worried

[giglebug]

I have recently been in hospital blood clots on lungs i am off on cruise N.Z on the 26th Oct.

I am most likely going to have blood test on board ship. is this possible? and is it expensive? as they need to moniter blood to see how much walfrin i have to take each day.

is suxs that i have got this so close to cruise

thanks all

Julie

[paul929207]

This sounds like something you should be contacting Princess about.

[cruiseron36]

I'm sure they can do it. It may be expensive and you will have to pay up front. Do you have Princess or any other travel insurance? Medicare will not pay out of the US but your supplemental should cover some and travel insurance will cover the rest.

[Hlitner]

Unless you have insurance that will cover care on the ship it will not be cheap. As to checking Warfarin blood levels, although this is a simple blood test, it does require special lab equipment to run the test. You should certainly contact Princess directly and inquire as to whether they have this capablility on your ship. If not, you would be at the mercy of having blood work done at your ports which is not always a good thing.

 

Hank

[giglebug]

yes i do have travel insurance

[whatcruiseisnext]

DO to have to fly? you should NOT be flying if had blood clots in your lungs. I am surprised that your doctor has not told you this!

[Kwaj girl]

If your Warfarin level must still be checked frequently to get you to the proper maintenabce dosage, perhaps you should consider rescheduling your cruise. Hopefully this condition began AFTER you purchased trip insurance so that you could be covered under Trip Cancellation.....

[Toto2Kansas]

I would be so very careful about this. Has your doctor cleared you for this trip? I can not imagine a doctor clearing you if this problem is recent, especially for the flights. I would check my insurance and see if possibly you couldn't put off this trip until a better time.

Keep in mind that although Princess is very good in the medical department, they can only do so much should you have a serious problem onboard, and medivac to get you to a land based hospital can be astronomical in cost if you don't have insurance to cover it. Best of luck with this and I hope everything comes out OK.

[nho9504]

Were you on Warfarin before? or the drug is prescribed due to your recent condition? Even when a patient is newly prescribed the drug, the blood test is taken weekly not daily, to determine the dosage.

 

You should not fly if you have blood clot in any part of your body.

 

My husband has been on Warfarin for over 12 years by now. He has monthly bloodwork to make sure his dose is correct. He is very good in making sure his daily intake of certain foods (vitamin K rich vegetables) being consistent (not going up and down drastically - eat a certain amount each day, do not skip a day, nor eat a lot more than usual), this is the key to balance with the effect from Warfarin. Vitamin K makes blood "thick" and Warfarin makes blood "thin" - these are all layman's terms and actually is inaccurate description but is much easier to understand than the correct medical term. Your goal to keep the blood slightly "thin" so to less the danger of stroke, but you do not want the blood becomes "too thin", else would be very dangerous because you can bleed nonstop in case you are wounded.

 

Anyway, by maintaining a consistent balance between Vitamin K and Warfarin, DH hardly has to change his dosage, even when we go on a very long trip and skip blood work. When he could not find broccoli or lettuce while we were on the road for example, he would reduce the dosage of warfarin by skipping a day - therefore wouldn't make the blood "too thin" thus increasing the danger of accidentally bleeding.

 

Another thing to ask your doctor is, patient on warfarin tend to have small internal bleeding from their microscopic blood vessel when they are on a plane for long hours due to the cabin pressure. Such bleeding can cause infection with the symptom of fever, feeling very chill, shaking, headache. The doctor gave DH some cipro, and instructed him to take one 24 hours before a long flight and another one within 24 hrs after a long flight for precaution purpose.

 

Good luck.

[Pam in CA]

I know that the ship's Medical Center is equipped to test blood types but I don't know if they can do a test for Warfarin. That's something you should double-check with Princess. Also, even though you have insurance, make sure it includes onboard medical expenses and a possible medical evacuation.

 

Personally, I wouldn't recommend anyone cruise with a condition that could require evacuation or emergency care. The Medical Center is excellent but if the ship is 100 miles from shore, for instance, you could be in a very precarious medical situation. If you need to be in the hospital at one of the ports, check to make sure your insurance covers your traveling companion to stay nearby.

