Help- Advice or experiences traveling with a handicapped person?
May 27th, 2015, 07:22 PM
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Help- Advice or experiences traveling with a handicapped person?
I am nervous about traveling to Rome with DH who has a chronic disease which leaves him with little stamina. His doctors have okayed this trip and think it will be good for him.
We have trip insurance and a note from his doctor saying he is able to travel. And medicine lists, copy of diagnosis, etc.
We will be gone for twelve days and he will have to take all his medicines with us. I will get a wheel chair for both airports and will try to arrange for a driver to meet us to take us to our first hotel in Ostia.
Friends are meeting us there and will rent a car. The next day we will drive to Orvieto and spend the next five days visiting several small towns in Umbria. Then we will drive to Florence where our friends will fly back to the US. We will spend several days there and then take a train back to Rome to stay with our Italian friend.
DH drinks a couple of bottles of Boost or Ensure a day in addition to his meals. Is that available in Italy? I guess he could eat extra gelato instead!
And he is on a low salt diet. It will be hard to figure that out other than avoid pizza and ham.
Any advice for the possibility of coping with a health crisis while traveling? We are traveling the first week in July and as the time gets closer, I am getting more nervous about it. I would consider canceling our trip except DH loves to travel and this will probably be his last chance to go to Italy.
We have trip insurance and a note from his doctor saying he is able to travel. And medicine lists, copy of diagnosis, etc.
We will be gone for twelve days and he will have to take all his medicines with us. I will get a wheel chair for both airports and will try to arrange for a driver to meet us to take us to our first hotel in Ostia.
Friends are meeting us there and will rent a car. The next day we will drive to Orvieto and spend the next five days visiting several small towns in Umbria. Then we will drive to Florence where our friends will fly back to the US. We will spend several days there and then take a train back to Rome to stay with our Italian friend.
DH drinks a couple of bottles of Boost or Ensure a day in addition to his meals. Is that available in Italy? I guess he could eat extra gelato instead!
And he is on a low salt diet. It will be hard to figure that out other than avoid pizza and ham.
Any advice for the possibility of coping with a health crisis while traveling? We are traveling the first week in July and as the time gets closer, I am getting more nervous about it. I would consider canceling our trip except DH loves to travel and this will probably be his last chance to go to Italy.
May 27th, 2015, 08:15 PM
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I think you should go. Consider getting travel insurance and just take things at his unique pace. Rest when needed. I have a chronic inflammatory nerve disorder and while it is scary to go abroad because waking long distances can get difficult, I went to France last summer and did better than I expected. I'm going again in two weeks. I'd rather go and just be there doing less than I would like than not go at all.
May 27th, 2015, 08:59 PM
#3
Do you have medical insurance? Medical evacuation and repatriation insurance? Trip cancellation insurance?
Your medical insurance company should be able to provide, or provide access to, a list of English-speaking doctors in the places you are visiting. Worst case the US embassy may have a list.
Your medical insurance company should be able to provide, or provide access to, a list of English-speaking doctors in the places you are visiting. Worst case the US embassy may have a list.
May 27th, 2015, 09:11 PM
#4
I I'm pretty sure Ensure is sold in Europe/Italy. I had a friend in the UK who used it every day and once when she visited the US she was surprised to see it here -- she thought it was a EU product.
Maybe contact Abbott and ask where it is sold and if it has a different name in Italy.
Maybe contact Abbott and ask where it is sold and if it has a different name in Italy.
May 27th, 2015, 10:53 PM
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Don't overly worry (hard to do I know). Can you get sachets of powdered Ensure - or equivalent - and mix it with the local milk?
To say 'no salt' you say 'senza sale' (senza sar-lay) but I have found that Italian dishes are not laden with salt and as you say, avoiding ham / prosciutto will help.
If you could ask your medical practitioner to outline your husband's dietary needs and have them translated into Italian that may be helpful. Most restaurants go out of their way to accommodate dietary needs as lots of Italian people are sensitive to gluten, so they make allowances.
I hope you both have a wonderful time.
To say 'no salt' you say 'senza sale' (senza sar-lay) but I have found that Italian dishes are not laden with salt and as you say, avoiding ham / prosciutto will help.
If you could ask your medical practitioner to outline your husband's dietary needs and have them translated into Italian that may be helpful. Most restaurants go out of their way to accommodate dietary needs as lots of Italian people are sensitive to gluten, so they make allowances.
I hope you both have a wonderful time.
May 28th, 2015, 01:18 AM
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Ensure is available in Italy, as well as many other similar brands.
Italians tend to use a lot of salt. You might want to be sure that at least a good part of each meal has little salt. Pasta or rice can easily be prepared without salt, because it's usually prepared at the last minute. You could ask for "pasta al burro" (pasta with butter) or "riso in bianco" (white rice), adding "senza sale" (without salt) to every order. Then you could be a bit less cautious with the other courses.
In every town in Italy there is a Guardia Medica, available 24 hours a day, who attends to medical problems when their family doctor isn't available, and also for people who are away from home. You should find the number for the Guardia Medica in every town where you stay; they even make house calls.
In a real emergency, you should just call an ambulance. The nationwide number is 118.
I would recommend staying in hotels that have round-the-clock staff who speak English to help you with any language bwrrier.
Rome has a large Guardia Medica service just for tourists, where all staff speak English.
http://www.060608.it/en/accoglienza/...turistica.html
There are two locations, but the one in Trastevere is larger and better equipped. It's also on the premises of a large hospital, where you could be admitted if necessary.
In the seventeen years I've lived here, I've had to take visiting relatives to the emergency room at least four times, for everything from a dog bite to appendicitis. Once a relative was admitted for observation. They've always had excellent care. I don't think there's any need to find an expat doctor.
