Tagged: Travel
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Ever since my SCT 18 months ago I have naturally been really careful about Covid and generally protecting myself but I now want to do all the things that I promised myself when I was diagnosed. Most involve flying and some of these are long flights. I am determined to fulfil some of my bucket list but wondered whether others have had the confidence to travel in the current climate?
Has anyone flown recently? How safe did you feel?
I’m thinking about countries like New Zealand and Australia so I’m confident about the quality of medical care if I get covid or something worse so perhaps I should feel more confident and start to live again.
If anyone is going through a similar thought process I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Hi BeatTheAverage (love the username!)
I’m glad to hear that you’re aiming to live life to the full, a very good idea! Just a bit tricker than normal in these days of pandemic.
Myeloma UK have recently trained some peer-volunteers to assist on this forum. I am one such person and was treated for myeloma in 2019 with VTD and a stem cell transplant.
Covid hit here in the UK 2 weeks after I’d shaken off the rigid back brace that I’d had to wear for a couple of months after my SCT, so I was just about to start living again when I had to stay at home for 3 months! At least it was sunny then, and I had the exercise bike in the garden to get some strength back.
Living in Devon, we’ve not left the county for 2 years (well, one day in Cornwall), and I must say that I’m anxious about flying, or being on public transport. Once we see where this current wave of Covid goes, and if it proves that symptoms continue to get milder, it will be lovely to travel again.
You’ll have to ensure that your travel insurance company know about your myeloma, you can even let a hospital in your destination know that you’re going to be there, but I would expect all health services are going to be a bit stretched for the next couple of years.
I’d certainly be interested to know if others have travelled in the last few months, and how they’ve found it. Several friends of ours who don’t have myeloma and have travelled, have picked up Covid, so I think you have to take the view that you’re very likely to get Covid whilst travelling, but it may not be such a big deal now that we’re vaccinated and that treatments are available to help if you do succumb.
This probably hasn’t been a particularly useful reply, but I’m suer others will join in, and I’ll be interested to hear what you decide to do and how you get on.
Each day is worth living for. I cycled a total of 1,000 miles last year which felt amazing after barely being able to walk across the room 3 years ago.
Best wishes,
Rich 👍
Hi there
I’m also keen to resume travelling, especially as I’ve been cooped up for so long, but I think I’d reiterate what’s just been said. My in-laws went on a skiing holiday a few weeks back, and having avoided it all through the lockdowns, etc, they both went down with it just a few days after their return flight.
I think, for now, I’d personally avoid sitting in an enclosed space for such a long time, as it would be awful to contract it on a flight and spend your holiday feeling ill…
Have you thought about places in the UK you’ve never been? We really do have some gems right on our doorstep. I’ve actually just been awarded early retirement on medical grounds, and we’re going to buy a motorhome, so we can tour the country in comfort (we currently have a small DIY campervan with a basic fold out double bed, a camping stove, and a four year old!!). We’re also hoping to do some trips in Europe eventually…
I’d love to go back to New Zealand to see my best friend (was there in 2006), and would love to take my son to meet his relatives in Canada, but we’ll wait until we feel it’s safe to do so.
Hi Beat the Average!
Another of the forum volunteers here 🙂
Lovely to hear you’re looking to getting back out there and ticking those countries off your bucket list.
Funnily enough it was a long haul flight I believe that saved my dad’s life. He had been complaining of pains for almost a year and it had been put down to his manual labour job and he was given painkillers for it then flew off to Cuba with my mum and contracted what ultimately became pneumonia from the flight. This was back in 2013. He was admitted into hospital there and then transferred back to the UK where his MM was diagnosed three days later. Had he not flown, I’m not sure it would have been picked up early enough.
