Moving to Florida from the Rockies, Need Advice.

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TheSaltyOne

Guest
Hi,
My family and I are moving to West Central Florida from the Rockies for career and cf care. Expecting to go to Tampa General Hospital and would like advice on what the hospital's reputation is/how they treat their patients, as well as what good (not too pricey, good location, and low crime rate) areas to live are around the Tampa area (looking to rent)? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

sroeseler

New member
Actually I'd like to ask where about in the Rockies are you coming from and why are you going to Florida. I was under the impression the colder dry air was better for cf. We have been working our way toward the Denver from the gulf coast and the drier air here in Dallas has seemed to be a real improvement in the number of infections the boys get?
 

nmw0615

New member
I live in Colorado and I really struggle in the humid air anywhere in the south and Midwest. I have a lot of health issues when I visit family and friends out there and try to plan my visits for immediately following hospital stays, so I'll be in the best of shape. I still end up struggling to breathe and often cough up small amount of blood. The family of a little boy I know with Cf tried moving to Louisiana, and ended up moving back less than a year later.

I wish you luck.
 

Aboveallislove

Super Moderator
I always loved hot and humid but was in Tampa for a week for work once and it was stifling (I don't have cf...ds does). I can't speak to its impact on cf but having grown up n humid Midwest I can say that Tampa was much worse.
 
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Patti Rowland

Guest
Hi,
My family and I are moving to West Central Florida from the Rockies for career and cf care. Expecting to go to Tampa General Hospital and would like advice on what the hospital's reputation is/how they treat their patients, as well as what good (not too pricey, good location, and low crime rate) areas to live are around the Tampa area (looking to rent)? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

My daughter switched to that CF clinic 2 years ago when she started college nearby and we have been very happy with the doctors and staff at the clinic. The director Sue Roberson is WONDERFUL~ we have been fortunate in that she has never been admitted to the hospital there so I don't know anything about the hospital as far as being admitted there. As an added bonus, my daughter swears the moist salty air there makes her feel better. Good luck on your move!
 
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Patti Rowland

Guest
As I am reading these other replies I am beginning to think where you live is just up to the individual. My daughter moved to Tampa from Dallas. When she comes home for the summer here sinus headaches start up again. There would be mold in Florida - maybe some are sensitive to that and so the southwest would be hard for them?
 
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DelilahSmith

Guest
Shand's Hospital has a fantastic CF Center it is in Gainesville, Fl. It is a nice community as well to live. It is with Univ Of Florida. Goodluck in your move.
 
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TheSaltyOne

Guest
Hmmmm interesting stuff. I have always been told that the coast is the best place for CF especially the Gulf side. Mainly due to the warmer weather (less chance of the flu and constant colds) and the salt water air. Not sure if you guys have heard of it but hope you have.... the Hyper-Sal (hypertonic) nebulizer solution? Its a major CF inhalation therapy that is basically a higher potency saline inhalation that is said to break up the mucus and help make it thinner by drawing out the moisture from the airways and into the mucus itself. Almost all CF people I know take it and some it's not too bad and some it makes cough like crazy. I happen to be in the middle of those extremes. Anyway, the salt water air from the coast is said to be like a permanent hypertonic solution (of course not so potent) but helps keep the airways moist and the mucus thinner.
Just by going to visit there often I am more motivated to get out in the nice weather and walk or just get outside in general and it's much more pleasant and pleasing for me mentally and emotionally seeing how I love the sun and warmth and hate cold weather. Having said all that... I know for sure that I will be going to Tampa General Hospital (have heard great things), and yes Patti I have heard how great the nurse coordinator is lol, but I was hoping for more advice on what areas are safe to live around Tampa like low crime and good locations as well as is it pricier/smarter to rent an apartment or rent a house? Any recommendations? Thanks to all for your posts by the way. Good to see people willing to help!
 
