Bill,
When you travel by car and go into a hotel. Where do you put the cycler?
Can it work from the floor or do you have to have a table?
I am in the process of gathering my thougjt in preparation for a trip to Myrtle Beach on 9/21/07. We are driving and stopping one night each way.
I really like to dialyise Ralph 6 nights so will be putting him on the cycler at the stop over hotel.
We will have 13 nights at a hotel at the Beach! I can not wait! that is my time to relax!
I am on the beach all day with chair in water and book in hand.
Also wondering how difficult it is to get the cycler in and out of the travel bag?
Any info would certainly help.
Thank you
Pat Colngione.
When I traveled by car I found having a cart was very helpful. The cart I have is of simple construction and was provided by my center. It is basically a top shelf and a bottom shelf, connected by 15" aluminum tubes and casters that insert into the bottom. This makes it easy to disassemble to save space in the car and then reassemble to cart stuff from the car to the hotel room (not least the #70+ cycler) and once in the room the cart makes a handy stand for the System One. I use the cart at home for a stand since I don’t use the PureFlow.
When I traveled by car (and recently by boat) I didn’t use the soft sided travel bag. I belted the cycler into the back seat of the car. When I’ve traveled by plane I used the hard sided travel case which then makes a fine stand for in the hotel room.
One thing I found helpful on this latest boat trip was to have plastic bins which each contained one treatment’s worth of supplies. I use 25 liters so the total weight of each bin was about #60. Each bin had 5/5 liter dialysate bags, a blue pad, buttonhole needles, three 10cc syringes, alco and iodine wipes, garbage bag, 4x4s. This lightened the load at the start of the trip. I started with five bins and then after five days I was resupplied when I met up with friends who brought four more bins.
Pat I guess I am wondering why dialyze at the stop over hotels? With 13 days at the beach you could have six days of dialysis after and before taking a day off during the drive, leaving one day off in the midst of the vacation. This would make for far fewer supplies in the car. I’m including back up supplies. I would always travel with one or more extra treatments (depending on how far I was traveling) due to the possibility of unexpected travel interruption.
[quote=Pat Colongione;14212]Bill,
When you travel by car and go into a hotel. Where do you put the cycler?
Can it work from the floor or do you have to have a table?
I am in the process of gathering my thougjt in preparation for a trip to Myrtle Beach on 9/21/07. We are driving and stopping one night each way.
I really like to dialyise Ralph 6 nights so will be putting him on the cycler at the stop over hotel.
We will have 13 nights at a hotel at the Beach! I can not wait! that is my time to relax!
I am on the beach all day with chair in water and book in hand.
Also wondering how difficult it is to get the cycler in and out of the travel bag?
Any info would certainly help.
Thank you
Pat Colngione.[/quote]
Pat,
I have always use a side table at the hotel, cottage, or house to which we travel. We usually stay in a suite since we have two children and we take on of the side tables and set it up next to the bed. Ideally, you can set it up between the bed and a chair which will give you options for dialyzing. I don’t particularly find a bed comfortable when I’m awake - oh, I forgot you do nocturnal, so no brainer there. But as Bill suggests, especially for 13 days, you may want to invest in a cart.
Since I self cannulate the challenge is always finding my angle since it is not what I’m use to at home. For you two, that probably won’t be a problem but you will probably have to adjust to a knew height.
I hope you have the aluminum issue behind you so that you can really kick back and enjoy your time.
Erich
Pat, I just went on vacation for the first time and didn’t use a case for car travel. We did use a small travel cart to help transport, but did more carrying since we went to a friend’s lake house. I kept the cycler on the floor on his outside deck and used a low-slung sand chair. Dialyzing outside overlooking the lake was a complete pleasure. Unfortunately, I got a staph infection when I went tubing and apparently swallowed lake water while laughing so hard. I just got out of the hospital last Wednesday and still suffering from extreme back pain and can hardly walk. However, dialyzing 30 yards from the water’s edge was not thought of as the reason for the infection. So if you don’t have a stand for the cycler, the floor works out real well.
Regarding supplies, I got a call from the courier in the area I was travelling to the week before the trip and confirmed delivery the morning after I was to arrive. The car pulled into the gravel driveway at 8am on Monday and I was dialyzing two hours later. It couldn’t have worked out any better. I did have a problem with one cartridge during prime and just started again with an extra.
Rich
I am just kind of getting my ducks in a row. We probably won’t dialyse on the stop over night. but it will be Sat when we arrive. They do hot have observers in Saratoga on Sat. night. So do not knon if they will let us run on Sat. I will know more later, Right now Nxstage is working on the program so we can be monitored remotley from Myrtle beach.
If that gets done we will be nocturnal. Not sure if they will let us run otherwise,.
Time will tell.
Friday night we tried the first 171 (new cartridge) No leaks but a lot of 21 alarms. Most would only last a few seconds and go away. Just once I had to get up and reset.
So I will see what happens tonight. I will than call Nxstage about the lot #.
Ralph’s Aluminum is down to 26 and hopefully it will keep going down.
We are still waiting for the water results to come back from my pots. But he is on purified bottled water and on prescription fish oil.
We will doing another aluminum check the first week of Sept.
I really felt bad for him today. We went to a party his sister made sauage and peppers.
She usually used her Revere pot. But not this time. She used the Anodised pot like mine so he could not have any. THe sauce and the anodise pot just do not mix.
Pat
Pat,
Have been on a few trips also doing nocturnal. The first trip I used a special packing box that I discovered at a used electronic parts house. It’s a little bigger than the metal box that Nxstage uses. It was nice to use it as the stand for the machine but it was rather bulky and took up a lot of space in the Van. Also have a folding hand truck for moving the box around… The second trip we didn’t have room for the box so I placed the System One in the back of the van padded with towles… Have a workmate folding stand that I used to set the machine on… Works OK… then the last trip I used the table in the Hotel room… nightstand between the queen beds… When moving the machine I use the folding hand truck with the System One strapped on it.
What you need to bring along is some sort of light… the lights in the Hotel rooms isn’t bright enough… We now bring along this small high intensity lamp. Also bring along an extension cord. one with a few outlets ala surge protector. You will need to plug in the System One, Heparin pump, and light. Who knows where the elec outlet will be…
May be you could take a short weekend trip to see what works for you and see if you have packed all your supplies. I also pack supplies for two treatments when traveling… in an emergency if you have any problem making it your destination where the supplies for the next treatment will be. that way you have at least 3 days to make it back home to your home base. Also plan your trip so your travel day is on your day off… There are many ways to change your day off… or even taking an extra day off… since you are doing it 6X a week, Your partner’s blood is should be a lot better than those incenter 3X a week patients… He just have to watch his water/food intake that extra day.
Have a nice trip…
HemoHelper
On my last trip with Nxstage we took the family car…all the needed supplies inlcluding the cycler filled up the trunk and back seat. We did not use a case for our cycler…we just carried it from the handles. Once at the hotel (Holiday Inn) we were given a room on 2nd floor…the hotel had easy access to 2nd floor including elevators that were next to the handi-cap parking. We’re glad it went all well…it was great. Below is some pictures of the travel we had…
[B]MY ROAD TRIP WITH NXSTAGE[/B]
This picture here is from my blog site submitted by a member…as you can see the small table works fantastic!
That is probably what I will do at the hotel when we get there. I will also have an additional IV pole so it would be easier for me to put up my 9 bags a night.
I really am looking forward to traveling!!.
Pat