Traveling and Peritoneal Dialysis

We’re back home from a week’s trip to visit with my wife’s sisters in Indiana – Central Indiana to be specific, in and around Lafayette, Indiana, close to Purdue University. To say that time changes things is an understatement. Every time we go back, which is infrequently, we cannot believe how much things have changed – traffic, crowds, people, infrastructure, route changes, etc. Like being in an alien world.

Background: In preparation for our trip back to Indiana, a trip of roughly 1000 miles each way, we divided my PD supplies into 7 boxes; two boxes contained supplies for two nights, four boxes contained supplies for one night, and one box contained cassettes. We divided the trip up so we traveled roughly halfway each night, 486 miles as it turns out. So the night on the road we used a single box, and the three nights in Lafayette we used one double and one single, and coming back one single. Upon our return home, we had a single and a double as backup. This worked out well.

Some lessons learned:

1. Aseptic procedures take twice as long while traveling and are probably more than twice as important. At home, all your aseptic gear is laid out in an orderly fashion. While traveling it is a mess stuffed into your luggage almost at random, especially after a couple of nights on the road. Anything you can do to organize this area is very lucrative.
2. I have gained about four pounds traveling for one week. En route, we grabbed what we could mostly while stopped for gas. Once we landed in Lafayette, every interface with my wife’s sisters and their families revolved around food. We were literally eating breakfast, getting up from that, and going directly to a lunch date and after a short break to supper. It was a never-ending parade of food. That’s the way it was and I don’t see any way around such social occasions. It is what it is.
3. We stayed going and coming in a Hilton Inn Express in Springfield, MO. While in Lafayette, IN we stayed in a Drury Inn. The Hilton was somewhat long in the tooth in comparison with Drury with Drury’s ambiance superior as was their food and in general their welcomeness. I would suggest Drury given the choice by far. Prices for an overnight stay were in the $185 per night for Drury in Lafayette and $134 per night for Holiday Inn. Looks like you get what you pay for.
4. The largest single expense incurred for our week away from home was the boarding of our Golden Retriever Dickens. He was boarded from Saturday to Saturday at a cost of $600 including tip. We supplied his food. You need to factor this cost into your budget for traveling.
5. We used whatever route our BMW X5’s GPS suggested we take so we hit several tolls. We have the NTTA automatic toll sticker on our car so we did not have to stop to pay tolls. Interestingly, tolls in Oklahoma were also automatically paid via our sticker. Point to note.

We have lots of “stuff” to contend with in the coming week. Monday we are scheduled for COVID and RSV shots at CVS, assuming they have the shots in hand. On Tuesday I have a dialysis lab and will return the cycles case that Fresenius lent to me for our travels along with a dermatology appointment to remove a Basail Cell cancer from my check. Wednesday I have surgery scheduled to have a look-see at my catheter to ascertain if there is any blockage or placement issues causing my incessant drain alarms.

As the song below attests, “Don’t tell me I’ve nothing to do!”

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