Traveling with COPD - near and far!

I'm still too afraid to travel for fear that I'll have an exacerbation and end up hospitalized.liz

I love to travel and I have stage 3 COPD w/emphysema. I have learned several things by trial and error. I love cruising and last year I bought a heavy duty luggage carrier and bungee'ed my o2 concentrator to it in order to easily transport through the port. The cruise line was very accommodating. I make sure whenever and wherever I travel I have my inhalers and medication on my person all the time. Fortunately I am only on oxygen at night so that helps! I live in Florida so the heat hinders my travel more than I would like but I try not to let it stop me, I try to do things in the evening when it is cooler!

Hi Jillybean and thanks for sharing all that works for you in your excellent efforts to continue traveling. Bungee'ing your oxygen concentrator to a luggage carrier is a marvelous idea! It's one I had never heard of and I'm sure it will give others in our community something to think about for themselves. Keep up the good work!
All the best,
Leon (site moderator)

I was discouraged when I flew to NYC last May, but will try again. I require oxygen when at a certain altitude, and rented a POC that was less then 7 lbs. The weather really was fluctuating, and I ended up with a 90 degree day when I got there. I was puffing, but used my inhalers a lot. I felt like I slowed my friends down, but they wanted to put in about 3 miles a day walking, and I couldn't do it with the heat. I need to figure out how to explain to them why I need to stop and rest often if I can't get any breath!

On the flight back there was a 6-hour delay at LaGuardia. When we finally were going to board, the attendant and a pilot called me over to ask about the POC that had already been checked earlier. I was puzzled. The attendant seemed upset when she asked, and I told her the extra POC battery was in my luggage. The POC said 2 when she turned it on, and she said I didn't have enough hours of battery to fly. I had to tell her that that was 2 liters, not 2 hours of battery time. She turned to the pilot and asked him how long my flight was. It was 2 hours, and I had 4 hours of battery time. At that point nobody said okay. They just walked away. Very unfriendly. I knew what was required for my flight, and felt really embarrassed that they were drilling me in front of the other passengers waiting to board. I'm not filling a complaint because other flights with this airline were okay. Sorry to whine.