I am an international student residing in Texas (new to the country) and my sister is planning to visit me in the next few months. She is a kidney patient and treated well in Qatar. She has to perform Peritonial Dialysis everyday using Baxter equipment lent to us by the kidney center in Qatar.
My mother will accompany her during her travel. Though my sister is trained to perform manual dialysis, she can take as much solution with her as her baggage allows and she is not allowed to take the cycler outside Qatar. I couldn’t find resources online to purchase fluid and/or the cycler. I found this forum on google and the users seem nice and experienced. I hope to get help here so I am sharing the details:
We prefer to aquire the machine, preferably purchase if not too expensive (I can’t find prices online). We also would like to purchase the solution for the days of her stay in US. I am trying to arrange everything before her travel date and trying to find the prices for budgeting purposes asap.
She is prescribed the following solution for peritonial dialysis:
Dianeal PD4 Glucose 2.27% w/v 22.7 g/ml; 5000mL bags (3 bags every day)
The cycler she uses (lent by hospital)
Baxter Homechoice Claria APD Cycler 5C6M10
I am looking for any links/contacts/suppliers for information like prices and aquisition. I would be really grateful to this community for the support.
First, have you confirmed with your sister’s dialysis provider that patients are not allowed to take the PD cycler out of Qatar. The reason I ask is that I found an educational file that mentions ease of travel with PD and it mentions getting dialysis at clinics in other countries.
https://www.hamad.qa/EN/your%20health/Patient%20and%20Family%20Education%20Unit/Publications/Facility-or-Department/Facility%20or%20Department/Hemodialysis%20and%20Peritoneal%20Dialysis%20-%20English.pdf
In the U.S. the patient’s permanent clinic coordinates care with the clinic at the patient’s destination, including sending medical records. Can her clinic do any of the legwork to help you, including finding out if you can rent or purchase a cycler directly from Baxter like the PD cycler she knows how to use. Have you considered contacting Baxter to see what they could suggest. Here’s the contact info for the Middle East. اتصل بنا | Baxter
In 2013, the U.S. Department of Transportation published a Q&A to answer questions about transporting portable HD and PD dialysis machines and supplies on planes without a fee. Can your sister and mother fly here on a U.S. airline? If so, she could bring the dialysis fluids she would need to do manual exchanges without the hassle and extra expense of trying to buy or rent a PD cycler. Here’s that FAQ. https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/Portable_Dialysis_Machine_Notice_0.pdf
Here’s an article written for people in the U.S. about traveling on home dialysis.
