Peritoneal Dialysis Questions Onboard

Howdy cruisers!

This January, my husband was diagnosed very suddenly with kidney failure. He'd reached the point of needing dialysis completely undetected. Sadly, we were scheduled for a cruise in Feb of this year, but this medical issue caused us to miss that cruise.

In searching here for others who have cruised with their PD machines, I've decided to take ALL our supplies, dialysate bags included, with us, as we will be driving to New Orleans for the cruise. I've seen WAY too many stories of people having to get off the ship before sailing because their bags could not be found, only to learn later that they WERE there, Carnival just couldn't find them. While I can understand how that can happen on a ship being emptied and reloaded in such a quick time, I want to ensure it doesn't happen to us. So, questions below:

• Has anyone actually hand carried their fluids and machine onto the ship? I'm looking at approximately 8 boxes of fluid, plus a wheeled carry-on with his machine in it. We are currently Platinum cruisers, so I'm thinking that it would be slightly easier since we wouldn't be waiting in the longer lines.
  
• I've read people saying their machine alarmed a lot because of the motion of the ship. My question is, was this with the normal motion of the ship, or in rougher seas? I'm trying to decide how many manual bags I need to carry just in case.
  

Anyone with lots of PD cruising experience? :) I'd LOVE to chat with you. It'd calm my nerves a whole lot!

Jen

My cousin does PD and cruises. I am wheelchair bound on oxygen. We have had some disasters with Carnival (a room steward broke my oxygen concentrator, we couldn't get wheelchairs down the narrow ramp and were stuck on the ship, etc), but found Royal Caribbean to be much more attentive to special needs at sea. We don't pack anything that we need. All medical supplies come with us in a rolling suitcase. Enjoy your trip!

Howdy cruisers!

 

This January, my husband was diagnosed very suddenly with kidney failure. He'd reached the point of needing dialysis completely undetected. Sadly, we were scheduled for a cruise in Feb of this year, but this medical issue caused us to miss that cruise.

 

In searching here for others who have cruised with their PD machines, I've decided to take ALL our supplies, dialysate bags included, with us, as we will be driving to New Orleans for the cruise. I've seen WAY too many stories of people having to get off the ship before sailing because their bags could not be found, only to learn later that they WERE there, Carnival just couldn't find them. While I can understand how that can happen on a ship being emptied and reloaded in such a quick time, I want to ensure it doesn't happen to us. So, questions below:

 

 

• Has anyone actually hand carried their fluids and machine onto the ship? I'm looking at approximately 8 boxes of fluid, plus a wheeled carry-on with his machine in it. We are currently Platinum cruisers, so I'm thinking that it would be slightly easier since we wouldn't be waiting in the longer lines.
  
• I've read people saying their machine alarmed a lot because of the motion of the ship. My question is, was this with the normal motion of the ship, or in rougher seas? I'm trying to decide how many manual bags I need to carry just in case.
  

Anyone with lots of PD cruising experience? :) I'd LOVE to chat with you. It'd calm my nerves a whole lot!

 

Jen

Not a pt, but a dialysis nurse here. I've had many many many pt's do this and enjoy it.

It seems that the fresenius iq machine has more alarms than Baxter homechoice. Some have cruised with none.

Many pt's decide to do all manual and avoid that alarms situation all together.

It can be done, you will have a great time.

Justjen, my dad is one of the those that had to get off of the ship because his solutions "weren't" on board for our Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize (9 days)cruise. We ended having Baxter to deliver the solutions to our counsin's home and packed them and two suitcases. Copa Airlines didn't charge us for the extra weight when we flew to Panama.

The next two cruises were 4 days and we packed them in suitcases and had them delivered to the room.

My dad didn't take the machine; but did the dialysis manually several times a day and watched what he ate and his fluid intake.

My advice to you(your husband) is don't rely on the medical supply company. Pack the solutions and do it manually. My dad crafted a stand using pvc pipes that he screwed togther and placed the bag on a hook.

Several years ago he had to stop pd and go hemo. He had dialysis done in Grand Cayman(twice in two years and Cozumel(once). A distant relative did dialysis last year in St. Thomas and San Juan. Tell your husband to not stop traveling because of dialysis.

My dad receive a transplant last Nov which, could not go on our Dec cruise. This Dec we are going to Aruba, DR, and Curacao.

If you have any questions please ask. BTW, Dialysis at Sea was not an option for us because we cruise Carnival, the cost, and TA would not get credit for the booking.

Howdy cruisers!

 

This January, my husband was diagnosed very suddenly with kidney failure. He'd reached the point of needing dialysis completely undetected. Sadly, we were scheduled for a cruise in Feb of this year, but this medical issue caused us to miss that cruise.

