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Wednesday, June 2, 2010

PFAM Blog Carnival: Travel from the Chronic Illness Point of View

A drawing of a suitcase with the word "TR...Image via Wikipedia



Welcome to the Patients for a Moment (PFAM) blog carnival! This time the theme is travel from the chronic illness point of view. Our travel group consists of eleven bloggers, all persons living with chronic illness, who each have a unique and personal take on the subject. So stow your luggage under a seat or in an overhead compartment, return your folding tray and seat back to the upright position and fasten your seat belt as we take off for a virtual flight around the blogosphere.

Pack Your Bags

Being prepared and planning ahead are travel musts for persons with chronic illness. Rachel of Tales of my Thirties demonstrates the strategies she uses for herself, a type 2 diabetic, and her husband, a type 1 diabetic, with her video blogging entry: Vlog: Long time no see…

Diana at Somebody Heal Me is determined to help us get organized with her list of travel tips, including some very good ideas about traveling with medications. I recommend you print out her post and use it as a part of your personalized packing list. Read 14 Tips for Chronically Ill Travelers and don't forget to check out the links at the bottom of the post from even more information for travelers with disabilities specific to planes, trains and buses.

Kathy over at Fibrochondriac has a lot of good reasons to be traveling this summer, including a family reunion and the birth of a grandchild. But she admits she still struggles with making sure her medications get packed and her shampoo and conditioner bottles are labeled, which is why she is asking for reader suggestions in her post Might As Well Be A Travel Blog.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Gerri has been traveling too. At 50 is the new 40, she tells us she got to witnessed with birth of her grandson
on her last trip from Oregon to Arizona to visit her daughter. In her discussion of her solo travels by airplane, chronicled in Calgon Take Me Away!, she comes to the realization that she needs to start doing things differently at the airport and the hotel to accommodate her arthritis and fibromyalgia.

America has a love affair with the car, and Rosemary at Seeking Equilibrium likes driving in the fast lane. Or at least she used to before her life with fibromyalgia. In this hilarious post Let's Go For a Sunday Drive, she talks about all the ways her chronic illness has transformed her into one of those little old lady drivers she used to curse at under her breath as she sped by them.

Kathy at Making Noises tries to balance her need for communing with nature and the joy it brings with the inevitable post-trip symptom flare-up she knows is coming. She shares with us some absolutely beautiful pictures of her excursions with her husband to the foothills and mountains of the Canadian Rockies in her post Day Tripping.

It's Not All Fun in the Sun

Kairol over at Everything Changes reminds us that not all travel entails arriving at a tropical resort or sightseeing in the big city. Her frequently travels take her to New York for doctors' appointments. Luckily, one of her readers tipped her off to a good strategy to utilize and she wrote Traveling With Cancer or Chronic Illness? to pass this good advice along to us.

Best Kept Travel Secrets

Did you know that a certain big box store allows customers to sleep overnight in their cars in the parking lot while they are traveling? What you might not know is that there are other travel advantages to using a big box store or national chain to fill your prescriptions. The How To Cope With Pain website and blog shares the low-down with us in the post A Pharmacy Secret.

Here at Oh My Aches and Pains! I recognize that my husband is the number one reason I can leave the house and attempt to travel despite the baggage of my multiple chronic illnesses. I think that finding a great partner to share the journey of life is perhaps one of the best kept travel secrets. Read more about my recent vacation planning session in Have Husband - Will Travel.

How many of you know what a Golden Access Passport is? Or where you can find free things to do or free attractions to visit in 1,500 cities across the United States? Lisa at Rest Ministries Chronic Illness Pain Support is letting us in on all the great secret deals and her best travel advice in Travel Tips When Living with a Chronic Illness.

On the Road Called Life...

Wendy took a trip to the zoo and her life changed forever. A simple tri-fold pamphlet she picked up at an outreach table was her first step in a painful journey that changed her life fundamentally for the better. She tells her story of transformation in her post My Chronic Illness Journey – The Trip I Never Expected (or WANTED) to Take on her blog Transform Your Chronic Life.


Thanks for traveling with us and come back and see us again real soon! Join us June 16th when Patients for a Moment creator Duncan Cross hosts the one year anniversary edition of PFAM over at his blog. Submit your post by the end of the day June 13th to be included in the next edition. Thanks to all the participants, readers and to Duncan for letting me host a second time.
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6 comments

Kathy said...

Great job hosting Selena. You are a gifted writer too!. I stop by your blog often.

Lisa Copen said...

Selena, thanks for all your hard work and putting this together with great resources and encouragement!

Diana Lee said...

Great edition. There are so many wonderful ideas represented in these posts.

My Life Works Today! said...

I agree with the gals before me- thank you for some great posts and for taking the time to host this event. I missed the deadline to submit, but didn't want to miss everyone's take on this issue. Good topic and wonderful job, Selena!

Aviva said...

Thanks for pulling all this together. I didn't manage to do my contribution in time for the deadline, but I linked to this post of yours in my blog when I wrote about it anyway.

http://sickmomma.blogspot.com/2010/06/chronic-illness-travel.html if you're interested.

One of these days I'll manage to get another PFAM entry done in time!!

Selena said...

Thank you all for the comments. I m glad you all enjoyed this edition of PFAM. See you all next time...