Me & the Big Apple!

I flew to NYC recently. This was my first flight in over a year. Traveling by air is still possible when you have a chronic lung condition and use supplemental O2 by day and a bi-pap machine by night. But it requires some extra planning.

Before you fly, you must notify your airline that you intend to bring a Portable Oxygen Concentrator on board. O2 cannisters are NOT allowed for safety reasons. If you don't normally use a POC, you can rent one for the duration of your travel. Your carrier will require you to fill out a form detailing the type of device you use and you must have your doctor sign off on whether you are able to travel. It's a good idea to have a copy of your prescription for O2 as well. You must also carry enough back up batteries to cover 1 1/2 times the expected time of travel. 

"Herkimer" (my pet name for my POC) counts as my personal item. He is, for airline purposes, my purse. I keep a slim wallet holding my ID & other cards, my glasses case, pill minder and cellphone in his small pocket. My other essentials had to go in my carry-on. 

Do NOT try to push the envelope beyond the standard 22" X 14" X 9" bag. If you're flying, check on the size of the plane. Some regional jets require passengers to "gate check" their bags. I was able to keep mine with me because I had to have access to spare batteries if I needed them. But I was only allowed to take my rollerboard on because it squeezed into the space under the seat in front of my husband. It would not fit into the overhead bin.

The good news it that my bi-pap (whom I affectionately call "Morpheus") and all his tubes, plugs and headgear fit snugly into the rollerbag with space for my portable oxygen concentrator's extra batteries, cannulas, and plugs as well. The bad news is that only other things I was able to pack in my carry-on was a very small make-up & toiletries kit, a couple pairs of underwear, PJ's and one change of clothing.

If Delta had lost my checked bag, it would have been a l-o-o-o-n-g week.

I was in NYC for the RWA (Romance Writers of America) National Conference, but because I was a late signing up, I was unable to stay in the conference hotel. We were at the W, a hotel around the corner on Times Square.


It's a super trendy, modern hotel. The entrance was flanked by two of these fern-head sculptures and the lobby ceiling was glass with water flowing above it in swirling jets.

Unfortunately, the hotel was undergoing renovations, so I was bucking some pretty serious construction dust at times. The next time I book a hotel room. I will ask if they are doing renovations before I commit to staying there.  Also I needed to be sure I took a deep breath before the super-fast elevator to the 49th floor shot upward. Poor little "Herkimer" shut down as the pressure changed so quickly. Fortunately, he righted himself once I got out of the elevator and started sending me those much needed puffs of O2.

Then a week after we got home, news of the Legionaires outbreak in the Bronx hit the news. I won't lie. I was a little freaked out about it. Of course, I was in the Times Square area most of the time, nowhere near the Bronx. But still...the same conditions with infected cooling towers that led to several deaths might well exist in Manhattan.

But I can't live my life being afraid of every germ out there. I'll never leave the house if I succumb to that. Even though my immune system is compromised, I can't go into hiding. I'm determined to live as normal a life as I can, for as long as I can.

And that means saying yes to adventure whenever it presents itself.