Anyone with 1st hand experience doing dialysis while rv'ing on the road. Self dialysis, dialysis centers or ? Cross country and Alaska travel from northern California in particular in a 32' motorhome. Currently doing 3 days a week at a center here in Yuba City, will be switching to home dialysis when able. Thanks in advance.
Assuming you have Medicare, what wouldbe y our coverage inCanada, on the way to Alaska? If you have a Medicare supp plan C or above to F. you would have coverage in Canada also. There is a deductible and maximum but that should not be a problem. There is also the possibility of Medicare coverage if travelling from one state to another through a foreign country. I would definitely check on that one before leaving. Some Medicare Advantage plans couldleave you totally out of coverage out of the US.
2003 Newmar Mountain Aire, Workhorse W22, 2008 Saturn Vue, Falcon 5250, & US Gear Unified Tow Brake
My wife works for Fresenius, the home clinic the patient is assigned to the Social worker will make arrangements with other clinics to meet your schedule.
In South Florida they are setting up Nurses & Social workers to handle just the Home treatment patients.
Basically get with the Social Worker @ your Home Clinic to help you out. That's part of their job.
We basically look for a unit that is close to where we are camping. We check to make sure they accept transient patients... Then we give his caseworker the info and she sets it up. The unit calls him with a time to be there.
If you are thinking of doing the home dialysis - one thing to bear in mind... We considered that, but... my husband has hemo-dialysis 3 days a week for 3 1/2 hours. If he were to do the in home treatment, he would have to hook up 6 days a week. We find it's just easier to go to the center and have it done there. He doesn't like being tied to the machine.
You have to plan ahead. We recently did our first trip where we were moving from place to place. It's a little tricky trying to figure out exactly when you will be where. We don't travel on dialysis days. Hubby is just too wiped out. He goes Tues, Thurs, Sat. If we are going to drive a distance, we try to do that on a Sun/Mon as that is his longest break from dialysis.
We sort of caught hell from a center when we miscalculated - they say they need more notice on account of getting insurance approval and all that. But then the next center, had everything set up within 24 hours and it wasn't a problem. So I guess it varies from place to place, and the mood of the person you are dealing with.
It can be done though - just takes a little more planning.
Whatever hits the fan will not be evenly distributed.
Stuart42 if you have any specific questions, you can PM me. I don't know it all by any means. Last summer we went to the beach several times, but we always went to the same place, and he had his treatments at the same place the entire time we were gone.
We're still in the learning curve of moving from place to place to place and getting everything coordinated.
We did find out that most of them want a 2 week notice.
I'll be happy to share what we do know and answer any questions we can.
If you do a google search there is a web site called dialysis finder. You can put in the zip code and find centers in a specific area. DAvita also has a web site where you can look for centers.
We are planning a trip to FL as soon as school is out. We are leaning toward looking for all Davita centers on that trip. We are thinking once you are in their system, it's less hassle than getting approved through a different provider.
It takes a little more planning, but hey.... things could be worse. We're both still alive and it is possible to still enjoy things.
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