Italians tend to use a lot of salt. You might want to be sure that at least a good part of each meal has little salt. Pasta or rice can easily be prepared without salt, because it's usually prepared at the last minute. You could ask for "pasta al burro" (pasta with butter) or "riso in bianco" (white rice), adding "senza sale" (without salt) to every order. Then you could be a bit less cautious with the other courses.
In every town in Italy there is a Guardia Medica, available 24 hours a day, who attends to medical problems when their family doctor isn't available, and also for people who are away from home. You should find the number for the Guardia Medica in every town where you stay; they even make house calls.
In a real emergency, you should just call an ambulance. The nationwide number is 118.
I would recommend staying in hotels that have round-the-clock staff who speak English to help you with any language bwrrier.
Rome has a large Guardia Medica service just for tourists, where all staff speak English.
http://www.060608.it/en/accoglienza/...turistica.html
There are two locations, but the one in Trastevere is larger and better equipped. It's also on the premises of a large hospital, where you could be admitted if necessary.
In the seventeen years I've lived here, I've had to take visiting relatives to the emergency room at least four times, for everything from a dog bite to appendicitis. Once a relative was admitted for observation. They've always had excellent care. I don't think there's any need to find an expat doctor.
May 28th, 2015, 01:32 AM
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If you have not already done so, order wheelchair pickups through your airline, you can usually do it online by amending your reservation.
Rome's airport is improved in terms of cleanliness and upgraded shops but your gate may be a long way from checkin. I was just there, couldn't walk distances, but along with DH was taken part way by cart and part way by wheelchair with an attendant.
Hope you have a wonderful and uneventful trip!
Rome's airport is improved in terms of cleanliness and upgraded shops but your gate may be a long way from checkin. I was just there, couldn't walk distances, but along with DH was taken part way by cart and part way by wheelchair with an attendant.
Hope you have a wonderful and uneventful trip!
May 28th, 2015, 04:33 AM
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Know what your health insurance covers while you are abroad. Medicare doesn't cover anything, but my BCBS Bronze covers everything it covers at home.
Have a medical proxy or power of attorney and an end of life directive with you. They won't have any legal force in another country, but they provide evidence of intention which is likely to handled responsively.
Make sure your travel insurance, medical or other, covers pre-existing conditions.
There are two kinds of medical evacuation policies as well. One covers evacuation to the nearest place where appropriate care is available. The other pays for evacuation to your home country. Make sure you have the one you want.
Medical care in the civilized parts of Europe, I.e., the places where you are going, is as good as or better than most places in the US and often delivered more humanely.
Have a medical proxy or power of attorney and an end of life directive with you. They won't have any legal force in another country, but they provide evidence of intention which is likely to handled responsively.
Make sure your travel insurance, medical or other, covers pre-existing conditions.
There are two kinds of medical evacuation policies as well. One covers evacuation to the nearest place where appropriate care is available. The other pays for evacuation to your home country. Make sure you have the one you want.
Medical care in the civilized parts of Europe, I.e., the places where you are going, is as good as or better than most places in the US and often delivered more humanely.
May 28th, 2015, 12:28 PM
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I just read through some of the advice and find some of it excessively alarming. Not only do I live in Italy and get excellent medical care -- and it is available in the tiniest of towns with rapid speed -- my very first trip to Italy I landed in the hospital with life-threatening pneumonia, spoke no Italian, had not brought any special documents with me (like, um, my health insurance card) and had no travel insurance! Not only did I survive and thrive, I wasn't charged for the 16 days I spent in an Italian hospital except for the antibiotics I consumed (by the quart!)
I have also brought my "ancient" mother (her words, not mine) to visit me in Italy, and she drinks Ensure, and she doesn't much like to eat in restaurants period (certainly not too much Italian food), and has limited appettite for a lot of sightseeing -- and she had a wonderful time just hanging out in the pizza, watching the world go by (and eating gelato, her main vice). About the only real adjustment she had to make was that on humid days, especially warm humid days -- she needed to slow down more. It's not the climate she lives in.
Finally, while it is always true that you need to watch out for salt in restaurants, Tuscany andn Umbria are not the saltiest cooks in italy by a long shot. In fact, most of us complain they don't use enough salt. Rome will be a bigger problem. It is definitely a good idea for your husband to inform waiters he wants low-salt meals, and be aware that bottled sparkling water (frizzante) in Italy has sodium, so stick with still, non-gas "naturale" and avoid breadsticks as well as ham and cheese. But Italians will make sure your husband eats well, without a lot of salt.
If the car hasn't already been rented, encourage your friends to get one big enough so your husband is completely comfortable and can even doze off on those lulling, winding roads somtimes.
Have a great trip!
I have also brought my "ancient" mother (her words, not mine) to visit me in Italy, and she drinks Ensure, and she doesn't much like to eat in restaurants period (certainly not too much Italian food), and has limited appettite for a lot of sightseeing -- and she had a wonderful time just hanging out in the pizza, watching the world go by (and eating gelato, her main vice). About the only real adjustment she had to make was that on humid days, especially warm humid days -- she needed to slow down more. It's not the climate she lives in.
Finally, while it is always true that you need to watch out for salt in restaurants, Tuscany andn Umbria are not the saltiest cooks in italy by a long shot. In fact, most of us complain they don't use enough salt. Rome will be a bigger problem. It is definitely a good idea for your husband to inform waiters he wants low-salt meals, and be aware that bottled sparkling water (frizzante) in Italy has sodium, so stick with still, non-gas "naturale" and avoid breadsticks as well as ham and cheese. But Italians will make sure your husband eats well, without a lot of salt.
If the car hasn't already been rented, encourage your friends to get one big enough so your husband is completely comfortable and can even doze off on those lulling, winding roads somtimes.
Have a great trip!
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