Live Your Life as a Chronic Kidney Disease Patient

Traveling

The thought of travel may seem intimidating because of your dialysis schedule, but a little planning can make it easier.

Ask your local dialysis center or your doctor’s office for help finding a dialysis center away from home. You or a loved one can also visit www.dialysisfinder.com [1] or call 1-866-889-6019 toll free to speak with a dialysis placement specialist.

If your dialysis is done at home, either with hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis, you may also want to consider contacting one of the services listed above, as traveling with the necessary supplies or finding space to do your dialysis may be difficult.

Be sure to make your appointments ahead of time and check with your insurance company to verify that your treatment will be covered. Your social worker may be able to help you with this.

For your medications, try these tips:

• Refill your prescriptions before you travel for holidays and weekends
• Don’t forget to pack your pills. Take your doctor’s and pharmacist’s phone numbers with you, in case you run out of or lose your medication
• Have family members remind you to take your medications