Traveling and in center hemodialysis
Sep 21, 2015, 8:36 am
#16
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Arlington, VA
Programs: Any program with a credit card, or good prices.
Posts: 437
Do you inform the flight attendence on longhaul flights? I don't want to spread fear but maybe in an emergency it is good if someone knows what is going on.
Usually I drink a lot while flying, but during dialyses you are supposed to drink less. How do you manage that?
Usually I drink a lot while flying, but during dialyses you are supposed to drink less. How do you manage that?
I'm using in center dialysis so I don't need to bring equipment or do anything in flight. I should up at the center every other day and they hook me up via my fistula (get that installed in advance so you have it when you need it) and take care of everything. Fistula's are created by surgically attaching a vein to an artery so you grow a large vein that can accommodate the high blood flow needed.
If you pick PD (peritoneal dialysis) you need treatments more frequently, that you complete. In that case you might need to do an exchange in flight. PD = basically you put liquid in your belly and after some time drain it out, there are machines to do this but you can also just let gravity work. In that case I might let the flight attendant know, and I'd insure that I'm booked on a business class or higher seat so I had some private space to work. You also will need to deal with brining all the supplies with you.
Some people do home HD dialysis with portable machines. I'm not yet at the point where I'm going that route because I still see dialysis as temporary until I receive a transplant. If dialysis becomes the long term treatment option I might look at home HD but they I'd need to bring equipment with me and schedule all kinds of supplies to be delivered to the destination.
My kidney damage is due to Lupus, another autoimmune disease. I still have some kidney function so I've not yet needed to limit my liquid intake and I think some of the things like phosphorous are getting filtered so I'm not yet on a full dialysis friendly diet.
I believe that once you need to control your liquids you will learn how to deal with that at home and will need to practice the same liquid control well in the air. Its not something that will just crop up inflight, but rather something you will struggle with daily.
I highly recommend the site I hate dialysis (http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php) another forum if you want to learn about your treatment options and read about other people's experiences.
Sep 22, 2015, 2:52 pm
#17
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: DUS
Posts: 199
I highly recommend the site I hate dialysis (http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php) another forum if you want to learn about your treatment options and read about other people's experiences.
Jun 14, 2016, 8:48 am
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Arlington, VA
Programs: Any program with a credit card, or good prices.
Posts: 437
Good hospital based dialysis in Brussels Belgium
I received three HD treatments at Saint Luc in May/June 2016. The facility was very large (might have 60+ chairs in pods/rooms) but the care team was helpful.
There was a little confusion when I arrived because there was not a check in desk visible, but one of the doctors tried to find where I should go. Fairly quickly they figured out who I was and set up a machine for me. It sounded like my paperwork had not made it to the care team from the coordinators. However despite the confusion the wait was not long. The doctors spook good English, the nurse or tech who connected me each data had at decent English.
One day there was some confusion from a nurse/tech who didn’t really understand that I do not use button holes. She missed the first stick in a new part of my arm that I just started using but had no issues when she went to my main fistula area.
As a US patient pre-payment was required of 1,500 euro (for three sessions) wired to a bank account prior to travel.
Its located on the subway with the stop about three buildings from the main hospital, there is good markings on the walkway leading to the hospital. Wifi is available via a French only sign up form without SMS confirmation (so you can sign up without a working phone number).
I was able to by a local Lycia Mobile SIM in the convenience store on the ground floor of the hospital.
I would return to this center.
Holiday Dialysis URL
http://www.saintluc.be/services/medi...is-english.php
I received three HD treatments at Saint Luc in May/June 2016. The facility was very large (might have 60+ chairs in pods/rooms) but the care team was helpful.
There was a little confusion when I arrived because there was not a check in desk visible, but one of the doctors tried to find where I should go. Fairly quickly they figured out who I was and set up a machine for me. It sounded like my paperwork had not made it to the care team from the coordinators. However despite the confusion the wait was not long. The doctors spook good English, the nurse or tech who connected me each data had at decent English.
One day there was some confusion from a nurse/tech who didn’t really understand that I do not use button holes. She missed the first stick in a new part of my arm that I just started using but had no issues when she went to my main fistula area.
As a US patient pre-payment was required of 1,500 euro (for three sessions) wired to a bank account prior to travel.
Its located on the subway with the stop about three buildings from the main hospital, there is good markings on the walkway leading to the hospital. Wifi is available via a French only sign up form without SMS confirmation (so you can sign up without a working phone number).
I was able to by a local Lycia Mobile SIM in the convenience store on the ground floor of the hospital.
I would return to this center.
