The NKF Holiday Pages —Postcard from the South of France ... Keith Fletcher
Our son is currently dialysing at home using an NXStage System One portable dialysis machine. On 10 September my wife, our son and I took the System One with us for a fortnight’s holiday in the south of France. This was our first trip abroad since our son went back on dialysis about 5 years ago.
We travelled by Eurostar and SNCF because airlines will not guarantee that the dialysis machine will travel on the same flight as the three of us. When we enquired about train tickets we explained we would have the portable machine with us. At the suggestion of both train companies we bought a child’s ticket for the seat next to one of ours and put the machine on it.
When we first mentioned holidaying in France, we were told we would have to make our own arrangements for the disposal of the Clinical Waste. The website and a holiday brochure published by the local Tourist Information Bureau mentioned the Medipole Centre d’Autodialyse, Argelès-sur-Mer. We faxed the Centre and it agreed to dispose of our Clinical Waste, free of charge, if we left it with them on the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of our stay.
Knowing before we left home that the dialysis supplies for the holiday were in place removed one possible cause of worry. Finding on arrival that everything we had been promised was present and correct took another load off our minds. We want to thank the Home Dialysis team of the Renal Unit at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, the staff at Kimal and the Medipole Centre d’Autodialyse for the arrangements they put in place for our trip. They played an important part in making our stay in Argelès so hassle-free, enjoyable and relaxing.
The National Kidney Federation cannot accept responsibility for information provided. The above is for guidance only.