Rides to Chemotherapy and Infusion Appointments in Massachusetts

Chemotherapy is not one appointment. It is a calendar, often every week or every other week for months, and the rides are the part that quietly falls apart first. Here is how to set them up once and stop thinking about them.

Can someone drive me to chemo and bring me home?

Yes. We run wheelchair accessible transportation across Massachusetts, and infusion appointments are one of the things we do most. You can book a single trip or a standing schedule for the whole course of treatment.

Our drivers help you from the door of your home to the door of the clinic, not just curb to curb. If you use a wheelchair you stay in it, secured, with a ramp. If you walk but slowly, there is an arm to hold.

Why not just drive myself?

Plenty of people do, at the start. Two things usually end it.

The first is premedication. Many infusion protocols start with antihistamines or steroids given before the drugs themselves, and some of those make people genuinely drowsy. Ask your infusion nurse whether your protocol includes anything that should keep you out of the driver's seat, because they will tell you plainly and the answer is often yes.

The second is cumulative. Cycle one you feel fine driving home. By cycle four the fatigue stacks up and the drive that was manageable in September is not manageable in November. Families tell us this constantly. The ride gets arranged after a bad drive home rather than before one.

Can I book the whole course at once?

Yes, and you should. Give us the schedule the cancer center gave you and we put every appointment in the book. Same arrangement each time, familiar driver where we can manage it, no phone call the night before every single cycle.

When the schedule changes, and it will, because counts come back low and a cycle gets pushed a week, you call us once and we move it. That is normal and it is not a problem.

What if the appointment runs long?

This is the biggest practical difference between us and a scheduled ride service. Infusion times are estimates. Bloodwork comes back slowly, the pharmacy takes an hour to mix, a reaction means they slow the drip down. A two hour appointment becomes five and nobody is to blame.

We handle return trips as a will call. You do not book a pickup time and then sit in the lobby worrying about it. You call or text when they unhook you, and we come. That is the arrangement that actually fits oncology, and it is why people who got stranded once by a fixed return time end up calling us.

What does it cost?

Our published transportation rate is $115 each way and $230 round trip within five miles, then $2 a mile beyond that. No membership and no booking fee. We publish it so you can plan a course of treatment instead of calling for a quote every cycle.

Before you pay out of pocket, spend twenty minutes on these, because for some people the ride is covered:

• Ask for the oncology social worker at your cancer center. This is the single most useful phone call in this whole article. They know every ride program, fund and voucher their patients actually use.
• If you have MassHealth, ask about transportation to covered appointments. There is a form your provider submits, and approval is not automatic, so start early.
• Ask the center whether they have a patient assistance or transportation fund. Many do and they do not advertise it.
• Some disease specific nonprofits run ride or gas programs. The social worker will know which ones apply to your diagnosis.

If none of that covers it, or if you want a ride you can actually rely on for a specific time on a specific morning, that is what we are for.

What should I bring and what will the driver do?

• A blanket and a jacket. Infusion rooms run cold and so do people partway through treatment.
• Water and something bland to eat. Nausea on an empty stomach is worse.
• Your port or line protected. Tell the driver which arm or which side, and they will take the other one when they help you.
• A bag in the car, which our drivers carry anyway. Nobody is embarrassed and nobody is going to make you feel bad about it.

What our drivers do not do is anything clinical. They are drivers and escorts, not nurses. They do not handle a line, give medication, or make a judgment about a symptom. If something looks wrong on the ride home, they call the number you gave us and they call the clinic.

What about the days in between?

The ride is the visible problem. The bad days are usually two or three days after the infusion, when the fatigue lands and cooking, showering and laundry stop happening. That is home health aide care, which we also provide at $45 an hour , from one to eight hours a day, with no minimum contract.

The schedule that fits a treatment cycle is not a flat weekly one. It is heavier on the two or three days after each infusion and light the rest of the time. We can build it that way, and because there is no minimum contract you are not paying for the good week.

Where do you go?

Greater Boston from our Woburn office, Western Massachusetts from Springfield, and the South Shore from Brockton. We run into the Longwood and downtown hospitals constantly. If your treatment is at Dana Farber, our page on parking and drop off at Dana Farber covers where the van actually meets you, and transportation to Dana Farber has the trip details.

If you are doing daily radiation rather than periodic infusion, that is a different rhythm and we wrote it up separately in radiation treatment transportation.

How to book

Call 781 957 8076 or email info@careremedyinc.com with the pickup address, the clinic, the first appointment date and the schedule if you have it. Tell us about a wheelchair, a walker, oxygen, or stairs at the door, because all four change what we send.

Anything here about premedication, side effects or what you should be driving after is a general picture, not advice about your treatment. Your oncology team knows your protocol and they are the ones to ask.