 

Personally, I'm very uneasy with your plan to cruise anyway. :( Until your medical condition is stable and controlled, I don't think you should cruise. We were in a situation last January when my brother-in-law got sick the last sea day of our cruise with a life-threatening illness and we were too far from land to evacuate him. After spending a month in the ICU in FL, we finally had him flown back home to CA where he passed away a few days later.

[Susie51]

Pam, I'm sorry for your loss.

 

OP, please follow the advice of the CC members.

[luvs2travl]

Your condition sounds very unstable right now. I cannot imagine your doctor giving his OK for you to cruise, let alone to fly. Will your insurance allow you to cancel for medical reasons? If so, can you reschedule your trip to allow for your health to improve therby not placing you in such a precarious position?

 

IMHO, no cruise is worth placing your health,, much less your life, in such jeopardy. If it were me or my husband, I would not even consider this trip at this time. Please weigh all your options carefully. That cruise will always be there. If you take it and the worst happens, you may not.

 

Praying for your full recovery with no complications. :)

[Coral]

Just check with your doctor if it is ok to travel.

 

My mom had some small blood clots in her lungs once. Ironically - they were not ones that the doctor was that worried about. He allowed her to travel (fly) a few times with them and she didn't have any restrictions on travel.

 

She had one heck of a time finding her maintenance level. I am not sure if we ever found it as it was all over the place. We were going back to the doctor about every 4-6 days or so to be tested.

 

I would guess that Princess would have the hand held equipment that is used to test this. I would just call and confirm. Our doctor would have allowed us to take a cruise given my mom's situation. Everyone's situation is different.

 

Just check with your doctor and then check with Princess. I am betting they deal with this quite a bit.

[donna5]

As I see it the big problem would be having access to different dosage pills. If you aren't on an exact dosage you don't know what dosages to take with you.

 

There is now a self testing unit. But it is expensive. My doctors office also has one of these. Unfortunately if you go to the doctors office they charge an office visit which is not fully covered by insurance, but the test is. If you go to the hospital and have the lab draw the blood, then it is fully covered. I'd rather have the prick but it is cheaper to have it done at the hospital lab.

 

http://www.stoptheclot.org/News/article120.htm

[caribill]

Medicare will not pay out of the US but your supplemental should cover some and travel insurance will cover the rest.

 

OP being from Australia is most likely not covered by USA Medicare.

[Coral]

As I see it the big problem would be having access to different dosage pills. If you aren't on an exact dosage you don't know what dosages to take with you.

 

There is now a self testing unit. But it is expensive. My doctors office also has one of these. Unfortunately if you go to the doctors office they charge an office visit which is not fully covered by insurance, but the test is. If you go to the hospital and have the lab draw the blood, then it is fully covered. I'd rather have the prick but it is cheaper to have it done at the hospital lab.

 

http://www.stoptheclot.org/News/article120.htm

 

Our doctor didn't charge for an office visit, just the lab. Not sure how a ship would charge.

 

We were given 2 different colors (doses of pills) so that we could combine or subtract accordingly based on the test results.

 

Again, it is a doctor's call. My mom's blood clots were not worrysome to her doctor (some must be more worrysome then others) so travel was allowed (plane, cruise, etc...).

[cruiseron36]

OP being from Australia is most likely not covered by USA Medicare.

 

Didn't notice that just speaking from personal experience. Chances are Aud version of medicare would have the same stupulation. Anyway, what has it got to do with the situation. If they have travel insurabce and personal insurance it should be covered.

 

BTW - it also didn't state their age in which medicare or whatever might not apply.

[donna5]

Our doctor didn't charge for an office visit, just the lab. Not sure how a ship would charge.

 

We were given 2 different colors (doses of pills) so that we could combine or subtract accordingly based on the test results.

 

Again, it is a doctor's call. My mom's blood clots were not worrysome to her doctor (some must be more worrysome then others) so travel was allowed (plane, cruise, etc...).

 

The doctors charged for office visit( my copay was $10 -20) the prick test was covered by insurance.

 

I already have to take two tablets each night(to get the right dose, my dose does not come in one pill). If they are not stable in their numbers yet it could take several different doses that might need several different pills. After they are maintaining, it shouldn't be a big problem.

