JBN

Good to hear everyone was OK. I am thankfully 17 years out with no issues once past the 8-month mark. My wife is a physician so that helps relieve a lot of concern from my various docs. However, yes, the transplant and especially the infectious disease doc prefer I don't go anywhere but I chose to live life instead of being too cautious to go anywhere or do anything. If my ID doc had his way, I would stay homebound :). I am pretty dang careful in what I eat/drink. Most Transplants develop a sort of semi-sixth sense about who might be sick when walking into a room and learn to avoid them. The big thing I (or any transplant) would have to do is watch the food you eat and especially the water you drink. All that said, we have traveled fairly extensively in North America, Europe, and Latin America and we are hoping the sanitary condition & food/beverage on the ship are at least as good as Latin America on an upscale WC. Lots of bottled water for me, no sushi or raw meats. While off ship, I would take my own bottled water and snacks. I have emailed a few of the cruise lines and one has replied back that yes, they can do the CBC, & CMP onboard (about $200 for both each time) and could draw the Tacrolimus (transplant drug level) but the blood vial would have to go ashore to be tested and the various add on fees (literally 9 extra fees) would jack the total cost up to about $1000 each time I did a Tacrolimus lab. In the past, I have gotten the Tacrolimus lab in Europe in various cities and probably could get it in Latin America in the largest cities. I just have to plan ahead and locate the various cities/labs that can do it (and are in BCBS's international network who actually are pretty good about giving me the information of where I need to go) and figure out what paperwork each lab needs in advance and then get the transplant center to issue the lab requests. Bit of a pain for all involved but it does work and is a lot cheaper than $1000 each time. Would be nice if the cruise lines could do it but I can understand why they can't / don't. Getting enough pills for a WC will also be a pain (I take 27 pills a day) but again, it is doable with planning. I can just see me trying to get through the airport security with about 50 bottles of pills for a WC. That will be interesting.

Thanks again. I will definitely be calling/writing the various cruise lines before booking. John

Thanks Kokopelli.

Thank you Heidi.

Thanks for the reply. As you guessed, we have not decided on a specific cruise yet as the blood labs are sort of a major factor in that if one line does assist with labs and another does not, that would be a factor. It is the "contact the special needs" department info we are looking for so I can verify what a particular line does and does not do. I figured I "probably" would be able to do labs in various ports as you mentioned. Maybe not every 4 weeks like clockwork but 4-6 is usually OK unless I would start to reject in which case, we fly home or to the nearest transplant center which there are several internationally. Many thanks, John

Hello, First post here so be gentle! (I did post also on 55+ Forum) We are considering a World or similar (75+ days) cruise in 2025 or 2026. While I am in relatively good health, I get my blood tested monthly (CBC, CMP), including a couple of more esoteric tests (tacrolimus level) due to being a transplant recipient. What do cruisers do in my situation? By any chance can the ship do relatively simple blood tests like a CBC? For those in a similar situation, what are things I need to know? If it matters, I am in the USA and have BCBS Federal insurance and can basically go anywhere worldwide though if out of network I will of course pay extra. Many thanks, John

Hello, First post here so be gentle! We are considering a World or similar (75+ days) cruise in 2025 or 2026. While I am in relatively good health, I get my blood tested monthly (CBC, CMP), including a couple of more esoteric tests (tacrolimus level) due to being a transplant recipient. What do cruisers do in my situation? By any chance can the ship do relatively simple blood tests like a CBC? For those in a similar situation, what are things I need to know? If it matters, I am in the USA and have BCBS Federal insurance and can basically go anywhere worldwide though if out of network I will of course pay extra. Many thanks, John