 

In searching here for others who have cruised with their PD machines, I've decided to take ALL our supplies, dialysate bags included, with us, as we will be driving to New Orleans for the cruise. I've seen WAY too many stories of people having to get off the ship before sailing because their bags could not be found, only to learn later that they WERE there, Carnival just couldn't find them. While I can understand how that can happen on a ship being emptied and reloaded in such a quick time, I want to ensure it doesn't happen to us. So, questions below:

 

 

• Has anyone actually hand carried their fluids and machine onto the ship? I'm looking at approximately 8 boxes of fluid, plus a wheeled carry-on with his machine in it. We are currently Platinum cruisers, so I'm thinking that it would be slightly easier since we wouldn't be waiting in the longer lines.
  
• I've read people saying their machine alarmed a lot because of the motion of the ship. My question is, was this with the normal motion of the ship, or in rougher seas? I'm trying to decide how many manual bags I need to carry just in case.
  

Anyone with lots of PD cruising experience? :) I'd LOVE to chat with you. It'd calm my nerves a whole lot!

 

Jen

Hello Jen

I have a son who was on peritoneal dialysis for several years and cruised many times during. I sent you an email if you would like to contact me and I would be happy to give you any info I can.

Dee

Howdy cruisers!

 

This January, my husband was diagnosed very suddenly with kidney failure. He'd reached the point of needing dialysis completely undetected. Sadly, we were scheduled for a cruise in Feb of this year, but this medical issue caused us to miss that cruise.

 

In searching here for others who have cruised with their PD machines, I've decided to take ALL our supplies, dialysate bags included, with us, as we will be driving to New Orleans for the cruise. I've seen WAY too many stories of people having to get off the ship before sailing because their bags could not be found, only to learn later that they WERE there, Carnival just couldn't find them. While I can understand how that can happen on a ship being emptied and reloaded in such a quick time, I want to ensure it doesn't happen to us. So, questions below:

 

 

• Has anyone actually hand carried their fluids and machine onto the ship? I'm looking at approximately 8 boxes of fluid, plus a wheeled carry-on with his machine in it. We are currently Platinum cruisers, so I'm thinking that it would be slightly easier since we wouldn't be waiting in the longer lines.
  
• I've read people saying their machine alarmed a lot because of the motion of the ship. My question is, was this with the normal motion of the ship, or in rougher seas? I'm trying to decide how many manual bags I need to carry just in case.
  

Anyone with lots of PD cruising experience? :) I'd LOVE to chat with you. It'd calm my nerves a whole lot!

 

Jen

For future reference check out Dialysis at Sea http://www.dialysisatsea.com/ They offer cruises on several of the major cruise lines throughout the year and will assist you with everything. Probably cost a little more per person but seems that it would take the stress out of your travels

Hi, I am a first year PD patient and went on cruise last year. I will send you an e mail so you can get in touch with me for specifics. PD will be in subject line.

Thank you everyone,

I've gotten several emails as well as responses here. I appreciate them. It's wonderful to know that others are successfully doing this.

We love to travel, and have traveled a bit since going on PD, but not yet a cruise. I think I'm unnerved because we will be out of reach of our Home Dialysis unit. Wellbound, for me, has been a truly amazing godsend. I did realize, after my husband pointed it out to me, that while calls from the ship are extremely costly, they absolutely CAN be made, so I'm not as far away as I feel. I'll just need to be extremely careful when packing up supplies to make sure I don't forget anything.

Again, I thank each of you. It's comforting to hear from those who have BEEN there. And, it confirmed for me that I really do want to arrive at the ship with my supplies in my hands. I contacted special needs to see if they could go through security with me, and therefore really never leave my sight, but I honestly don't think they understood my question so I suppose I'll find out when we get there.

Jen

You do need to contact special needs because there is a form that must be completed and Carnival needs to know that he is is doing dialysis. As for carrying on the supplies- we packed them in a suitcase and checked it. You may want to use bubble wrap as an added precaution because the bags get thrown. I noticed a worker throwing the bags onto a cart(this was on the ship). What ports are you going to. I have information for Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Cozumel dialysis units in case something happens while you are on the cruise.

Hi Jen. My husband is on PD and we have been on 2 cruises so far, our 3rd coming up in November. We don't take the solution with us only his machine and supplies and Baxter delivers the solution to the ship. Both times we have had no problems! They have a courier drop the stuff at the ship and then have a crew member signs for it. It is stressful until we actually see the supplies but it's been no problem so far. Feel free to call me if you have any questions at203-421-1092. Rebecca

JustJen my DH went on PD in September of 2008. In Febuary 2009 we did our first cruise with him on PD. That was on Celebrity. Last December we did our next cruise - this time on Princess. We are scheduled to sail on NCL in January. We have even traveled to Mexico of a land based trip one Christmas.

