Harvey is heading to Florida!

[Harvey Wells]

Spring is in the air!  Pitchers and catchers have reported and I am too!  Harvey's 2010 Florida Tour is starting next week!  Here are the dates and cities I'm going to visiting with my NxStage cycler and if you live close by come out and say hi 

•    Tuesday March 2   Merritt Island
•    Wednesday March 3    Port St Lucie
•    Thursday March 4   Coral Springs
•    Sunday March 7   Miami South – Dade County Kidney Walk – 3,000 people expected
•    Monday March 8   Lehigh Acres
•    Tuesday March 9   Cape Coral South
•    Wednesday March 10   Venice
•    Monday March 15   Orlando
•    Tuesday March 16   Tampa
•    Monday March 15   Orlando
•    Wednesday March 17   Palm Harbor
•    Monday March 23   Mobile, AL

I'd love to meet as many of you as I can!  I'll post the centers and addresses as soon as they're finalized.

[tyefly]

  Sounds like fun.......Do you ever come to Oregon

[Harvey Wells]

I was in Milwaukie, OR my first Road Trip but I don't have any plans to get that far this year.  I hope I'm in NoCal this April but we're still working on centers and stops.  I love the Northwest and I'd love to visit the OR coast so hopefully sometime I'll get that way again.

[Romona]

Have great time! My sister is leaving for Florida Friday. I am so jealous.

[MooseMom]

Is Harvey going to attend any spring training games?

[Harvey Wells]

Boston on Friday March 5th in Ft Myers
Tampa on Thursday March 11th in Port Charlotte
Atlanta on Friday March 12 in Lake Buena Vista
New York (Yankees) in Tampa - not sure which date yet

I love Spring Training in FL and over the last couple of years even before dialysis, I always went down for ASS day and took my grandsons to a spring training game.

Annual Skip School Day you gutter thinkers! 

[okarol]

  Sounds like fun!
I saw the Dodgers (Fernando Valenzuela) in Spring Training once - that was really fun.
My hubby is a huge Red Sox fan. He'll sure be envious!

[MooseMom]

Hey Harvey Wells, my husband sent away for some info on NxStage; it arrived today, and included in the info packet is the May 2009 edition of "At Home with aakp"...and you're in it!  You're famous!

[Harvey Wells]

Yeah, I'm a real rock star  just ask my wife and grandkids.  I've certainly had more than my 15 minutes and I'm grateful for any opportunity to share my story.  My story is just one of thousands - I look back at my journey through PD and then my transplant and it was the inspiration from others that got me through.  My journey to home dialysis was inspired by those that were living their lives in spite of dialysis.  My hero is Bill P 

[Jean]

Oh boy, Harvey, that trip sounds like so much fun. Will you have a laptop with you so you can keep in touch with us?

[tyefly]

Hey  I have a question...... when you are on road trips   are you taking bags or do you put the pureflow in the RV.....

[okarol]

Hey  I have a question...... when you are on road trips   are you taking bags or do you put the pureflow in the RV.....

You can read more about Harvey here http://nephronline.com/features.asp?F_ID=473

[Harvey Wells]

First things First...Not only do I have my laptop, but I have my Verizon MiFi which allows me to post while driving - that really pisses those 18 wheelers off!  Just Kidding - it's difficult enough just to dialize while driving.     Seriously, this is actually Peg transcribing Harvey's 'blabber'!    

I travel with bags of dialysate and I can accommodate up to 2 wks worth on my coach.  (sometimes more - but that gets crowded) On this trip, my entire March delivery is being sent to my son-in-laws business.  I'll just re-load from there as needed.  Usually, when I'm on the road, I'll have my supplies sent to a pre-determined dialysis center that I'm going to be visiting.  I've heard of all kinds of creative ways to get your supplies on the road - including having them sent to a Wal-Mart where they've agreed to accept the delivery.  And, I'm quite sure that a dialysis center with a home dialysis unit would be willling to accommodate at least 1 - 2 wks supplies being delivered there.  I've gotten supplies, saline, and advice from centers - where I was a total stranger.  (I wasn't even doing a demo.)  Keep in mind, you have to make arrangements in advance though.  One time when I ran out of saline in Ohio - I contacted the local dialysis center about getting a couple of bags of saline and was told they ONLY had enough saline for THEIR patients.     Once I finally got my saline, I felt bad and thought I'd drop a couple of bags off for them so they would have extras.   

We left our home in Euless, Tx about 315p today.  I wanted to leave at 10a - delayed until noon - convinced Peg to get off work early.  We've been in rain the entire time. 

Our first stop is in Vicksburg where we'll spend the night at an RV park across the street from the temptations of a casino - not that I'm ever tempted.    Tomorrow morning I'm meeting with a fellow NxStage User, a 26 yr old dializer that has dealt with renal failure since he was 7 yrs old....several transplants, P.D., graduated top of his class in high school, he was a double major at Louisiana Tech where he graduated with honors - - ALL while on dialysis!  He recently moved into his own apartment....and he is single ladies!! This guy LIVES with kidney failure and HE is an inspiration to me.  I'm hoping to meet his father tomorrow.  I've met this dializer a couple of times in the past year.

Stay tuned for Day 2.

[monrein]

Bill is a hero to anyone who must contend with D and it sounds as if you are too Harvey.  Way to go!  And I'll follow your journey with interest.   

[Harvey Wells]

Day 2 and 3

Yesterday went pretty much according to plan.  We started in Vicksburg, MS having breakfast with Brad P.  Brad is a 27 year old dialyzor that’s lived with kidney disease since he was 7.  He’s had a couple of transplants, PD, in-center and now, like me, he thrives on the freedom and flexibility of NxStage.

Leaving Vicksburg just a little after 9am we arrived at our RV park just west of the Florida state line about 4pm. I did a treatment last night while Peg worked on dinner.  Then we called it an early night to leave for Florida this morning.

We left around 8:45am and my Garmin shows us getting to the Jacksonville airport around 4pm.  Peggy’s flight is 6:55pm and I’m going to head south to Debary FL for this evening.

For the most part it’s been an uneventful trip going about 300 miles each day.  No rain the last two days and today it’s about 60 degrees nice and sunny and it looks like it’s going to be a nice week in central Florida.   

[Bajanne]

This is great!  Sounds like Bill Peckham.  Thanks for sharing this adventure with us.  It was special hearing about that young man.  Does he have a website where we can get to know him better?  Did you tell him about IHD??

[Harvey Wells]

I told him about IHD, I met him on Facebook and first met him coming through Vicksburg last summer.  I was at a ESRD network meeting in Jackson, MS last August and he was there and got to know him better.  He's a great guy, very positive outlook and to see him and talk to him you wouldn't know what he's been through.  I'm trying to encourage him to be a little more public, he's on the shy side. 

[okarol]

I hope you've got sunscreen - Florida weather looks great. Are you taking any photos? 

[Harvey Wells]

Here's some pictures of my FL stops so far, going over the bridge near Pensacola, FL.  Two pictures of my stop at the RAI on Merritt Island.  More to come, I'm trying to figure out how to resize my photos so I can post them.  We're at the Fresenius center today in Coral Springs FL.  So far we've had a lot of conversations and a lot of interest.  High today here in southern FL is in the mid 60's but the lows this morning was in the 40's....come on sunshine!

[okarol]

  Thanks for the photos. That's so cute that they have a WELCOME HARVEY sign up!