using pleur e vac onboard ship

[Mickey12810]

My Mom has been diagnosed with stage 3b lung cancer. One dream she always had was to go on a cruise to the Panama Canal. We (me, hubby, sister and mom) are booked for the 10 day Oct 13th Princess cruise to the canal. Recently my mom had a pluer e vac inserted into her lung to help with the drainage of fluid. She is currently being drained every 3rd day. Right now a visiting nurse comes to the house to do the procedure and I am in the process of learning how to do this myself for the cruise. She also has oxygen which our home company is taking care of this. Has anyone ever travelled, especially on a cruise with this type of treatment and what was your experience. I really want my Mom to see the canal no matter what. TIA

[katisdale]

Mickey, have you called the cruise line you will be going on? There will be a doctor and nurses on your cruise. What they will or are willing to do is information that you should be able to obtain. This will probably be expensive and you may wish to find out if your insurance will cover these costs out side of the US. I hope you are able to make your mom's dream come true.

[disney_leonard]

My wife has stage IV breast cancer. She has had a Pleurx drain for pleural effusion since Nov. 2005. I do the draining for her and it is not a big deal. We've gone on two cruises (Mexico and Europe) and are planning a Caribbean cruise next month. You should do it a few times before you go. If she gets the complete drain kits everything except a good pair of scissors and hand sanitizer is included. She should have one or two extra kits in addition to what she plans to use just in case there are problems. After dumping the fluid into the toilet you just wrap everything up and place it in the trash. As far as counting on nurses on board I would not count on them having any experience with this system. After the surgery to place the drain the doctor wanted home health care to come out a couple of times to help me. The nurse they sent had never seen one. We showed her the video training tape and she decided that she couldn't do it and wanted to wait a day for another nurse to come out. I did the drain and showed her how to do it and had no problem.

 

Email me at ljpih@adelphia.net if you have any questions.