Ultra Planner always, I am a strategic planner by nature and a financial planner for my career, so planning is my thing! Can definitely relate it to my health and childhood growing up with CHD. Recently spent a week in the "heart failure" wing of Cleveland Clinic (not planned :( ) but now on a new drug Tikosyn, now I have to plan 2 pills a day 12 hrs apart (thank goodness for mobile alarm) - now traveling will require significantly more planning - seems like this drug is not available in some parts of the World, so when we travel internationally will need send pills to hotel, my husband carry a few, I carry a few, a few in our packed bags, etc....small price to pay but requires "planning"! Glad the NY earthquake had little damage.
I was in Chile on. Rotary International exchange trip. My host Gearmo and his family were hosting me at a small dinner party in their 7th floor apartment when the earthquake hit. I jumped up and started towards the door and looked to my host in shock. The group did not move just toasted with there wine glasses as they told me it was an earthquake. they happen all the time, relax… and I did. Experience and friendships helps to settle some of the things that make us anxious. Yes, be prepared, but relax and measure your steps to reality.
I’m someone who has lived all over the world - even tried to do the peace corps but was medically denied for, well, obvious reasons.
Turns out they were right to deny me because getting heat exhaustion in the Australian outback with a heart condition is not recommended. I also got sea sick on a sailboat on the Whitsunday islands, and spent two days in a Sydney hospital which to this day they’re not sure what it was, I’m convinced it was cholera.
Anyway, I live in Germany now, and these would be my top tips for anyone traveling with a heart condition -
Put everything you can about your condition and history in your smartphone - I store mine in my medical ID.
The second, and this comes from a webinar about surviving the emergency room with CHD- download the Cincinnati children’s Heartpedia. It has 3-D pictures of what each heart condition looks like, and what the repair looks like.
This came in handy two weeks ago when I went to the ER and was stuck with a doctor who didn’t speak very good English. All I had to do was show her the app, and suddenly she was taking seriously what she was trying to chalk up to anxiety.
After I read the book, “My Sister’s Keeper,” a light bulb went off for me. I was always waiting for the shoe to drop in one particular fashion only to realize it would not be in the form I envisioned. As a parent of an adult with a complicated CHD, many years ago, he informed me he was going on a trip to Mexico City. I was concerned about how the altitude, extreme smog, and criminal elements could impact him. ( I myself had been mugged at gunpoint in Mexico City.) What I did not anticipate was he might encounter an earthquake on his trip to Mexico City. Life is uncertain and we can anticipate that we feel the earth shake under our feet at the most unexpected times.
Hi - I was in a rolling earthquake about a month ago. It is so disconcerting! I kept checking the USGS site for more signs of quakes to come. There were none. But….New Jersey?! So weird. I’m in CA.
I always thought my uberplanning strategies were from my short stint as a Girl Scout. But you are so right- a lifetime of unexpected ER visits, and a portable charger bank is a must have (just not near the AICD please). Perhaps it is my CHD that is driving my “just in case” ness.
Ultra Planner always, I am a strategic planner by nature and a financial planner for my career, so planning is my thing! Can definitely relate it to my health and childhood growing up with CHD. Recently spent a week in the "heart failure" wing of Cleveland Clinic (not planned :( ) but now on a new drug Tikosyn, now I have to plan 2 pills a day 12 hrs apart (thank goodness for mobile alarm) - now traveling will require significantly more planning - seems like this drug is not available in some parts of the World, so when we travel internationally will need send pills to hotel, my husband carry a few, I carry a few, a few in our packed bags, etc....small price to pay but requires "planning"! Glad the NY earthquake had little damage.
I was in Chile on. Rotary International exchange trip. My host Gearmo and his family were hosting me at a small dinner party in their 7th floor apartment when the earthquake hit. I jumped up and started towards the door and looked to my host in shock. The group did not move just toasted with there wine glasses as they told me it was an earthquake. they happen all the time, relax… and I did. Experience and friendships helps to settle some of the things that make us anxious. Yes, be prepared, but relax and measure your steps to reality.
I’m someone who has lived all over the world - even tried to do the peace corps but was medically denied for, well, obvious reasons.
Turns out they were right to deny me because getting heat exhaustion in the Australian outback with a heart condition is not recommended. I also got sea sick on a sailboat on the Whitsunday islands, and spent two days in a Sydney hospital which to this day they’re not sure what it was, I’m convinced it was cholera.
Anyway, I live in Germany now, and these would be my top tips for anyone traveling with a heart condition -
Put everything you can about your condition and history in your smartphone - I store mine in my medical ID.
The second, and this comes from a webinar about surviving the emergency room with CHD- download the Cincinnati children’s Heartpedia. It has 3-D pictures of what each heart condition looks like, and what the repair looks like.
This came in handy two weeks ago when I went to the ER and was stuck with a doctor who didn’t speak very good English. All I had to do was show her the app, and suddenly she was taking seriously what she was trying to chalk up to anxiety.
After I read the book, “My Sister’s Keeper,” a light bulb went off for me. I was always waiting for the shoe to drop in one particular fashion only to realize it would not be in the form I envisioned. As a parent of an adult with a complicated CHD, many years ago, he informed me he was going on a trip to Mexico City. I was concerned about how the altitude, extreme smog, and criminal elements could impact him. ( I myself had been mugged at gunpoint in Mexico City.) What I did not anticipate was he might encounter an earthquake on his trip to Mexico City. Life is uncertain and we can anticipate that we feel the earth shake under our feet at the most unexpected times.
Earthquakes are normal in New Zealand where I’m from. If you can’t get outside just get under a desk.
Hi - I was in a rolling earthquake about a month ago. It is so disconcerting! I kept checking the USGS site for more signs of quakes to come. There were none. But….New Jersey?! So weird. I’m in CA.
I always thought my uberplanning strategies were from my short stint as a Girl Scout. But you are so right- a lifetime of unexpected ER visits, and a portable charger bank is a must have (just not near the AICD please). Perhaps it is my CHD that is driving my “just in case” ness.
Hope the next few days are quiet ones.