Traveling all the way from Grove City, Pennsylvania, to Minneapolis, Minnesota,
Merle Reeseman blogged about her 12-hour road trip to our 2006 International PH Conference! She explains how she
prepared for such a journey while living with PH and being on oxygen. With her
husband in the driver seat and extra supplies in the trunk, the Reeseman’s hit
I-80 in search of a cure.
Bright and early Wednesday morning June 21, 2006, we’re ready to go but
let’s go back to Tuesday. The car was loaded to the point that we didn’t
have enough room for the condenser. It was a choice of that or my
clothes and you know which one won out. I had asked my oxygen supplier
for a transportable liquid oxygen tank so I could fill my Helios
Marathon and not have to worry about a refill or changing tanks every
couple of hours while at the conference or on the way to the conference.
The liquid oxygen portable took up half of the back seat and when they
put in the condenser that took up the other half of the back seat. I
still had to pack a wheelchair and suitcases; the wheelchair took up
most of the trunk space. Then bags of medicine (I’m on Flolan); coolers
for the ice packs; it all had to fit in the car. Well, the condenser
lost out. If I wanted a change of clothing, something had to stay. I’m
so glad they brought everything over on Tuesday and we had enough time
to reorganize and regroup. Thank you HCS. We calculated how much oxygen I
would use for a two day round trip including sleep time and each day at
the conference and ordered a condenser from Minneapolis for the
evenings/sleeping. It would be close but it should work. Extra tanks of
oxygen were put in the car – just in case. Have you ever noticed how we
PHer’s live a “just in case” life?
