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Re: Intermittent catheterization for newbies

Mon May 11, 2015 2:34 pm

IC on a ship will not be an issue as long as you wash your hands prior to IC and after. It is not brain surgery so it doesn't need to be sterile. You do need to wash so you don't add more germs where they are not needed.

To address one thing Patrick brings up about the handicap/accessible cabins, starting in 2009 Federal law prohibits requesting an accessible room unless one of the people sharing the room is a regular wheelchair user. The last cruise I went on I requested an accessible room and I was grilled with questions about who and why the room was needed. I had to qualify for the accessible room by providing my health issues that make a wheelchair necessary for me. Once the inquisition was over I got the room reserved. You also need to bring a disabled parking placard to the cruise ship when you board or they will reassign you to a regular cabin.

I watched someone else that had a placard but no wheelchair get reassigned right in front of me. When it was my turn to check in I asked what that person's issue was and they told me they booked an accessible cabin saying that they use a wheelchair but they showed up walking and no wheelchair so they were assigned to a different cabin and the accessible room they had would go to someone else on stand-by that uses and wheelchair.

Even if you ask for wheelchair assistance you don't qualify for an accessible room. There are only a handful on each ship so they control the use very strictly. In past years anyone could request an accessible cabin and people that actually needed it booked the cruise they spent the entire cruise in a cabin that they couldn't function in. When they complained to the captain he had to shuffle a few bitchy customers to smaller cabins so the wheelchair user could function on a basic level of humanity during the cruise.

Please don't lie and request a wheelchair accessible room if you don't need it! It is at least as bad as people that park in disabled parking without having a valid placard. For those who don't know, a placard is only valid if the person it is assigned to is IN the car! Anything thing else is illegal and the placard can be confiscated forcing the legal placard owner to apply for a new placard and that can take weeks or months, preventing them from having disabled parking available until the new placard arrives.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Enjoy your cruise. You will have a great time.

Re: Intermittent catheterization for newbies

Fri May 15, 2015 8:46 pm

Doug,

I guess our cruise was before such stringent measures were adopted regarding the use of handicapped accessible cabins. I only use a wheelchair intermittently, because Meniere's disease is intermittent. However, even when I'm not confined to a wheelchair, I walk like a drunk and must hang onto walls and railings. The ship's crew watched me getting around, and no questions were asked.

Re: Intermittent catheterization for newbies

Sun Jun 10, 2018 9:14 pm

This thread is great for me and answered a lot of my questions. I'm still nervous about infection but as was mentioned here and by my doctor the risk of not cathing is higher. I'll take it day by day. Thank you all for this post. It eased my anxiety a bit.

Re: Intermittent catheterization for newbies

Sat Jun 16, 2018 11:15 pm

I have foley Catheter inserted. I’m new to this group, please bare with me.

Re: Intermittent catheterization for newbies

Wed Aug 08, 2018 7:25 am

My family and I just returned from a coastal cruise from New Jersey to down east Maine and the Canadian maritimes. We had one of the smaller inner cabins, while our family had a larger outside cabin with a small deck. Shortly into the cruise, the rich food gave me an intense bellyache and diarrhea, so I pretty much lived in the cabin and did not stray far from a public toilet for the rest of the time. Incontinence was manageable as long as I stayed close to a toilet. Shore excursions were rather more exciting than I wanted, so I only had two.
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