Holiday Dialysis URL
http://www.saintluc.be/services/medi...is-english.php
Dec 2, 2016, 6:51 am
#19
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Arlington, VA
Programs: Any program with a credit card, or good prices.
Posts: 437
We just returned from a second trip to South Africa thanks to great low priced coach airfare (under $500) from Washington Dulles Airport on South African Airways via Accra Ghana. We had a great trip with one wine tour via Wine Flies. Their tour was great, and far superior to the company we had to use last time because they were booked up. This time we reserved far in advance to insure we could go with them. Then we did a Cape of Good Hope tour with daytrippers, that was a great excursion as well. Finally we got up Table Mountain for their after 6 PM Sunset special when the cable car is half off and spent about an hour and a half watching the sun set. It was a great trip despite about 24 hours in transit each way in coach.
Two sessions dialysis at NRC CAPE TOWN CBD. I did not use that center last time because its address is entered as "Cnr Bree & Church Streets" and goggle maps doesn't recognize it so it put it out in some random place, but we saw the center so I knew to look for it again this time. The correct location is at 181 Longmarket St, Central, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa. Its a small center with maybe 12 beds in a small space. Price was 1794.4 rand per session or $133.63 USD. Had they gotten me the quote sooner they would have liked me to wire prepayment, but it came a few days before we left so I paid cash and the office manager deposited the payment and gave me a receipt. They would have provided a drink and a snack but each session was right after lunch so I actually turned down both offers of drinks.
Two sessions dialysis at NRC CAPE TOWN CBD. I did not use that center last time because its address is entered as "Cnr Bree & Church Streets" and goggle maps doesn't recognize it so it put it out in some random place, but we saw the center so I knew to look for it again this time. The correct location is at 181 Longmarket St, Central, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa. Its a small center with maybe 12 beds in a small space. Price was 1794.4 rand per session or $133.63 USD. Had they gotten me the quote sooner they would have liked me to wire prepayment, but it came a few days before we left so I paid cash and the office manager deposited the payment and gave me a receipt. They would have provided a drink and a snack but each session was right after lunch so I actually turned down both offers of drinks.
Dec 4, 2016, 3:27 pm
#20
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
What a great resource to have on FT!
Thanks, iolairemcfadden, for the original post and updates.
Your travel is inspirational and your experiences are instructive.
Thanks, iolairemcfadden, for the original post and updates.
Your travel is inspirational and your experiences are instructive.
Last edited by JDiver; Dec 4, 2016 at 3:52 pm
Jun 25, 2017, 7:17 am
#21
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Arlington, VA
Programs: Any program with a credit card, or good prices.
Posts: 437
Barcelona & Madrid trip report
Our trip to Spain at the end of May was great. We flew to Madrid for Sunday and Monday and then we went on to Barcelona for the rest of the week. Well in Madrid we walked around a lot and tried tapas and various restaurants.
On Saturday we had a bit of a scare when our flight from DC to NYC was delayed by 2 hours because of runway work at JFK. Initially Delta online offered an option flying via some other cities that would take much longer, however as we thought about it and tried to talk to an agent that option went away. The agent seemed unprepared to help and told us that she could get us on a flight the next day. We went to the side and began to try to figure out other options. We were flying on an AirFrance ticket on Delta so I decided to call AirFrance, but well waiting on hold Delta emailed us new flights.
Here I was VERY happy with whomever rerouted us, I don't know if it was Delta or AirFrance. They kept us on our delayed flight and sent us to Lisbon, then on to Madrid on Iberia. That surprised me because Iberia is a OneWorld airline not SkyTeam like Delta and AirFrance. (Not to mention Iberia's partner BA had a major meltdown at that time.) We arrived at 4 PM instead of 9:30 AM but got there on the original day which is much appreciated especially on a busy Memorial Day weekend.
Once in Madrid our favorite place for tapas ended up being Sidrería El Tigre because they were "free," simple, and bountiful. Basically you buy a beer for 2.5€ and you get a giant plate with fried potatoes, some of the traditional potato and egg pancakes and bread with cheese or ham. If you ordered more drinks you would get more food but one round was enough for us. We also had a nice meal of the day for lunch at a local place with wine and some nice entries.
On Monday we did a "free" walking tour around Madrid with one of the smaller companies and had a good tour with a group of six people. I always feel fortunate to be an english speaker when you see people from other countries, in this case Austria and Poland, and they end up doing tours in english. We are almost always guaranteed to find a tour in our language wherever we go.