Anyway, back to your concerns. At the moment, my dad is going through his second treatment for his first relapse so isn’t in a position to travel anyway. However, following his first treatment, he flew out to visit me in the USA (where I had moved following Dad’s successful SCT) around 18 months after his SCT. This was of course before covid times, but he still was very careful all the same given the pneumonia incident! I’m in good health myself and think pretty much every long haul flight I’ve ever taken I’ve ended up coming down with a cold afterwards so there was always a risk of illness being cooped up in a metal box for so long even pre-covid and it is about weighing up the odds, but I can certainly understand that you want to get back out there and enjoy life!
For dad, insurance was tricky but not impossible and he got sorted and, like you mentioned in your post, he also went with the view that the medical care in America is good should anything happen. He spoke with his consultant team before he booked anything and they helped him with medication etc for when he was out there and gave him some advice plus a letter to take with him in case of any issues and needing treatment. O n top of that he was extremely careful in terms of wiping everything down and using hand sanitiser. On the flip side, you would like to think that with covid, the airlines will be taking more care to keep everything cleaner than previously??!
He had a fabulous couple of weeks out in the states with us where we did New York City, Chicago (another internal flight following the same precautions) and the Catskills and he had no issues whatsoever.
I think that if you really want to get out there, it just comes down to talking with your medical team and following their advice and if you take the decision to fly, being super careful and hopefully you can get all of those bucket list items ticked off! x
Hi Beattheaverage!
I have lived here in Australia most of my life and travelled a couple of times between Australia and the UK. I am writing to share some of my experiences and wisdom. My second trip was shortly before I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. It takes about 24 hours to travel between Australia and Britain which is physically draining even for the healthiest person. Luckily, I was able travel business class which enabled me to use the bathroom as and when needed (i.e. no queueing and frequently cleaned by in-flight cabin crew). The passenger seats were also more comfortable for my aching spine and ribs.
There are quite a few differences between Australia and the UK in regard to how Covid-19 has been (and still is) dealt with. Australia is a federation in which certain issues are administered by the Commonwealth government and others by the individual states or territories. The Commonwealth government deals with people’s entry into and out of Australia. Until recently, it severely restricted the entry of people coming into and leaving the country. The most important issue here is that those wishing to enter Australia need to be “full vaccinated” against Covid. This definition has changed recently. The Commonwealth government has its own website. So, it is best to check what the current immunisation requirements are and to keep checking as they may change with little or no notice. Second, check the website to see what medications you are allowed to bring into the country. Also some myeloma medications are very expensive and only provided at low cost to Australian citizens. So make sure you have enough for your trip and keep them in a secure place. It would probably be a good idea for you to carry a letter from your GP or specialist outlining your medical condition, treatment and prescribed medications to pass through Customs and for medical staff if you need treatment here. I have registered my details on the Australia MedicAlert website so that information is available to medical staff if I am found unresponsive. Ambulance services are not free in Australia. It would be a good idea to purchase ambulance insurance as a trip to hospital can cost around $1,000. Also purchase medical insurance to cover the costs for any medical treatment.
The states (i.e. Queensland, News South Wales, Tasmania, etc) and territories (Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory, etc) are generally responsible for providing health services. The health system in Australia is very good in the capital cities where high quality specialist services are available and where the vast bulk of the population live. However, specialist services are often not available away from the capital cities where towns have small populations, are widely dispersed and can be several hundred kilometres (and many hours) away from emergency or specialist care. This means many country hospitals are only able to provide basic medical treatment. This is one issue that has prevented from travelling too travel far in recent times. Another issue is that over the last two years each state and territory has imposed their own range of restrictions to prevent the spread of covid. This has included limiting or preventing people crossing from one state or territory to another. This has caused controversy by stranding people for weeks or months. However, in recent times many of there restrictions have been relaxed, but could be re-implemented if more infectious and dangerous variants of covid emerge. Again, each state and territory has its own government website that outlines their covid requirements and restrictions. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about the situation in New Zealand. I hope I have been helpful in regards to coming to Australia.
Hi all,
Thanks for the replies and the advice.
