed. Will probably be Fresenius machine.
We have been traveling with our Truck and Travel Trailer and I would like to correspond with any others who are doing so while on Home PD. (Any type of RV)
If you do or know someone who does I would very much appreciate getting in contact. My e mail is charlesculotta@gmail.com

Thanks,
CCC

[jcanavera]

We did a test trip about 60 miles from home, taking along my wife's Baxter PD cycler.  We have a travel trailer so we chose to use a full hookup site.  Some of the issues were finding where we could place the machine and bags.  It ended up the best place was her to sleep on the click couch in the front of the trailer.  We were able to place the cycler and bags on a dinette seat.  The cassette tubing reached the sofa easily.  We were also able to use a 12' drain extension hose and drain into the kitchen sink.  Our biggest issue is that she is a slow drain and her home bed is a Temper-Pedic that can raise her head and legs.  We use that extensively to help her drain, and the RV sofa of course didn't provide that flexibility.  Getting her drained was harder since we had to use pillows to prop up her back/or legs to enhance the drain.

Supplies are significant and we stayed 6 nights so we had to pack enough fluid and on top of that we took a night's worth of manual bags and hanger post in case we had to deal with power or cycler problems.  I was happy that we pull our trailer with a 3/4 van, so we had room for the fluid and the ability to carry the heavy weight of that fluid.

All went well so this year we plan to venture away from home further.  I'll probably buy a generator to give us a power backup source in case of power loss.  The generator will probably be a multi-fueled unit that will be able to run on propane, gasoline, or natural gas.  Our trailer has twin 30 lb propane tanks which would adequately fuel us if needed.  I don't want to have to carry gasoline.  Running on natural gas would allow my generator to be used at home since I have a quick disconnect outlet for my gas grill on the back deck.

Depending on your RV type, the biggest issue really is supplies and where you will keep them.  I'm somewhat concerned about heat with the fluid being stored in the van.  We camped last fall so temperatures were not a concern.  There is no way I could store all the fluid inside the trailer where temperatures are much better controlled.  I just thinking that we will keep the windows open in the van to keep the van close to ambient outside air temps.

Jack

[Whamo]

Is there an RV that works better for home dialysis than the others?

[Vt Big Rig]

We actually sold our last trailer and bought a new one. We considered where I would sit, where the machine would sit, where the fluid would hang, and how my wife could position for cannulation. Mostly the issues we had were electric outlet placement. We ran our maiden run last night and it went well. Some pressure issues but we believe we can fix those with a better arm support.  Consider how you will dialize and go look at many trailers. We got a Flagstaff 21FBRS. Comes with a nice table we set the machine on while I sit on couch. Room on the table for my wife to stick me and I sit back.

We are running Next Stage.