I am after some guidance on traveling, I know I need a discussion with my consultant but I don’t have a lot of faith in them at the moment.i was diagnosed back in May with cervical cancer, in June I was told I had stage 3a cervical cancer then no it is 4, the consultant thinks because it’s in my bladder, wall of the Virgina and causing an issue in my kidney. I had a nefrostamy fitted to help relief some pressure. About 3 weeks ago I was told I don’t have cancer in the bladder it’s butting up against the bladder attached and I might be stuck with the nefrostamy. They are not sure if cancer ins in my lymph node.. but it’s ok we will be treating in the same way ( so I guess I don’t need to know).This type of uncertainty is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to information, I have have/ not received where I have no idea what’s going on despite asking, speaking with the “specialist nurse that I can never get hold of”. anyway I have just completed my 1st treatmeant chemo and on Monday I start radio therapy 5 days a week with another typ of chemo once a week, then 2/3 sessions of brachytherapy. My husband has been of since January and I feel we need a holiday, we are very keen travellers. I would like to go abroad for a week or so on a cruise, so n9 flying what’s the chance of being a bale to do this 4/5 weeks after treatmeant, so far I am pretty symptomatic free, well controlled with my drugs which I have now started to reduce.
Hi Donna1975 and welcome to our group.
I can completely understand you wanting to plan a holiday for after treatment-I love travelling myself and look forward to every trip.
It’s very difficult to say how you will be when you are undergoing chemoradiation as it affects us all so differently and that can make things hard to plan. I did this treatment in 2018 as my first line of treatment, and thought initially I was getting away with no adverse effects until side they kicked in 3 weeks after I started.
Not everyone has side effects which impact on their lives much but I had severe radiation cystitis and explosive diarrhoea. These are common with pelvic radiotherapy, and I was given things by my team to help-creams and Imodium. These did help, but my main difficulty was the fatigue as radiotherapy progressed. It was a cumulative effect as treatment went on and I was absolutely exhausted. It’s not just like being tired-cancer related fatigue is different. I needed naps in the day and was tired, and sore from the cystitis and diarrhoea for a few weeks after treatment finished. Personally I couldn’t have attempted a holiday 4 weeks after treatment. Others might have been able to, but the point is you don’t know how you’ll feel until you actually have the treatment. I also suffered a chemo induced pulmonary embolism immediately after treatment finished so would not have been able to fly.
Insurance for a trip might be an issue to think about too. A cruise can mean insurance is more expensive due to being at sea if there is need in an emergency to be airlifted off the boat. The insurance companies will build this risk into the premium. I have not been on a cruise but could get no insurance from my company at the time to cover my cancer.
My first trip was around 9 months after my treatment finished, but only 5 months after a scan which showed NED (no evidence of disease). They would only give me cover from 6 months after a clear scan, but not before. (I was flying to Indonesia on this trip).
We have a group in the community focusing on travel insurance which you may like to take a look at for recommendations from others who have obtained cover, and the link is here
Obviously you’ll be speaking with your consultant for more guidance and to see if he/she would consider you to be fit enough to go, and ultimately it will be your choice to go if you’re cleared to do it. Based on my own experience, and with the benefit of hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have gone when I did. I didn’t suffer any difficulties while on holiday, but I was very lucky as a week after my return I was diagnosed with a recurrence which curtailed my holidays for some time!
You will have a post treatment scan around 3 months after you finish treatment, so finding insurance before that happens and you have results might be an issue. Some companies might refuse cover completely, while others may load the premium and you may find it very expensive, even for a week.
Holidays are very important to me, and I love having trips to look forward to but I always make sure I update my company in advance of any trip with all the relevant information. Sometimes this has caused an increase in premium (for example when I suffered a stroke not connected to my cancer) so I chose to delay my trip until my situation had stabilised.
I wish you the best of luck in being able to get your holiday, and hope your next round of treatment goes smoothly for you.
Sarah xx