Scheduling of dialysis for this trip was the usual rush and tossing the dart at the map to try to figure what was the best center. For the late May trip I reached out to the Davita travel coordinator on April 12th. She worked to schedule me at the center I choose, or another alternatie suggested by me. We got all the requested lab work done right at the end of April and knew that I'd receive treatment at the Fresenius center CENTRO DE DIÁLISIS BARCELONA - DIAGONAL.
As it seems to happen too often, two weeks before my departure I receive a voice mail from Spain asking me to call. They didn't leave a number but luckily the number on the caller ID worked. Using some free international calling I have via the FreedomPop phone service I returned the call and was asked to provide my email address because they need more recent lab work. So two weeks out I'm told that the lab work from the last week of April doesn't work it has to be within 30 days of the treatment. Also they now want the MRSA test which is always a bit hard to get. So then the mad rush begins to get lab orders from my nephrologist (who I can not call, only see in the dialysis center randomly), and get lab work filled. So long story short I have the lab work done and sent on four days before we leave, and I finally receive my dialysis shift times.
Up to that point (four days before we leave) I've not booked flights from Madrid to Barcelona because I didn't know when my dialysis shift was on Tuesday (the day to fly from Madrid) and on Saturday (day to return to Madrid). We have our international flight to Madrid and all hotels expect the final night. I expect we will spend the last night in Madrid but don't know until i have my dialysis shifts.
With my sifts in hand I'm was now albe to book a not so early 9:30 am flight on Vueling to Barcelona. It seems most in Spain flights were using the low cost structure requiring paying for baggage. One advantage of booking so late and paying abit more is it included checked bags and seat selection.
The timing looked be tight to get to dialysis at Noon but it should work. We planned on taking the airport bus and a local bus to get to our B&B and then I might need to take a cab to rush to dialysis.
As expected when in a rush our flight late but only by about 30 minutes or so. Given the short time I decided we should take a cab to the B&B, except on exiting we she signs about a taxi strike. It turns out that that day the entire country's taxi system was striking to protest ridesharing like Uber.
So off we went to the the huge line at the Airport bus stop. Here they were setup quite well. The busses were arriving, filling, leaving and then the next bus showed up. There was no pause between busses so they were moving people quite well. I emailed the Barcelona dialysis coordinator to let her know I'd be about an hour late, and she even responded saying thats fine. Soon we were on our way to the B&B, did the bus transfer and then arrived at the B&B.
At that point I escorted Susan up to the checkin and headed out to Diagonal road for the bus ride to dialysis. Its always a bit hard to pick a center, the center I picked was on Diagonal Road but about 40 or so minutes down it. Looking back there may have been another center closer. But at least this one has some reviews and seemed to deal with transient patients.
Once I arrived all was good. I paid my 900€, signed some paperwork and got hooked up. The nurse Christine was nice and a good english speaker. Its always good to encounter a good quality english speaker so you don't need to just go by trust that they know what they are doing. Additionally when traveling my weight is always low as I skip meals and don't drink as much as I do when I'm at work. She looked at my fistula and didn't like how we always put the need in around my large aneurysm, if I was going to stay longer she would have started working a new area of the vien.
The clinic layout was medical beds, with more moderen fresenius machines. After I was hooked up I had a good sleep. Treatment was un eventful and afterwards Christine told me to ask next time if I'd like coffee and biscuits. Its always nice to get a snack at dialysis but that first I was wiped out from getting to Barcelona and just needed a break. She also came with the WiFi information after I was hooked up but I'd seen the signs when I arrived and was already hooked up.
The Thursday and Saturday treatments went well and I enjoyed the coffee and biscuits. On Thursday Christine checked with other nurses and arranged for me to come in first shift at 7:15 am so I would not be rushed for our flight back to Madrid. Getting to that shift was intersting because when I left at 6 am lots of people were walking home on the street from the clubs and then down by the dialysis center was the beach with a music festival so huge number of people were departing the area as I arrived to dialysis. Obviously the music festival wrapped up at sunrise.
Barcelona was nice with very appealing architecture throughout. The Goudi architecture is cool but the entire city has very nice low-rise historic buildings. It was a bit hard to figure out what to eat at dinner because when we were out and about locals were only drinking beer.
Of Friday we did an excursion by train an hour out to Montserrat, Spain which is a picturesque rocky mountain with a monastery up near the top. You take a cable car up to the monastery and then can take funiculars up and down the mouton to various hikes. The Montserrat monastery has the famous black madona and baby, luckily were got in line just in time to get in the door before it closed for a few hours at 10:30 am. It was an enjoyable afternoon hiking around and picnicking with our ham, cheese and bread. This excursion was a highlight of the trip and is highly recommended.
