Travelling with breast cancer
My friend and I are looking to travel to the UK next year. She has breast cancer and requires herceptin infusions every 3 weeks. Does anyone know how we can access an infustion in England?? We know she could miss a treatment but having it would make our trip more flexible as far as length of time goes. We are running out of people to ask!!
Comments
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Hi Annie
This is Kathy - I am a Senior Policy Officer at BCNA.
I am not sure what arrangements, if any, are in place for women requiring breast cancer treatments while travelling overseas. I suggest your friend talks to her medical oncologist to see if he/she can arrange something for her or can suggest a way for her to access a Herceptin treatment in the UK.
I'd be interested to hear the outcome if you have a chance to let me know. You could email me at kwells@bcna.org.au or reply to this post.
All the best for your trip. I hope you both have a great time.
Kathy
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Hi Annie
Do you know where you will be travelling to in the UK? I have a few medical contacts spread around the country (I am a nurse and originally come from UK) . The only things are she might have to pay for the treatment unless there is some reciprocal arrangements (which I doubt). Let me know I can't promise anything but can ask.
Sarah
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Many thanks for your response Kathy. Progress has been that my friends new oncologist in Queensland - who she has seen this week for the first time, has suggested she could take her own liquid herceptin at her own cost, and have it infused at a private hospital in the UK, if she can find one willing to do it. Again at her own cost. He also pointed out it would probably be cheaper to fly home, have an infustion then fly back again!! Either way she will be out of pocket thousands. Missing a treatment seems to be the go, but she does get terribly tired if she misses one.
will keep you up to date with any other suggestions.
cheers, Annie
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Hi Sarah,
Thanks for your response. As you can see in my response to Kathy, we are really not getting to far in practical solutions. If your contacts know of private hospitals which do day stay oncology, it might be good to get an idea of the possibility of a one of infusion and the potential cost. I think it would be a long shot, but we should not cross it off the list until we look at all options. We have no specific towns in mind, just hiring a car and wandering around the country, so we could plan to be at any location if and when we needed to be there.
thanks again
Annie
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Hi Annie
A very good friend of mine is the Matron (yes they still have them in private hospitals in the UK) of a private hospital and this hospital belongs to a group of around 32 all over the UK. I'll contact her with your scenario assuming you are bringing the drug with you to see which ones do chemo. How many hours does it usually take to infuse? I had different chemo so have no idea about Herceptin. I know from working in the private sector they usually charge by the hour. I'll send her an email tomorrow and will let you know once I hear something. I hope this can be done as it would just make your trip more enjoyable without the stress of missing treatment.
Sarah
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Hi Sarah,
Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you.
My friend tells me it would take around 30-45 mins to have the herceptin infusion, with flushing before and after taking it to about 2 hrs. Every 2nd treatment she also has bone enhancer and that can bring it up to 3-4 hrs but we will avoid that on the trip!
Cheers
Annie
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HI Annie
I haven't heard back from Joy yet will give it another few days and then might ring her at the weekend. I am not sure how often she checks her home email as she deals with email all day at work and I know when I had a job like that I did emails very rarely at home.
Thanks for the added info all helps
Sarah
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