I need help with air travel

I am a HHD patient who uses the NxStage machine. I am going to be flying a cross country in the near future and need details about how to do so. My clinic has a hard case to borrow, and I know NxStage will ship the dialysate to my destination; but there are so many details involved that I have a great deal of trepidation.

I have many questions like:

What do I do with the bag pole, the needles and all the other supplies? Do I carry them on the plane or check them in? If I check them in are they counted as baggage?

Are hotels willing to receive several days worth of dialysate?

I’m not even sure I know all the questions I should be asking about this.

Anyone who has flown with their NxStage machine please give me every little detail you can think of that I will need to know.

Thank you.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Have you seen our article on this topic: http://www.homedialysis.org/resources/tom/200810/. It will answer a lot of your questions. You’ll also want to search the message boards. Folks have discussed this in the past.

Thank you for the reply Dori. The article was helpful in a general way, but it didn’t answer my specific questions. I was hoping some people would respond with tips from personal experience. I am sure there are things I wish I knew once I get to the airport.

Anybody??

Mark

Mark,

If you wish to post any specific questions, I will be glad to help answer them.

///MM

[QUOTE=Unregistered;20747]I have many questions like:

What do I do with the bag pole, the needles and all the other supplies? Do I carry them on the plane or check them in? If I check them in are they counted as baggage?

Are hotels willing to receive several days worth of dialysate?

I’m not even sure I know all the questions I should be asking about this.

Anyone who has flown with their NxStage machine please give me every little detail you can think of that I will need to know.

Thank you.[/QUOTE]
These are the questions Mark asked earlier. :slight_smile:

We flew from Salt Lake City to Louisville Ky. The pole, the metal bracket and the cycler were all checked as life saving medical equipment. They weren’t counted as baggage. We also pre-shipped a box on our own that had most of the extra supplies we’d need. I made a checklist quite a bit in advance of the trip so I could keep adding to it as we did the dialysis each day. It was surprising how much was missed on the first list. We had the dialysate shipped to a friend so I can’t comment on the hotel question.