NxStage Freedom Cruise Day 7: at sea

By Bill Peckham

We woke up in a gale. The ship was a rockin' and a rollin' in forty knot winds, ten foot seas and torrential rains ... and that was the good news. Word is that when we hit Miami tomorrow it will be in the thirties. The weather was worse than expected for most of the trip and since I picked the cruise dates I have to take the credit blame but that's always a risk with travel. You just never know.

I dialyzed last night, again uneventfully and had a lazy day today learning some new software:

I'm using a $90 camera that has been through Burning Man but it did alright. Playing with the video software makes me want to invest in a more substantial camera along with a mono or tripod. However I hope the point of the video is clear - this works!

A higher dose of dialysis delivered by the NxStage System One provides a level of health and freedom conventional dialysis can never match. Health-wise, convenience-wise ... NxStage is far superior to conventional incenter dialysis. But we're talking travel here so the direct comparison would be to doing a cruise with Dialysis at Sea. And as someone who has done both let me say Dialysis at Sea does not hold up well at all. It's the difference between driving your own car and taking a ridiculously overpriced bus. If you are using dialysis to replace your renal function, and want to travel, you owe it to yourself to check out NxStage.

This is the best group photo I have - it was pretty hard to organize (see if you can identify the PD dialyzor that we met during the cruise). I'll post a better version if it comes along - there were at least a half a dozen cameras being used to take versions of this photo by a couple cruising friends - there must be one that shows us all smiling.

The first annual (one hopes) Freedom Cruise was, in my judgment, a success despite the weather and unfortunately at least two hard falls by dialyzors (resulting in painful shoulder and knee injuries) but falls can happen at home and I think the two who were injured still enjoyed the cruise and hope to be going to Alaska next year. 

Tomorrow we disembark in Miami and go our separate ways. My Mom and I are staying over and will make our way home on Monday. DSEN will then return to our regular programing: tracking industry news and trends, in advocacy, reimbursement, politics and the provision of dialysis.

Comments

[Rich Berkowitz]

What a great group of people. At the beginning we were fellow NxStagers -- by the end we were great friends. It was such a tremendous group that tears are now coming to my eyes with the thought I won't have dinner with them tonight. But I plan on seeing them all once again.