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Patti Rowland

Guest
Hmmmm interesting stuff. I have always been told that the coast is the best place for CF especially the Gulf side. Mainly due to the warmer weather (less chance of the flu and constant colds) and the salt water air. Not sure if you guys have heard of it but hope you have.... the Hyper-Sal (hypertonic) nebulizer solution? Its a major CF inhalation therapy that is basically a higher potency saline inhalation that is said to break up the mucus and help make it thinner by drawing out the moisture from the airways and into the mucus itself. Almost all CF people I know take it and some it's not too bad and some it makes cough like crazy. I happen to be in the middle of those extremes. Anyway, the salt water air from the coast is said to be like a permanent hypertonic solution (of course not so potent) but helps keep the airways moist and the mucus thinner.
Just by going to visit there often I am more motivated to get out in the nice weather and walk or just get outside in general and it's much more pleasant and pleasing for me mentally and emotionally seeing how I love the sun and warmth and hate cold weather. Having said all that... I know for sure that I will be going to Tampa General Hospital (have heard great things), and yes Patti I have heard how great the nurse coordinator is lol, but I was hoping for more advice on what areas are safe to live around Tampa like low crime and good locations as well as is it pricier/smarter to rent an apartment or rent a house? Any recommendations? Thanks to all for your posts by the way. Good to see people willing to help!
Well I only know Tampa from visiting her at her campus - there is an area that looks GREAT ~ the Hyde Park area but I venture that it is expensive. Sorry i could not be of more help on that part.
 

LittleLab4CF

Super Moderator
Unless you've lived at high altitude, you are in for a dry experience. I frequently hosted people from coastal Asia including Southeast Asia where dry weather means it isn't raining. I had several surprised people when they experienced boogers, desiccated nasal mucus. Most were miserable and slept with wet wash cloths draped like a bandit.

Not to make this a science lesson but it is important to understand Relative Humidity to appreciate the difference in 70% relative humidity at sea level and a mile high. Nothing short of standing under water at 7000 foot altitude will approach the amount of water dissolved in hot, humid, sea level air. Conversely our potato chips are always crisp, something that will happen to all your membranes in the High Colorado Rockies.


Dryness is a combination of the colder temperatures that hold less water, altitude that holds less everything, strong UV radiation, and excepting the usual urban humidity in the densely populated metro areas, relative humidity is about 50% most of the time. Winter along the Front Range from Ft. Collins, Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs down to Pueblo, is genuinely mild, storms hit and are gone in two or three days. The Front Range summers will be tame compared to Florida’s, you'll notice the dry air.


I love the dryish climate of Colorado. National Jewish Health is a renowned CF center, and like half a dozen medical campuses that opened over a century back as TB sanatoriums. The clean dry air was considered curative and with thousands of the first electric blankets, patients slept outside. I don't know in truth if dry air is better than humid air for CF. I have far less respiratory infection and my FEV1 is fantastic.


The only concern I have is a sense my dry mucus really takes some work to thin it enough to cough up phlegm when I do have an infection. Compared to Florida, mold is rare as are little critters that don't survive harsh winters. As long as you leave all the cockroaches in Florida, they don't easily survive as well as fleas and such. We have some great allergens in Colorado, but so does everywhere. More dry plants like hay, wheat and golden rod are around.

NJH has expanded its facilities over the decades and have CF clinics at appropriate places like Denver Children’s Hospital. I have gone to NJH for a very long time but it isn’t the limit of available CF specialists in the region. For many NJH is forever tied to “the boy in the bubble”, a child allergic to everything, supposedly, and lived in a glorified hamster ball designed by NASA. Colorado isn’t fighting the Indian wars anymore either, both are history.

My assumption is in moving to Colorado for employment and CF treatment, Denver is where you are looking for treatment, whether it’s NJH or not. Denver lies in a basin called the Denver-Julesburg Basin or the DJ Basin that goes from Denver toward Julesburg in the North East corner of Colorado. The basin puts Denver proper in a low spot, warmer and a little more polluted. The mountains are a lot like the ocean in that they make Colorado’s weather. Typically winds blow from the North or West and they blow cold and hot respectively, over the turbulence of the Rockies many 14,000’+ mountains.

The good and bad news about that is thermal inversions we experience that chokes the Front Range during January-February each year. The air pollution gets caught under the high pressure ridge caused by winds shooting over Eastern Colorado at altitudes above 12,000 feet and then it is drawn to the ground and pulled back under itself trapping all the air pollution right over where everybody lives. Because we have the weather to smother us to death, pollution regulations in Colorado are uniquely stringent and enforced.

I’ve been in every conceivable climate for extended periods and Colorado has good air and good climate in relative terms. My home State of Wyoming may still have the cleanest air in the U.S. and it’s generally moving very fast into Colorado from the North.

