Too soon to travel?

[daveycanuck]

Our son James was diagnosed with Crohns in Dec '11. Two weeks in the hospital followed by a great response to prednisone (symptom free for 1.5 months). He's tapering off the prednisone already and has scaled up MTX. He's handling the MTX really well so far (three treatments with little or no nausea). So far everything is going as well as we could have hoped.
We previously had a family vacation to the caribbean booked for new years but that plan was cancelled as soon as things got serious (thank goodness for cancellation insurance). The kids (10yo & 12yo) were very disappointed to miss the trip but we assured them that we'd reschedule as soon as it was appropriate.
Given how well James seems to be handling the medication and that we've been symptom free for over seven weeks, do you think March break (2nd week in Mar) would be too soon to reschedule the trip? The medical risks seem to be that he has a flare up while we are away and we're still novices at this. Financially there's a risk too as pre-existing condition clauses will make any cancellation insurance useless. It's been such a stressful time for the whole family but the treatment has gone well so it seems like a good time to go... but I'm still hesitant. Is it too soon to go or do we take the opportunity while he seems to be stable?

 

[Rebecca85]

All I can tell you is my experience, I was started n treatment at the end of April 2010, and went on holiday in August to the Dominican republic. By then I had finished my course of pred, been put on Pentasa, was mostly OK but wasn't fully in remission. They were going to start me on azathioprine in July, but because of the monitoring needed in the early days they delayed it until after I got back.

Yes it was nerve wracking! Avoiding all the food that might hurt my tummy, or potentially give me food poisoning. I made sure I had meds that could be used in an emergency (strong pain relief, anti diarrhoea, laxatives, rehydration salts, as well as an emergency supply of pred and double the amount needed of prescribed meds in case something happened).

I shopped around and found an insurance company to cover me for not too horrendous a sum of money! Maybe there are Crohns and colitis organisations that would point you in the right direction.

As it turns out, there were a couple of days where I didn't feel too good (mainly due to me eating things I probably shouldn't have done). But the rest of the time I was blessedly symptom free. Those nagging little low level symptoms like wind and sore guts disappeared while on holiday, I don't know if it was the lack of stress, or the extra sunshine that did it, but I'm glad I went

Oh, and my boyfriend did bet food poisoning while we were away so he was actually iller than me!

 

[S mom]

It's funny cause we have just today had this same discussion at our house! My son was diagnosed in Sept'11, two weeks in hospital...We did enteral nutrition and MTX which he is also responding nicely to. Like you, we didn't do a christmas Caribbean trip like we were planning so were discussing whether we are ready to brave going away while he's feeling ok. I think we've decided that we're not ready for somewhere that might cause travellers diarrhea...or for eating out all the time. So, we are looking into going south US and renting a condo with kitchenette so we can eat in sometimes... Still get away for the March break but play it safe! I'm feeling like we gotta grab ahold of the good times when they're here... Who knows what tomorrow may bring!