[jbpinkie]

I have a blod clotting disorder and have been on warfarin / coumadin/ lovenox you name it . I know how challenging getting your levels theraputic can be. I still struggle from time to time and have been on thinners for 10 years now. There have been times when my dr. asked for daily checks, and like others I go to the office and do the finger prick test vs. a full blood draw. The first thing to do is have a good conversation with your doctor who knows you and your history best. If he says yes go, then I would contact a home health care agency and see about renting a testing device to bring with you. My only concern is you are still going to need to visit the dr on staff to adjust your medicine if you are out of range. I agree with those who posted earlier to see if you could postpone until you are theraputic, and testing 1x per month then you can go with no worries.

[Coral]

 

I already have to take two tablets each night(to get the right dose, my dose does not come in one pill). If they are not stable in their numbers yet it could take several different doses that might need several different pills. After they are maintaining, it shouldn't be a big problem.

 

When we first started - the doctor gave her a ton of pills in 2 different colors. So that when they made an adjustment, we didn't have to go to the pharmacy each and every time. We could just combine pills or subtract pills accordingly.

 

We went to her regular doctor to test it and they would send results to her cardiologist and then we would get the call from the cardiologist's office later that day (or next day) on how to adjust the medicine. She never reached maintenance so it helped to have several pills of varying dosage with us so we could adjust accordingly. They were pharmacy samples that the doc gave to us.

 

The last time she had to do this - we did lovenox and OMG - that was just so much easier! It was used as a prevention after surgery for blood clots (verses for blood clots) but I will take that over the pills and testing any day!

 

Good luck to the OP. Life is short - hopefully they can figure out a game plan and go.

[IKE]

I feel if You are very concerned about your health problem, that you first of all should clear it with your Dr. and maybe reschedule your cruise for a later date. Your health comes first and there is always another cruise. Good Luck!

[newmexicoNita]

I have recently been in hospital blood clots on lungs i am off on cruise N.Z on the 26th Oct.

I am most likely going to have blood test on board ship. is this possible? and is it expensive? as they need to moniter blood to see how much walfrin i have to take each day.

is suxs that i have got this so close to cruise

thanks all

Julie

 

Julie, this is something you need to ask special services about. I am not sure if any of us can give you an exact answer.

 

NIta

[SJ Cruisers]

I have recently been in hospital blood clots on lungs i am off on cruise N.Z on the 26th Oct.

I am most likely going to have blood test on board ship. is this possible? and is it expensive? as they need to moniter blood to see how much walfrin i have to take each day.

is suxs that i have got this so close to cruise

thanks all

Julie

 

I had an acute pulmonary embolism last February with numerous clots in both lungs. We had to cancel our cruise in March because the doctors didnt want me flying so soon after the PE. We lost $1000 as we had no insurance. Since then we have been on two cruises and the Princess medical staff and onboard facilities are real professionals and can handle doing your INR tests and adjusting your Coumadin/warfarin. Its a minor inconvienence but considering the alternative its best to let the medical staff know what you may need to do on board. Princess uses I believe the Cleveland Clinic to consult with. Both are more than up to handling INR testing.

[SJ Cruisers]

I have recently been in hospital blood clots on lungs i am off on cruise N.Z on the 26th Oct.

I am most likely going to have blood test on board ship. is this possible? and is it expensive? as they need to moniter blood to see how much walfrin i have to take each day.

is suxs that i have got this so close to cruise

thanks all

Julie

 

Will you have to fly in order to catch the cruise? As many others on this thread have said and since I've gone through what you are now I would want the doctor to OK the flight and also the trip. As many of us know long flights can in fact cause DVT blood clots. I would be sure your doctor has full knowledge of your intentions and gives his OK.

[wizard-of-roz]

I was told by my lung specialist that while I was needing blood testing so frequently, while on my blood thinner that flying and being away from the testing facility would NOT be a good idea.

 

You really MUST check with your doctor about the flight and then Princess about your care while with them.

 

I wish you all the best and hope that you get to take that cruise and enjoy it!