Former art teacher with a passion for travel

[Chamisa]

Former art teacher. I started traveling in my fifties and it became my passion (I’ve visited 41 countries so far!) until Covid and then my stage 4 diagnosis came.

Diagnosed with IDC stage 3 in 2015. My great-grandmother had breast cancer in the 1920s, and an aunt had it when she was in her mid-eighties, but that is my total family history with it. Did the “poison/slash/burn” protocol (neoadjuvant chemo, ACT/bilateral mastectomy no recon/7 weeks radiation) then 6 years on anastrozole aromatase inhibitor. Diagnosed stage 4 August 2022 with mets to liver, lungs, and bones.

Started with local oncologist but I live in Texas so I’ve switched to MD Anderson for my chance at the best care.

[Nocillo]

I hope you get the care you need and that you can keep traveling as you want. Best of luck to you!

[LDR1]

hi Chamisa, I too am a former globetrotter, now grounded by the pandemic and MBC! I’m glad we both have a lot of adventurous memories to think back on

I’m hoping to travel to the US West coast this summer (I’m on the east coast) but am still very wary of the Covid risks of planes / airports, so am not sure.

Wishing you good progress on your treatments! 🙏🏼 🌎

[Chamisa in reply to LDR1]

We’re doing something similar. Taking two cruises this summer… one a Columbia River cruise and the other an Alaskan cruise. The idea is that I could get back home relatively quickly should I need to. I will be consistently masked up! 🤞

[PJBinMI in reply to Chamisa]

My husband and I took an Alaska cruise a couple of years after my MBC diagnosis. I don't come close to your 41 countries (9 for me) but I love travel and that cruise was one of the best trips I've taken! Being on Glacier Bay was amazing beyond words! Maybe it will resonate with your artistic talent! And on a cruise ship, you always have access to your state room, with a private bathroom and bed! And there is generally a physician on board, which can be reassuring. I loved traveling by rail in Europe. Both Britrail and Eurrail were reliable, comfortable, and often full of both local folks and other travelers who were friendly and were great at sharing info! Going thru the Alps was another amazing travel experience for me. Great memories. What cruise line did you use for the Columbia River cruise? and would you recommend it? That cruise is on my bucket list! My maternal grandfather was one of the main civil engineers on construction of the Columbia River highway a bit over 100 years ago. So I have a family connection to that, too, and was thrilled to drive that highway several years ago!

[Chamisa in reply to PJBinMI]

Our Columbia River cruise is coming up in June, so I don’t know if I recommend it or not just yet. It’s with American Cruise Lines. It’s expensive (we’re spending more on this than some of our European travels) but we’re going with my cousin and her husband and it’s where she really wanted to go.

Europe by rail is something I’d like to do. I’ve taken the Eurostar from London to Paris, and I’ve traveled a bit in Japan by train. There’s no comparison between our trains here in the USA and those!

[Best521]

Hi Chamisa. Fellow passionate traveler here. My goal had been to go around the world to every continent. When I was first diagnosed I thought that part of my life had ended. However a year and half later I am on my way to the Middle East with lots of masks, a box of Paxlovid, two boxes of test kits and the most expensive travel insurance policy ever purchased. Yes it is very scary, however I want to take the opportunity while I am still able. MD Anderson is a great place to be, hopefully they will have treatments for you that will get you back out on the road in no time. Best wishes.

[Chamisa in reply to Best521]

Wow, that sounds awesome! Good luck and happy travels!!

[Roarlion]

Welcome Chamisa,

I am 68 years old. I have had MBC for 3 years. I have been on more drugs than I can count, including chemo. I have very little hair right now. I had always been a travel bug. On my way to Florida in 2 weeks and Ireland in May. Have traveled many places in the last three years.

Words of advice, make sure you buy medical insurance. Medicare doesn’t cover you overseas. Enjoy your life, travel, hug lots of people and keep the Faith.

Denise

[Chamisa in reply to Roarlion]

Do you have a travel medical insurance company that you’ve been happy with? I’m assuming you mean something more specific than the medical coverage of regular international travel insurance like AIG or Allianz.

[Tolife_18]

hi Chamisa, I’m defining myself as travel obsessed. If I’m not traveling, I read and research the travel. My friends know that I keep my notes from the places I traveled to and also happy to help them with planning. It gives me real pleasure.

Since being diagnosed in July 2020, I had some good trips, both in US and abroad. unfortunately, I’m in the wheelchair now, but my husband really understands how important the travel is for my well-being, and we still going places.

Extra travel insurance is a must! And pls remember to purchase it with 14 days after the initial payment. This way your pre-existing condition is covered.