Saturday after my final dialysis session we had lunch and then headed back to Madrid where we overnighted at the Airport Marriott using a voucher from the Marriott hotel. That was a very good use of the voucher, which was nice since its hard to find 1-5 level Marriott hotels in the US. As Marriott gold we were upgraded to the executive floor so we had evening snacks and breakfast in the lounge. On Sunday the flight home was un eventful, which was nice as we worried about additional JFK delays.
Our trip to Spain at the end of May was great. We flew to Madrid for Sunday and Monday and then we went on to Barcelona for the rest of the week. Well in Madrid we walked around a lot and tried tapas and various restaurants.
On Saturday we had a bit of a scare when our flight from DC to NYC was delayed by 2 hours because of runway work at JFK. Initially Delta online offered an option flying via some other cities that would take much longer, however as we thought about it and tried to talk to an agent that option went away. The agent seemed unprepared to help and told us that she could get us on a flight the next day. We went to the side and began to try to figure out other options. We were flying on an AirFrance ticket on Delta so I decided to call AirFrance, but well waiting on hold Delta emailed us new flights.
Here I was VERY happy with whomever rerouted us, I don't know if it was Delta or AirFrance. They kept us on our delayed flight and sent us to Lisbon, then on to Madrid on Iberia. That surprised me because Iberia is a OneWorld airline not SkyTeam like Delta and AirFrance. (Not to mention Iberia's partner BA had a major meltdown at that time.) We arrived at 4 PM instead of 9:30 AM but got there on the original day which is much appreciated especially on a busy Memorial Day weekend.
Once in Madrid our favorite place for tapas ended up being Sidrería El Tigre because they were "free," simple, and bountiful. Basically you buy a beer for 2.5€ and you get a giant plate with fried potatoes, some of the traditional potato and egg pancakes and bread with cheese or ham. If you ordered more drinks you would get more food but one round was enough for us. We also had a nice meal of the day for lunch at a local place with wine and some nice entries.
On Monday we did a "free" walking tour around Madrid with one of the smaller companies and had a good tour with a group of six people. I always feel fortunate to be an english speaker when you see people from other countries, in this case Austria and Poland, and they end up doing tours in english. We are almost always guaranteed to find a tour in our language wherever we go.
Scheduling of dialysis for this trip was the usual rush and tossing the dart at the map to try to figure what was the best center. For the late May trip I reached out to the Davita travel coordinator on April 12th. She worked to schedule me at the center I choose, or another alternatie suggested by me. We got all the requested lab work done right at the end of April and knew that I'd receive treatment at the Fresenius center CENTRO DE DIÁLISIS BARCELONA - DIAGONAL.
As it seems to happen too often, two weeks before my departure I receive a voice mail from Spain asking me to call. They didn't leave a number but luckily the number on the caller ID worked. Using some free international calling I have via the FreedomPop phone service I returned the call and was asked to provide my email address because they need more recent lab work. So two weeks out I'm told that the lab work from the last week of April doesn't work it has to be within 30 days of the treatment. Also they now want the MRSA test which is always a bit hard to get. So then the mad rush begins to get lab orders from my nephrologist (who I can not call, only see in the dialysis center randomly), and get lab work filled. So long story short I have the lab work done and sent on four days before we leave, and I finally receive my dialysis shift times.
Up to that point (four days before we leave) I've not booked flights from Madrid to Barcelona because I didn't know when my dialysis shift was on Tuesday (the day to fly from Madrid) and on Saturday (day to return to Madrid). We have our international flight to Madrid and all hotels expect the final night. I expect we will spend the last night in Madrid but don't know until i have my dialysis shifts.
With my sifts in hand I'm was now albe to book a not so early 9:30 am flight on Vueling to Barcelona. It seems most in Spain flights were using the low cost structure requiring paying for baggage. One advantage of booking so late and paying abit more is it included checked bags and seat selection.
The timing looked be tight to get to dialysis at Noon but it should work. We planned on taking the airport bus and a local bus to get to our B&B and then I might need to take a cab to rush to dialysis.
As expected when in a rush our flight late but only by about 30 minutes or so. Given the short time I decided we should take a cab to the B&B, except on exiting we she signs about a taxi strike. It turns out that that day the entire country's taxi system was striking to protest ridesharing like Uber.
So off we went to the the huge line at the Airport bus stop. Here they were setup quite well. The busses were arriving, filling, leaving and then the next bus showed up. There was no pause between busses so they were moving people quite well. I emailed the Barcelona dialysis coordinator to let her know I'd be about an hour late, and she even responded saying thats fine. Soon we were on our way to the B&B, did the bus transfer and then arrived at the B&B.
