Traveling with a serious health condition

By Jeff Miller

Last summer, on a sunny Sunday in Estes Park, Colo., a gaunt man sat in the passenger seat of a small SUV beside the town’s park. He attached an IV bag to the top of the open car door and hooked it to his stomach tube. Trying to ignore those who gawked, he sat back and soaked in the mountain vacation scene like a parched man taking a drink of cool water.

After months of fighting stage 4 throat cancer, he was happier than he had been in months: he was traveling again.

If you have serious health problems and love to travel, how do you get back on the road?

Given the right preparations, care and precautions, patients and their caregivers can find renewal and life-sustaining joy from the right trip.

“To me, traveling right after my most recent treatment was incredibly rejuvenating,” said Sue Cantrell. “Getting into a new setting, I was stepping into a future instead of sitting and waiting for the treatment to take effect.” The former Denver-area elementary was retired only two years when she was told in 2004 she had incurable multiple myeloma.

Robert M. Jotte, M.D., Ph.D., medical oncologist at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, describes the greatest positives of travel.

“One, it provides some semblance of normalcy to their life: ‘I was always a traveler, I can still travel, so cancer has not robbed me of that normal aspect of who I am,’ ” Jotte said. “Two, ‘I’m not in a doctor’s office. I’m in a nice place where normal people are enjoying life.’ And three, it can give them a better mental attitude when they come back, ready to move onto the next step.”

Jotte assesses patients by determining if they have adequate physical capabilities and acceptance of physical limitations. “I also ask myself what kind of overall toll the trip might take on this particular patient.”

Cantrell’s diagnosis meant a year of treatment, including a stem-cell transplant in 2005. In early 2009, she went back into treatment from May through November. “I was pretty weak and had no stamina, but a week after my doctor said my condition was good enough to suspend treatment, I left for Phoenix.”

When she returned home, she worked from November through March to rebuild her strength and stamina, using the goal of a 26-day Middle East trip scheduled for April as her motivation.

Her biggest advice for patients wanting to travel:

“Be forgiving of yourself. If you can’t do something, so what? Avoid trips that demand a lot of you or have no flexibility built in. Don’t get in the position of always apologizing or using your physical story. That can get really old and make other people uncomfortable.”

The decision to go should also include a strong consideration of travel insurance. Many policies allow you to recover the cost of your trip if you need to cancel it because of a changing health situation. Talking to a qualified travel agent about the details of available policies will help ensure your particular risks are minimized. Do some research and confirm exactly what is and isn’t covered, such as pre-existing conditions and medical evacuation.

Other items for your to-do list:

Consult your doctor. Be honest about the trip, your limitations and really listen to what the doctor says. Some conditions, including cancers of the lung, stomach and bowel, leave patients more susceptible to deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), so ask your doctor about compression garments, an aspirin or other blood thinner.
Start small. Try an easy road trip or short plane ride to a familiar, comfortable destination.
Be flexible. If contemplating a tour, confirm the company offers options for those who can’t do a particular activity so you don’t get dumped in your hotel room. If traveling independently, build in lots of down time, just in case.
Bring documentation. Carry a written explanation or doctor’s letter about the treatments you’ve had, the drugs you’re taking, items such as a port or colostomy bag, and any other information a doctor might need if you couldn’t speak. Take a copy of your latest lab results. If traveling to a foreign country, translate your documentation to that language, confirm the drugs you’re carrying are legal, and gather contact information on area doctors and hospitals. Leave copies of everything with someone at home.
Pack your medications. Treatment side effects don’t take a holiday when you do, so remember to pack any over-the-counter drugs you need for those. Take more of your prescription medications than you’ll need, and possibly a precautionary set of antibiotics; keep them in their original containers.
Wash your hands often. The biggest potential danger you’ll face is infection, bacterial or viral, so avoid crowds, carry anti-bacterial liquid soap and wash your hands often.
Alert the airline and hotel of any special needs, such as a wheelchair or oxygen.
Eat and drink carefully. Drink only bottled water, and eat hot, well-cooked foods. Avoid uncooked or unwashed fruits and vegetables, shellfish, and unpasteurized dairy products. Carry snacks and eat small, frequent meals to sustain energy.
Trekking poles give good support and shift some of the work from the legs to your arms, especially when climbing stairs.
Search the Internet. Try “traveling with” and the name of your illness or health condition. “Traveling with cancer” pulls more than five million search results. As a start, try Cancer & Careers’ Traveling With Cancer, or About’s Traveling While Undergoing Chemotherapy.
Finally, enjoy! Sometimes your pleasure can get lost in the shuffle of preparations. Don’t let that happen.

And the man in Estes Park? A month before the stomach tube came out, I boarded a plane with my wife for a more extensive domestic trip. I couldn’t remember ever being so nervous about flying or leaving the safe haven of home. Happily, the trip turned out to be a good one, primarily because—I was traveling again.

Jeff Miller is a Denver-based freelance writer and co-author of Facing Your Fifties: Every Man’s Reference Guide to Mid-life Health.

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