[Chamisa in reply to Tolife_18]

Yes, even before my MBC diagnosis I bought travel insurance with the pre-existing conditions coverage. 👍😊 I was on a Mediterranean cruise a few years ago (after BC but before MBC) and a fellow passenger was in a wheelchair— by herself, mind you— and after the cruise I saw her again as we were heading home in the Frankfurt airport, assisted by some of the airline personnel. I was amazed and impressed. I’ve no idea what her condition was but to even attempt travel solo like that seemed so daunting to me. Kudos to you and your husband for making it work!

[jersey-jazz in reply to Tolife_18]

Dear Tolife_18 -I too am still traveling internationally although the latest health issues may put pay to that. At this point, I am planning to return to South America in the fall. Please explain what do you mean by, "---purchase it with 14 days after the initial payment."?

[Chamisa in reply to jersey-jazz]

I’m not Tolife_18 but I can tell you that many travel insurances give you a window of fourteen days after you make a deposit for your trip insurance to purchase ”pre-existing conditions” medical coverage as well as “cancel for any reason” coverage. After the fourteen day window passes, the option to purchase those add-ons is closed.

[jersey-jazz in reply to Chamisa]

Thank you for responding. Tolife has also responded in kind an so I posed question to her. Please see it. I really don't know what I am fretting about. Have no bookings now and won't be able to do more than plan, vaguely, for the next trip. The cancer is being sorted out on Monday but the heart thing is a mess.

[Chamisa in reply to jersey-jazz]

I always buy my travel insurance immediately (before my MBC diagnosis what I really cared about was the ability to get cancel-for-any-reason coverage… it’s not great but we have used that option twice over the years. But I always also got the pre-existing condition coverage since I had previously had cancer and also my husband has some health issues) so I can get the options I was referring to. I usually use AIG Travel Guard but that’s not the only company I’ve used in the past. You’ll just need to search and compare companies.

Anyway, I’ll get the initial insurance coverage before I know my flight info because they’ll always (gladly because you end up paying them more 🥴) let you go back later and add your flights to your policy.

[Chamisa in reply to jersey-jazz]

I understand about vague planning! 😊 Because of the Covid pandemic, other family issues, and my health, we’ve planned and cancelled so many trips!! We have cruise travel vouchers waiting to be used, also. 😳

My local oncologist told me to continue planning (with trip insurance) and if I needed to cancel she’d send them a note or whatever they required to get my money back. My MD Anderson oncologist also said the point of all this treatment is to be able to live my life, so make my plans and they’ll work my treatment around those dates.

Having said all that, I still haven’t gone anywhere in a long time. 😞 We’re moving to a different house and also have a very elderly dog that’s an issue because we can’t kennel her. Add all that to my ongoing treatment schedule and traveling becomes difficult.

[jersey-jazz in reply to Chamisa]

I used to live in Scotland. We retired early, bought an old VW campervan a week after retiring and enjoyed traveling all over Europe and North Africa with an American Express Platinum card compete with full health insurance coverage. Duncan got a health issue twice when in the USA and used the benefit. My husband died when I was seventy. Since the card was in my name and I was the real traveler in the family, I just kept paying for it and using it over the years. I used it for lots of benefits but never for the health coverage. Then, at about eighty-one or eighty-two, I was booked to go to Russia and asked to have the complete coverage document. Upon reading it, imagine my surprise when I read that all health benefits ended at age seventy! I still have the card and enjoy having it. It does have some benefit that will get me back home built into it. To embark onto the QM2 last May, I needed two million BPS coverage to return home and it turns out that that is one of those extras that I knew nothing about until I needed it. I would have thought that that would have been part of the health thing but they treat it separately. When I went South America in November, I asked my health insurers if I was covered or international travel and I was told I was because I have plan J. This amazed me so I asked for it in writing. I got it but it was so vague that I wonder.

[Chamisa in reply to jersey-jazz]

I admire your adventurous-ness! What a shock though to find out that that medical coverage hadn’t been in effect all those years! Thank goodness you hadn’t needed it!!

[Tolife_18 in reply to jersey-jazz]

there is no need to buy any add-on to be covered for pre-existing conditions. You just need to buy the travel insurance within 14 days after the 1st travel purchase.

For example, you bought the flights on 02/01 and cruise deposit on 02/10. But travel insurance before 02/14.

I hope it helps.

[jersey-jazz in reply to Tolife_18]

Thank you for explaining it to me. I did not know about the fourteen day thing. What if you buy the insurance beyond the flight ate but within the fourteen days of the cruise. Would the cruise be covered but not the flight?

[mariootsi]

Welcome MD Anderson seems to be a wonderful cancer hospital with a great reputation. You are in good hands!