Traveling outside US on Hemodialysis

[Barbara Aliquo]

My husband has been on Hemodialysis for 2 years and doing well.  We are retired so want to travel.  We have gone to 3 states and had no problem.  We did not find out where he had a chair until 3 or 4 days before our trip, but he did get one.  DaVita made the arrangements.  They told us to just make our plans and they will get him dialysed.  Now we would like to go to Europe.  I looked at Dialysis At Sea.  Not tried that yet.  Has anyone gone on a cruise  to Europe and got dialysed on land when the ship docked?  DaVita will make those arrangements also.  I just was wondering if there were any problems with getting to the center or language problems.  I know we have to pay ahead of time and get reimbursed later by our insurance company.  Medicare of course will not pay for dialysis outside the US.  I would appreciate any advice.

[Bill Peckham]

I've traveled throughout Europe and I took a Dialysis at Sea cruise from Dover to Copenhagen in 1998. I have never done a cruise and organized dialysis on land. Do you have an issue with Dialysis @ Sea?


EDIT: I see in your introductory thread a bit more ... where is it that you want to travel? Dialysis at Sea has a lot of fans but personally I would much rather stay on land and use the great train system they have over there to connect cities. Getting to the center would probably require a taxi but just about every taxi will be familiar with the dialysis unit since dialysis patients are often taxi users and the taxis probably will be familiar with where cruise ships dock. Getting to/from the port will also depend on where the port is in relation to the unit. The language issue is more of a problem in southern/Mediterranean Europe than it is in Northern Europe but most often there will be someone who speaks English and they'll be assigned to you, but I have experienced exceptions.