If you like the high risk of hail and lightening, some do, I suggest Tornado alley a little north of Colorado Springs toward Denver. If you like groves of fruit trees, try the West Slope, it is Colorado’s most beautiful area in my opinion. Jobs are scarce in comparison to the East Slope or the Front Range of the Rockies.

Buy some Denver nasal cream when you get here. It saves me each winter. Scar tissue lines my nose from reconstruction and I’m always getting tiny sores along it if I don’t keep lubed during the winter. If YOU have any say in it, try to find a home that doesn’t use forced air furnaces. At least shoot for a newer one with a non-recirculating humidifier. Hot water radiators or electric, though expensive to operate, or sub floor hot water heating is going to disturb the air much less but without a humidifier, forced air furnaces take the nearly dry winter air and remove the last vestiges of water vapor. Humidity is like clothing in Colorado, it is low enough that if you want more, you put more into the air to accommodate your own comfort. You will discover that the same powerful sun that can burn an un-tanned person to a cinder in Florida is also in Colorado. Don’t walk out the door without some SPF30 sun block on your skin and really pile it on up in the mountains.


LL
 

mamaScarlett

Active member
I think it probably varies alot person to person, but I am one of those that thrives in the salt water climate of south FL, particularly in the Keys. We try to spend alot of time in the winter months here, away from the cold north east.
Not just being in the warmth and salt air/salt water, but being very physically active too. Since you have year round warm weather or generally warm enough to be outside, you can be active outside year round. Ive also noticed that social things here tend to be outdoor physical things...snorkeling, fishing, paddleboarding, kayaking, biking..etc, it seems to be a healthier lifestyle if you can avail yourself to it as much as possible.
Many of the hypertonic studies from Australia noted improvement in Cfers living near salt water. Its not for everyone, but for me it works for sure.
Wish you the best in your move.
 

dbtoo2

Member
Well I only know Tampa from visiting her at her campus - there is an area that looks GREAT ~ the Hyde Park area but I venture that it is expensive. Sorry i could not be of more help on that part.
Hyde Park is expensive! I go over to the CF Clinic in Orlando. Dr. Layish. He is excelent. I tried to get into the Adult CF clinic in TGH, but they only took you by recommendation and after reviewing what my docs at USF said, I was labled by them as 'morbidly obese' and 'non-compliant'. Indeed, I am a fat boy and no, I don't follow the rules... Tampa, at times, is tough with the humidity! Lots of mold. Lots of fungus. Crap road systems... No State income tax!
 

dbtoo2

Member
There are lots of townhouse and apartments with 1 car garages. They can be about the same price as renting a house! If you have to work, then you need to consider the road systems for where you have to travel to/from. Where I live, at rush hour, it takes about 20 minutes to go 2 miles to get to the highway (unless you want to cut people off which seems to be very common and acceptable) so I have to take that into consideration for travel time when getting to appointments. Always construction on the roads, too. http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/fl/tampa/crime/ As far as house vs. apt., that's a personal preference thing, i prefer renting the house we're in, nobody on either side of me or above or below me to pound on walls when I do my treatments or turn on my O2 compressor.
I'm not thrilled with TGH. It's out on Davis Island, basically one road to get to it, one road out of it. The wife was inpatient there once (not CF), that didn't work out well. I've been there for emergency (fibrosing colonopathy but the ER couldn't diagnose that), it's a 'big city' hospital with lots of people in the ER all the time, very sick people, very 'sick' people, etc.
 
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TheSaltyOne

Guest
Just moved to Florida and go to clinic at Tampa General. I believe you don't fully know until you are admitted as a patient but their clinic is amazing so far!!! Their nurse coordinator "Sue Roberson" goes above and beyond for their patients and is soooooo helpful. She might just be doing her job but compared to my old clinic she is a breath of fresh air. We decide to live in Citrus Park. So far it's a decent area but not as business populated as I expected. As far as the weather I haven't noticed a difference in how I "feel" but I do know my lung function is up. I do not contribute that to moving to Florida though.
 
