Does anyone give shots on the Cruise/OKW?

[Daffy Duck]

My wife and I are going on our first Disney cruise in June, followed by a nice long stay at Old Key West where we bought in 5 or 6 years ago. We've been going to WDW once every year or two since 1978

I have MS and use a 3 wheeled scooter. I'm not worried about the scooter, and know it will fit in our handicapped accessible room on the boat. We've already had it to OKW once or twice. But now I'm been taking a weekly shot for my MS for about six years. At my job, I always have one of our nurses give me the shots. Half of the very few times I've done it myself, like when we were at OKW, I wound up sticking myself in my hand with the needle just getting the protective sheath off the danged needle. and OUCH!

Do the nurses, I assume they have more than one, on the boat give regular shots like this to passengers, and is there a charge? Or tip, for that nmatter?

I also assume that if there isn't a fridge of some kind in the room on the boat, I can store my medications that need to be kept cold with the nurse.

Thanks for any input.

Stan

BTW, I selected the user name I did because I figured it was easier to remember since it was so sacreligious! I didn't want to waste my time finding out Grumpy1 through 200 or Goofy 1 through 200 had already been taken by other visitors!

 

[SueM in MN]

Welcome to disABILITIES.
I believe Daffy Duck was in the Touchstone Movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit , so if Daffy is good enough for Roger Rabbit, he's OK on the DIS Boards.

Anyway, the official Disney website has a page of FAQs for the cruise. It includes a link to email with questions or these phone number :
(800) 951-3532 or
For information via TTY, (407) 566-7455.

For your "injecting in the hand problem," I don't know if the MS drugs you're on are available for use with an auto-injector:
here's info about one and here's another one . We had a demostration of them in the hospital where I work and they looked pretty cool.

 

[cupcake]

I think this was one of the links Sue posted, although they weren't working for me. It is for sub-q shots and is very easy and non-intimidating to use. I am a big fan.

For IM needles, have you tried asking for a different brand? The large B-D ones just do not work for me (the ones where you have to change the needle part after you draw up the meds and mix them). Like you said, the cap sticks on the needle lots of times. My dh can do it fine for me, but I have problems. My pharmacist gave me a non-brand name that worked better. You still have to wiggle it back and forth instead of pulling it straight off, though. The one piece ones may also be better (the ones like the insulin type needes where the needle part is not detachable) but I don't know if you need to swap needles after mixing.

Any-hoo, I know I am not being helpful, but I suggest that you get the medical form from DCL. Since they have nurses, it seems that they could do it and that they could tell you how much it would be ahead of time.

Have a great time!!!!!!

Cupcake

 

[Daffy Duck]

SueM - Yes, Daffy gets around! And in as much trouble as Donald! I happen to like the warped sense of humor of Chuck Jones just a teeny-weeny bit more than Walt's. Disney always has a subtle and good moral to most of his humorous incidents in his cartoons. Daffy, the Road Runner and most of the Jones' character are what I call, "Good clean violence!" Sort of like the Indiana Jones movies. Yes, it's violent, but it's oh so funny and serves a purpose.

My drug, by the way, has now switched to auto-inject, but I still have to remove ONE protective sheath to eventually get the needle in position. My hands are also both numb and I've just gotten so used to the nurses doing the shooting and me looking in the other direction when the needle goes in that I tend to avoid doing it myself.

Cupcake - On Subcutaneos, the first MS drug I used was like that and those shots were indeed a lot easier, but they were every day. My insurance company solved the problem by pointing out that my doctor has solved the problem by saying I had progressive MS and the drug he prescribed wasn't approved for that Dx. I was forced to switch to the one I am now using, an IM one with longer needles!

I've also sent in the medical form and like a fool indicated the only thing I really needed was an accessible BOAT, which I know they have. On rethinking my situation, I realized we were going to be away long enough for me to hasve to give myself as many as four shots. Since my "batting average," pre-autoinject was something like 3 or 4 WRONG kinds of shots out of about a dozen attempts, I decided to see if there were alternatives available to me.



