St Jude Merlin at Home

When should I travel with the home monitoring unit?

3 Comments

Don't think you need to

by Theknotguy - 2014-03-26 07:03:17

Depending upon where you travel, I don't seen a reason to carry the stuff around. In the USA, most hospitals have a PM reading unit. In an emergency you'd be taken to a hospital where they could read your PM.

If your cardiologist needs a reading, I'd discuss getting either an early or late reading so you don't need to be on the road and take a reading.

If you've got so many problems you need to have frequent readings then you probably shouldn't be traveling.

Any more when you travel you've got so much junk to carry around I don't see a reason to burden yourself with even more stuff. Besides, if you fly, you've got to deal with TSA and they're jumpy enough already. No need to get them excited with equipment they don't understand.

Otherwise, hope you have a good trip.

Theknotguy

With the Equipment, Right?

by NiceNiecey - 2014-03-26 08:03:00

Maybe I will change my mind in the years to come for now, my husband and I decided that it's portable enough for me to take with me. We travel all over the world (including remote, weird places in Africa) and I am NOT going without it.

Now, if you ask the gal in the cardiologist's office that interrogates the devices, she'd say, "If you're going to be gone for 6 months, you might want to bring it but it's not really necessary." All I can say is, "Oh brother."

I agree with Theknotguy that hospitals in the US are within easy reach, if you will, and I am confident here in the US. But outside the US, I want the equipment with me in case something runs amok and I need to communicate with my doc right away.

There is help almost everywhere in the world and, if you're not close to help (like me), help can be found within a day pretty much everywhere. Since I'm only 3 months into this myself, I feel better having the security of it "just in case." As I said, in the years to come, I may change my mind. For now, however, it's going to be my faithful companion.

Flying out this weekend to Minneapolis, home of Medtronics! Perhaps I'll drop in for a visit!
Niecey

Whenever you want

by Tick-tock - 2014-03-27 12:03:10

I travel often to Florida and take my equipment with me. Medical devices can be taken on as an extra carry on. As Dizzy stated, you can just plug it in and it should continue doing your monitoring as usual. I have a cell phone adapter for mine, so a landline is not required. Best of luck!

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