On our first PD cruise Baxter delivered our supplies directly to the ship and we just traveled with his machine. This last time because Baxter now charges over $300 to deliver the solution we had it delivered to our hotel, stuck luggage tags on each box with a good solid taping over them and dropped them with our luggage with the porters. We will be doing that again in Tampa.

We haven't had any problems with the Baxter HomeChoice machine and alarms although we haven't had rough seas on either cruise.

Be sure to have your DH to work closely with his home clinic. DH's clinic has him take antibiotics with him just in case he winds up with peritonitis. Better to be safe than sorry.

Enjoy your cruise.

I do not know anything about peritoneal dialysis. My father self-administers hemodialysis at home and has for a couple years. We sailed on Norwegian last year and NXStage delivered all of his supplies to the ship with no problems. He treated every morning of our 7 night cruise, in his cabin, with no issues. We now have 35 people and a wedding booked with Royal Caribbean in Feb. 2012 and they are telling us he cannot sail with us!!:confused: I can GUARANTEE that this will be our last dealing with Royal Caribbean.

I know this doesn't answer your questions. I do know that they have no issue with Peritoneal Dialysis and no line has an issue with self-administered hemo.

Good Luck!

I do not know anything about peritoneal dialysis. My father self-administers hemodialysis at home and has for a couple years. We sailed on Norwegian last year and NXStage delivered all of his supplies to the ship with no problems. He treated every morning of our 7 night cruise, in his cabin, with no issues. We now have 35 people and a wedding booked with Royal Caribbean in Feb. 2012 and they are telling us he cannot sail with us!!:confused: I can GUARANTEE that this will be our last dealing with Royal Caribbean.

I know this doesn't answer your questions. I do know that they have no issue with Peritoneal Dialysis and no line has an issue with self-administered hemo.

 

Good Luck!

Wow ticruiser that stinks. When my DH went on dialysis we looked at home hemodialysis. Our clinic checked on cruiselines and said that all would accept a patient who self administers provided they knew ahead of time so they could prep for it. What does RCCL say as to why they are denying him passage? Is it to late to cancel and book with NCL? Good luck with this.

Wildcatllamas- RCCL's reason is that there policy only allows 2 consectutive days at sea and our itinerary calls for 3. We have explained to RCCL, as has NXStage (dialysis company), that there is no risk of him being out to sea, should something happen to his machine. He simply disconnects from the machine and watches his diet. His Dr. has sent a letter that he is, and has been, stable on home hemodialysis for several years and his Nephrologist sees no risk. RCCL keeps saying that they cannot assist him. He doesn't NEED their assistance. There will be 3 family members that have been trained on the machine and have assisted for years. We ask NOTHING of RCCL other than to have the supplies delivered to the ship.

We are in the process of looking for another cruise.

I sure would check with NCL. I have never sailed with them before but so far everyone I have had to deal with has been wonderful.

I realize this is an old thread, but hopefully someone is still monitoring it.

We are sailing Celebrity again for the first time since a family member went on CAPD. We have sailed RCCL and Carnival, but both times we drove and carried the supplies to the port and delivered them to a porter.

The results were mixed. RCCL had a port agent come out and accept them and everything went well. With Carnival, we left them with a porter. The boxes arrived fine, but the pole was lost (a long story).

This time we are flying and are considering having Baxter ship the boxes directly to the port. Does anyone have any experience with this? What assurances do you receive that the boxes are actually on the ship before it departs?

Anything other advice is greatly appreciated.

I was on PD for a while, my meds were being supplied by Fresenius and I contacted them gave them all my cruise details(ship,date, cabin etc) and contact RCCL and Celebrity ,advise them of what was being done and supplies was in the cabin when I boarded

My husband was on PD over 11 years ago and we travelled extensively, on cruises & to Hawaii. Baxter was excellent at delivering supplies to the hotels & cruise ships. Just be sure that all supplies are at the ship before you sail. We kept the bags in our cabin. Crowded but safe! I would advise arriving early at the cruise terminal so that you can verify that your supplies are there. We always carried the machine with us as a carry on on the plane

My husband is a pd patient. We have done two cruises in the past year. My husband uses the cycler at home but before the 1st cruise learned capd. Baxters makes most of the arrangements with cruise ship and your renal unit. Supplies were on board when we arrived. Last cruise they phoned me and told me who received order and the time it arrived. Baxter's provides a great service.