Son traveling to China

[mflanagn]

My 13 year old son is leaving for a trip to China in a couple of weeks. He is a member of the Appleton Boychoir. The choir is traveling to China to perform in 3 cities with the Chinese choirs. It is very exciting. They will be gone for 10 days. The flight is 14 hours from San Francisco. They are going to Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou.

On a separate note, we get the Sports Illustrated magazine weekly. The last week's issue had a blurb in it about a 17 year old girl playing basketball and died on the court from HCM. Boy was that a great eye opener for my son. Our doctors have been telling Tyler no sports for years because of his disease, but he has always been doubtful and fighting for sports. Well I can tell you after he read that he looked at me and said "well I guess the doctors are right". I hope now he will listen to our doctor. I have been telling him over the years about the sudden deaths that occur in the athletes, but he needed to see it in his favorite magazine to "listen".

Have a great day all. Hope this snow melts soon. We've had over 72" this year.

[Reenie]

Re: Son traveling to China

It sounds like it's been an interesting time at your house! Congrats on Tyler's trip to China. I know he'll love it! Tell him we're proud of him.

It's good that he can read on his own that you're not just kidding when you tell him there's a very real possibility that he can be injured by not listening to the doctors. Hopefully he'll take that article to heart.

[EmilysMom]

Re: Son traveling to China

Congrats on his trip to China.

As you may have already have thought about, you should probably send a thorough set of medical records with him on his trip. I just finished putting together a binder with all of Em's history that will be more easily portable when we travel, and when we go to various doctor visits.

[Pam Alexson]

Re: Son traveling to China

Great news... what a wonderful experience your son will have! Best of everything to him on his adventure!

Pam

[mtlieb]

Re: Son traveling to China

Hiya Michelle,

That's a once-in-a-lifetime trip for Tyler and I hope everything goes smoothly for him. Dang! I wish I were that well-traveled at that age. He is a very lucky young man. You must be very proud.

I can only echo what the others have said. Get copies of all the pertinent HCM reports for him and make sure he takes them with him. In the (unlikely) event something should go amiss, it will be of tremendous importance to the doctors there that they know what they are dealing with up front.

It sounds like you have been very proactive in his care and he knows what he should and shouldn't be doing in your absence. But boys will be boys so just make sure to arm him with as much advance information as you can.

Good for you for letting him take this trip!

Jim

[mtlieb]

Re: Son traveling to China

Just one last thought: The plane trip itself will be quite long and can be very dehydrating so do make sure to tell him to drink plenty of water on the flight to avoid any unnecessary HCM issues, and rest up plenty once he gets there.

[angall]

Re: Son traveling to China

Hi Michelle

What a lucky young man. Just a little suggestion....I use to chaperone band members when my son was in the band and would go on trips to such places as Boston, Florida, etc. We were told prior to the trip what band members we would be chaperoning. What I and other chaperones appreciated was when a parent of a band member would alert me as to a health condition that his/her child had and gave me a copy of his/her medical records (along with giving a copy of the same medical records to Band Leader and/or whomever was in charge of the trip).
I hope he has a wonderful trip!!

[Midge Rollins]

Re: Son traveling to China

Congratulations to your son. What a great trip he will have. I echo everyone else about his medical history. Someday we will just have a chip implanted in us.

[mflanagn]

Re: Son traveling to China

Thanks everyone. Yeah we are very proud. I am very jealous, I wanted to go too, but we couldn't afford both of us (would have cost almost $6000). He has been in the Boy choir for 4 years and has traveled to Boston, New York, and Tennessee. This is the big trip. The boy choir faculty and chaperones have been with Tyler for these 4 years and are very aware of his heart condition and medications and limitations. I am very comfortable letting him travel with these people. Tyler is very vocal about his needs if they are any and responsible with taking his medications. Tyler has also traveled with us to California 3 times, Washington state once, Canada, Florida, Minnesota and a cruise. So I think he is very conscious of what to do while traveling.

There will be a blog with the Appleton Post Crescent (local newspaper) and emails from the coordinator while they are gone, so we'll be able to see what they are doing.

[gfox42]

Re: Son traveling to China

Michelle,
That's pretty great . . . does he need a personal valet? I'll do it.

I'll guess that the choir has this covered, but just in case . . . when I got sick in Argentina, it was *very* helpful that I had travel insurance. They were, of course, a pain in some ways, but when the cardiologists in Buenos Aires said I should go home, the travel insurance company managed to get me and my wife on a plane the next day. As I say, I'd guess the choir has dealt with something like this (I would if I were them), but you might want to check.

Gordon