It would be great to think that covid will become less of a problem in the future but my myeloma may well become a bigger problem so it’s really hard to know whether now is a sweet spot when it’s as good as it’s going to get if you are weighing up all the risks. When i left the hospital after my SCT in 2020 the parting words from my consultant were “make the most of the next few years”. Little did they know that covid would still be casting this shadow over everything and “the next few years” have been largely spent stuck at home.
I’ll discuss the pros and cons of travel with my consultant and see what’s sensible. There are some great places in the UK and we’ll visit as many as possible in 2022 but it would be wonderful to start ticking a few faraway places off my bucket list while I can.
I belong to a myeloma support group where one member has been living on a Mediterranean island over the past few years, flying to & from UK for 3 monthly check ups, to see family and to collect medications throughout the pandemic, without catching COVID. Another member who has lived with myeloma for a great many years (so perhaps feels on borrowed time) has holidayed every other month COVID restrictions permitting, and has flown frequently without incident. Recently they did catch COVID – after travelling within UK by train. (Had the antibodies & recovered quickly)
Having said that only one other member of the support group has felt confident to fly yet, (about now). Personally I really want to get back to seeing a bit more of the world, but I hesitate to book a flight with COVID infection rates as high as they currently are. Part of me feels the hesitation is irrational- life involves risk- but then I decide I’m being sensible & rational to wait. There is no one size fits all answer?
Hi there,
I am also one of the peer forum volunteers. I have been very careful during the pandemic and have managed to avoid the plague. However, i think that things are now changing and alsthough I have not travelled abroad yet, I am now planning to go on a cruise in May. I think that if you take ensible precautions that we all have been doing, such as staying away from crowds, trying to void close personal contact with others, and washing and sanitising hands on a regular basis then you should be reasonably safe.
I would also be cautions of eating things with theri skin on, such as apples and pears, when they could have been handled by other people who might have something which you do not want, so just take the skin off!
I think the main thing is being sensible and getting on with your life. I think that COVID will be around for a lonfg time and we cannot all lock ourselves up until it dissappears. So I would say get out there and enjoy yourself, just be careful!
Regards Tony
Hi there, I am on a clinical trial at the moment as the standard treatment didn’t work for me. Has anyone been on a trial before and managed to get travel insurance? I am just looking to go over to Spain so not far. Thank you!
Hi there,
I am also very keen to get back to holidaying, but very aware that the pandemic has not gone away, it is just not as newsworthy with other events going on. I am not keen to but queueing for hours at an airport, then in close confines with other people for hours both in the airport and on an aircraft, so I have therefore booked a cruise departing from the UK which means I do not have to do any of those things.
I go 4 weeks from today and cannot wait.
Regards, Tony
Hi lisajoy69
My dad was on a clinical trial back in 2015 when he went to the USA and managed to get travel insurance. It was a while ago so I cant remember who it was with unfortunately and we did have to do some phoning around to speak to people directly to discuss the exact details since it wasn’t straightforward, but it is possible. Good luck! xx
Dear forum admins! You need a captcha to stop these forum posts by robotic morons.
Hi beattheaverage, did you manage to get insurance? If so was it a lot more expensive, and have you booked anywhere?
Regards, Tony
Hi,
I have my travel insurance through my bank account. I notified them of my Multiple Myloma this week. I was told they couldn’t insure the Myloma but I was covered for everything else so no extra cost.
Regards
Thanks for all the advice and contributions. I’ve decided to start with a trip to Greece before taking on anything more adventurous. If that goes well I’ll look to travel more in 2023 if my Myeloma allows. The feedback on this thread sums up a lot of conflicting emotions that go through your mind. It does look like covid isn’t going away so i don’t think that waiting for it to disappear is going to work. There is no right answer and it’ll be a personal decision for everyone.
I did manage to get travel insurance for a week’s holiday in Greece without too much trouble- but i am lucky as I’m not on any treatment at the moment. It’s difficult to assess the cost as the policy covers others as well and there were other factors which would have influenced the premium. But it wasn’t eye watering.
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