At that point I escorted Susan up to the checkin and headed out to Diagonal road for the bus ride to dialysis. Its always a bit hard to pick a center, the center I picked was on Diagonal Road but about 40 or so minutes down it. Looking back there may have been another center closer. But at least this one has some reviews and seemed to deal with transient patients.
Once I arrived all was good. I paid my 900€, signed some paperwork and got hooked up. The nurse Christine was nice and a good english speaker. Its always good to encounter a good quality english speaker so you don't need to just go by trust that they know what they are doing. Additionally when traveling my weight is always low as I skip meals and don't drink as much as I do when I'm at work. She looked at my fistula and didn't like how we always put the need in around my large aneurysm, if I was going to stay longer she would have started working a new area of the vien.
The clinic layout was medical beds, with more moderen fresenius machines. After I was hooked up I had a good sleep. Treatment was un eventful and afterwards Christine told me to ask next time if I'd like coffee and biscuits. Its always nice to get a snack at dialysis but that first I was wiped out from getting to Barcelona and just needed a break. She also came with the WiFi information after I was hooked up but I'd seen the signs when I arrived and was already hooked up.
The Thursday and Saturday treatments went well and I enjoyed the coffee and biscuits. On Thursday Christine checked with other nurses and arranged for me to come in first shift at 7:15 am so I would not be rushed for our flight back to Madrid. Getting to that shift was intersting because when I left at 6 am lots of people were walking home on the street from the clubs and then down by the dialysis center was the beach with a music festival so huge number of people were departing the area as I arrived to dialysis. Obviously the music festival wrapped up at sunrise.
Barcelona was nice with very appealing architecture throughout. The Goudi architecture is cool but the entire city has very nice low-rise historic buildings. It was a bit hard to figure out what to eat at dinner because when we were out and about locals were only drinking beer.
Of Friday we did an excursion by train an hour out to Montserrat, Spain which is a picturesque rocky mountain with a monastery up near the top. You take a cable car up to the monastery and then can take funiculars up and down the mouton to various hikes. The Montserrat monastery has the famous black madona and baby, luckily were got in line just in time to get in the door before it closed for a few hours at 10:30 am. It was an enjoyable afternoon hiking around and picnicking with our ham, cheese and bread. This excursion was a highlight of the trip and is highly recommended.
Saturday after my final dialysis session we had lunch and then headed back to Madrid where we overnighted at the Airport Marriott using a voucher from the Marriott hotel. That was a very good use of the voucher, which was nice since its hard to find 1-5 level Marriott hotels in the US. As Marriott gold we were upgraded to the executive floor so we had evening snacks and breakfast in the lounge. On Sunday the flight home was un eventful, which was nice as we worried about additional JFK delays.
Sep 15, 2017, 12:26 pm
#22
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Arlington, VA
Programs: Any program with a credit card, or good prices.
Posts: 437
I receive a deceased donor transplant in July and its going well, so I probably will not be updating this post anymore but I’m happy to answer questions should anyone encounter this thread.
Also if happen to hit this post and are on PD dialysis check out this thread with some good details on traveling on peritoneal dialysis:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/disab...ir-travel.html
Also if happen to hit this post and are on PD dialysis check out this thread with some good details on traveling on peritoneal dialysis:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/disab...ir-travel.html
Sep 18, 2017, 1:58 pm
#23
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Seattle
Programs: DL DM; Hyatt Globalist; etc
Posts: 540
I receive a deceased donor transplant in July and its going well, so I probably will not be updating this post anymore but I’m happy to answer questions should anyone encounter this thread.
Also if happen to hit this post and are on PD dialysis check out this thread with some good details on traveling on peritoneal dialysis:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/disab...ir-travel.html
Also if happen to hit this post and are on PD dialysis check out this thread with some good details on traveling on peritoneal dialysis:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/disab...ir-travel.html
As someone with a disabled father (though not one requiring Dialysis) I just wanted to say thank you for keeping this thread updated and providing material for other people to follow. It's times like these that I am so happy communities like FT exist :-:
Sep 21, 2017, 8:59 pm
#26
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
I receive a deceased donor transplant in July and its going well, so I probably will not be updating this post anymore but I’m happy to answer questions should anyone encounter this thread.
Also if happen to hit this post and are on PD dialysis check out this thread with some good details on traveling on peritoneal dialysis:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/disab...ir-travel.html
Also if happen to hit this post and are on PD dialysis check out this thread with some good details on traveling on peritoneal dialysis:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/disab...ir-travel.html