Travel trailer with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Hi guys and gals. I have a pretty good case of RA so have limited strength and joint movement. I'm considering a 16' toy hauler to tow out west for camping. Are there any of you with RA or simila...
Forum Discussion
Prior to my wife's death, we FT'd for 14 yrs. She had severe RA and early on some of her biologics were infused which complicated traveling some. But as the biologics migrated to injectables, that issue disappeared. Remaining was the issue of obtaining her schedule II and schedule IV pain meds. First she had two RA specialists which were located about 1500 miles apart so by planning routes we could make her specialists visits less cumbersome. Both docs felt that the relaxed lifestyle that we lived was a positive for her and emailed office visit results etc to us so we could keep the other apprised. There were times when it was inconvenient to change an itinerary so then she would just fly to her doc appt, rent a car/hotel room and then fly back - usually taking 3 days so it wouldn't tire her too much.
After time, her pain mgt doc got to know us better and trust us. Inasmuch as he was located in hurricane prone area where an office could potentially be knocked out of business for 30 days, he encouraged maintaining a 30 spare supply. His location was also a snowbird area where docs are used to patients being gone for lengthy periods. The Sch IV controlled substances were easier to handle but Sch II were more difficult due to the need to have orig, signed (no call in, no fax, no transfer etc) 30 day only script in hand. That was eased a bit, I think in 2010ish, to allow the doc to provide 1 current 30 day script and two post dated 30 day original scripts for a total of 90 days. We found more than a few pharmacists that were 'hinky' about filling sch II for complete strangers and so for those we always used the same pharmacy chain so that their profile computer record would show these to be SOP. So having those 3 scripts got us through 3 months of travel. The doc increased the dosage so we could obtain extra with each fill with the understanding that we'd use the extra to buy even more time. Of course, when we snowbirded in the area, that also bought time. During our FTing yrs, she also had 21 surgeries. During Hospital and physical rehab stays, pain meds were handled by the care facility and so that also help build up a reserve. As I recall, for the last 5 or so years, we always had sufficient meds so as to not have to panic.
The other recurrent requirement that had to be handled on the road were blood lab work. One of her docs had a lab work order that, it seemed to me, had every lab test known to man listed on it together with a check box in front of each. He provided us with a signed blank which I scanned. When on the road, the doc would email what labs he wanted done and I'd bring up the scan, photoshop and "x" in front of each test he wanted, photoshop a current date. Under other instructions, I put in the name and address of her other doctor as well as our mail forwarding address and then print the lab work order. I think we used that same 'blank' for about 12 years without a problem and her docs loved it. They each kept up to date with labs and we always had current baseline labs with us in the event of any ER visits.
After time, her pain mgt doc got to know us better and trust us. Inasmuch as he was located in hurricane prone area where an office could potentially be knocked out of business for 30 days, he encouraged maintaining a 30 spare supply. His location was also a snowbird area where docs are used to patients being gone for lengthy periods. The Sch IV controlled substances were easier to handle but Sch II were more difficult due to the need to have orig, signed (no call in, no fax, no transfer etc) 30 day only script in hand. That was eased a bit, I think in 2010ish, to allow the doc to provide 1 current 30 day script and two post dated 30 day original scripts for a total of 90 days. We found more than a few pharmacists that were 'hinky' about filling sch II for complete strangers and so for those we always used the same pharmacy chain so that their profile computer record would show these to be SOP. So having those 3 scripts got us through 3 months of travel. The doc increased the dosage so we could obtain extra with each fill with the understanding that we'd use the extra to buy even more time. Of course, when we snowbirded in the area, that also bought time. During our FTing yrs, she also had 21 surgeries. During Hospital and physical rehab stays, pain meds were handled by the care facility and so that also help build up a reserve. As I recall, for the last 5 or so years, we always had sufficient meds so as to not have to panic.
The other recurrent requirement that had to be handled on the road were blood lab work. One of her docs had a lab work order that, it seemed to me, had every lab test known to man listed on it together with a check box in front of each. He provided us with a signed blank which I scanned. When on the road, the doc would email what labs he wanted done and I'd bring up the scan, photoshop and "x" in front of each test he wanted, photoshop a current date. Under other instructions, I put in the name and address of her other doctor as well as our mail forwarding address and then print the lab work order. I think we used that same 'blank' for about 12 years without a problem and her docs loved it. They each kept up to date with labs and we always had current baseline labs with us in the event of any ER visits.