Thanks for your quick responses. I will just have to make more time for the phone calls.

Stan

 

[melissaga]

On the cruise, you would probably have to pay for the privilege of having someone give you your injection. At OKW, I would guess that you would have to leave the resort and possibly even go off site. I'm curious about their response will be! Please update us.

There is a refrigerator in the room on the cruise although it is not necessarily as cold as you will need. You will need to contact the cruise line and let them know that you will need to bring medication on board that must be kept at a certain temp. My mother had MS but I do not recall what accomodations were made for her medication (she was on beta seron), but I do know it was taken care of.

I notice you will be traveling with your wife. Can she help you with the process of at least removing the cap? Mom gave herself the injections most of the time unless one of us (myself or my sister) were around to give her one for a change. It is very easy procedure to learn and something that obviously will give you a great deal more freedom if you could do it yourself or have your wife do it for you. (I should add that Mom also had absolutely no feelings in her hands as well for many years).

good luck, enjoy your trip and let us know!

 

[dclfun]

There is a medical services area on the ship staffed by an independent physician and nurses. They charge for services and I know it's quite expensive...fortunately not something I've had to use personally so I don't know the cost or even if they'd be able to administer medication. There may be some issue about administering medication they didn't personally prescribe. I do know that in the parks the First Aid centers aren't allowed to do this so you'd be directed probably to Centra Care. ---Kathy

 

[cupcake]

Do you have anyone in your household who can learn to do the shots? My dh did mine (I'm not taking any injectibles now). Once we got the inject-ease, I did sub-q in the tummy but he always did the IM. We were not given the option of having someone else do it. They scheduled us for shot classes. We met with a nurse and they walked us thru how to do it and then had my dh give me a sub-q and IM shot with saline. Doing it for the first time is the worst, and it is good to have someone there to reassure you both.

We did IM in the buttock, they showed him how to mark off the approved shot area with his hand (make an L with your thumb sticking out and rest the index finger along the hip bone) and marked it off with a Sharpie to reassure us till we got used to it. Yes, very attractive! Basically, we both hated the idea of doing it but once we did it a few times, it got to be very routine. It takes ***major*** guts to do it the first time and then you realize that it's really OK. It is so much more convenient to be able to do it yourself.

Re your trouble getting the needle part off, I would do it with the nurse a few times as I bet it is one of those things that you just need to get a little expertise in. I could not for the life of me snap the top off those little glass powder ampules, for example, and then someone showed me the right angle to snap with and it was fine. Also, ask your pharmacist, he/she may be able to help you or switch brands for you.

I'm sure that for $$$ someone can do the shots, but I will be your cheerleader if you decide to explore doing it w/o a trained professsional. My dh did it for years and he is not terribly coordinated, but he did great.

Cupcake

 

[Daffy Duck]

Thanks for the additional input.

I ain't paying any doctor to give me a shot! I'm already paying enough for the trip down on the Autotrain, the points for the Vacation Club and our meals at WDW. LOL

I showed our youngest daughter who is now 21 how you do the shots. My wife has always been willing to change the diapers of her special ed kids in school, but shots give her a quesy feeling in her stomach!

I will practice in the presence of the nurse at work. She's a good friend and I'm sure will coach and correct me as needed. She has awards from the World Health Organization where she once worked. Living where we do, I've been able to marshall some excellent medical care when necessary. Some of our doctors have been from NIH and Johns Hopkins.

When I think about all my complaining, can you imagine how hard it would be for Chip or Dale to give themselves a shot?

Thanks again.

Stan

 

[tkd lisa]

More info on the refrigerator situation on the cruise. If you need to keep meds at a certain temp, they will bring you a real refrigerator for the cruise. (FIL is diabetic and needs insulin, so I checked). You can call the 1-800 number even if you didn't put it on your documents. When you get to your stateroom, the fridge should be there. I'm not sure of the answer on shots, but I tend to think that if they can do it at medical, they will charge you for it.

Good luck! Lisa