Working Towards Transplant: A Dialysis Warrior and/or a Globetrotter

As many of you know, I love travelling to new destinations and learning about different cultures. Over the years I’ve been fortunate to travel fairly extensively in pursuit of that passion. Okay, I’ve realized that I’ll probably never achieve my childhood dream of visiting everywhere in the world, and I’m content to be able to explore as much of the globe as I can. That’s why travel is one of the top reasons I’m actively pursuing the option of a kidney transplant.

From last week’s blog, where I detailed how much time my treatment takes up each week, I’m sure you’ll be able to see some of the challenges when considering travelling while on dialysis.

I want to be clear that it would be possible for me to travel both locally and internationally while on dialysis. It would require a lot of planning, but it could be done.

Here’s what that planning would look like: I’d need to find a dialysis treatment centre in the locations I’m wanting to visit and contact them to see if they can accommodate me on the dates I’ll be there. My South African medical team would then need to discuss my prescription with the medical team in the destination, to ensure I receive the same treatment while I’m away. All that is merely logistics.

Let’s consider the impact on the vacation. I’d need to spend the same amount of time each week receiving treatment. Sadly, there’s no such thing as a holiday pass on my treatment. Which would mean that around 18 hours each week would be taken up by dialysis, possibly a little more depending on how close we stay to the medical facility. I would also need to consider what time the medical centre could accommodate me. So we’d need to plan any activities and excursions around my treatments. Which would seriously cramp limit what we would be able to see and do.

Then there’s the matter of my special diet. It’s one thing to accommodate a single restaurant meal every second week as I currently do, and shrug it off as not having a significant impact on my general health. On vacation we tend to eat out far more than we do when we are at home, either grabbing a quick lunch while out and about, or finding a restaurant that takes our fancy at suppertime. And, while I’m not on an especially limited diet, I prefer to be cautious about what I eat and how it’s prepared. Neither of which I can control when we’re eating out.

I suppose we could choose to cook most of our own meals at the place we’re staying, but who wants to do that, when exploring the traditional food of each destination is part of the fun of travel?

If I’m being brutally honest, while I know that travel is indeed possible while on dialysis, the thought of receiving treatment at a medical centre I’m unfamiliar with, with a medical team who don’t know me and my requirements, and who possibly speak a different language from me, scares the living daylights out of me.

I’m sure that logical Lois would tell me that my fears are groundless, but right now it is emotional Lois who is in the driving seat.

Perhaps a way for me to allay these fears would be to visit a different treatment centre in my home city. I could even then try a centre in another city in South Africa. At least then I’d be in close contact with my usual medical team if anything untoward were to occur. But I’m not sure I’m ready to do even that yet.

Having said all that, the thought of not travelling for the foreseeable future is also not a happy thought. The travel bug hasn’t gone away just because I’m spending three afternoons a week tied to a dialysis machine.

I’m also not so naïve as to believe that travel will be easy once I’ve received a kidney from a kind donor. I’m sure that travelling as a post-transplant woman will pose challenges of its own. But those challenges will be different.

For now, these are the thoughts that spiral around in my head every time Craig and I chat about the possibility of travelling in the foreseeable future. I miss being able to simply hop onto a plane and head off to an unknown destination without a care in the world and, for now, that just isn’t possible without complications.

Next time, the third reason why I’m exploring a kidney transplant – the way I’m managing a limited liquid intake.