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mommy w/ cf

Guest
The docs in Tampa are wonderful. In fact the whole area was really good for my cf. The salty sea air in Florida is one of the best climates to help loosen mucus in lungs and my pets were wonderful there. Sue the coordinator is AMAZING! I had my first baby while under there care and they were soo good to me :) recently my family and I relocated to Washington state, and I still miss my cf team in Florida. Dr. Rolfe is a awesome doc. He may seem a bit brisk at first, but just ask him all the questions you are curious about and hew ill explain everything thoughoughly with a good sense of humor and a smile on his face. Boy do I miss them! Just so you know it is normal, it takes a little while for your. Lungs to adjust to the wetness. You will cough more at first, but that is not a bad thing! It means all the gunk in your lungs that was just sitting down there in the dry climates are on the move! After a week or to... Depending on your severity, you will start feeling better and your mucus will be thinner and easier to cough out. I hope your move goes wonderfully! You will be in good hands!

gulf air is the best for cf other than Australia's west coast :) it's like a constant saline treatment!
 
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TheSaltyOne

Guest
mommy w/ cf since you are familiar with Tampa hospital. What do they do for admitting patients? Luckily I haven't been admitted yet but I have to get sinus surgery in a couple weeks and they want to put a picc line in and do home IVs for 2 weeks to get me "ready" for the surgery. So my question is.. do they normally not admit cf patients? Also, is there a specific wing or floor that cf patients go on? How is the food when you are an inpatient? Are the nurses all knowledgable on cf patients?

We were wondering this in case I get sick again. We weren't fond of our docs methods back in Missouri but we loved the CF "feel" that they provided when at the hospital. It was the same nurses each time you are admitted, food was great, a separate wing for cf patients, etc.
 

Rosie55

New member
We live in NC and are planning to move to the Tampa area in about 5 years when my youngest graduates highschool. We love the area and have friends there and go down every so often. My oldest is 21 and she has CF. She is not a fan of the heat but when we are there she says she feels much better, breathing in the salty gulf air and the swimming as well. And I agree, getting outdoors year round makes a big difference physically and mentally. She's looking forward to the move. This past summer our friends took us into downtown St. Petersburg and it is a great area right on the bay. They put a lot of money into the area and there's great shopping, restaurants and cultural things to do. I don't know what rents are like but there are quite a few apartment buildings and house rentals are an option as well. It's worth looking into because it is a great area and right near the water. If I remember correctly access to either the beach or Tampa was pretty easy as well.
 

Jessiesmom

New member
The Salty One - I have lived in Brandon, FL for the last 20 years - my daughter is 17 so I can't speak about the "adult" experience you will have with CF at Tampa General just the pediatrics. At the beginning of last year they changed the way they admitted from having the CF doctor admit her to the hospital's pediatrician group doing the admitting. The CF doc was then a consult - we saw someone from the group on average 2 times per stay! To me that was completely unacceptable - these pediatricians don't know my daughter - it's not even her own pediatrician who has treated her from birth. Then there is the issue of the residents. They come in groups, ask the same questions over and over again and then do not listen to either my daughter or myself when it came to what works best for her. I understand it's a teaching hospital and they need to learn but they need to listen too. We had an insurance change and have switched to a different group not because I didn't like the doctors but I could no longer tolerate the hospital.

That being said - I have NO idea what the adult side is like. I know they have a great vascular team to put PICC lines in (we used them before the Interventional Radiology group put in a port). I have heard great things about the adult CF doc there and the group. I will be interested to hear how your experience is as an adult inpatient as she will be 18 next year and we will have to research all the adult options for her soon.
 
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TheSaltyOne

Guest
Jessiesmom - that sounds similar to how our old inpatient stays were. It was a teaching hospital so we had a "specialty med" team of docs who were really good and nice, and then the CF doc was used as a consult. Luckily our specialty med team was great, visited everyday, and almost were more useful than the actual cf docs.

So far its been a month and the adult CF team at Tampa General is great! I've only been seen by Dr. Floreth who is really nice and understanding. He explains things great and really listens to his patients it seems like. The nurse coordinator (Sue) is soooooo amazing. She really does seem like a close friend rather than a nurse coordinator. I've never experienced anyone in the medical field like here yet. They are very attentive and helpful. The only concern I have had so far is that they seem like they do not like to admit people to the hospital. I've voiced that I felt ill and I had to have sinus surgery recently and they stressed how important it was for me to do IVs at home so that I do not catch anything in the hospital. I totally understand their reasoning but it is much different from my last clinic where as soon as you feel ill you are admitted right away. I enjoy the idea of being at home and doing my IV therapy but at the same time if I feel too sick I really don't even feel like walking back and forth to the kitchen to even get food. Luckily I haven't been too sick yet, only had surgery, which went well, but if the time does come that I have a bad exacerbation I am really curious how they will go about treating me.
 
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