Travelling With Pills

 I take Thyroxine pills daily. When I travel I have several challenges. 

1 Remembering to pack them.  

2 Where to keep them handy. 

3 Knowing if I have taken the day's pill. 

4 Not getting arrested for taking in mystery pills, or forbidden pills, pills which might be for sale rather than personal use.  

5 Keeping pills cool in a hotel room in a tropical country when the hotel bedroom has no fridge.

6 Explaining what pills I want to a chemist shop assistant who speaks no English, eg Vietnamese. 

7 Finding pills in pockets or suitcases years later and not knowing if they are out of date. 

8 Having an extra pill to take first thing on an overnight flight home.

9 Having a pill at home when I get off the plane on a weekend or bank holiday.

10 Losing pills in delayed or lost luggage.

11 Finding foreign chemists cannot supply pills unless I have a doctor's prescription.

Now you are aware of the challenges, you can find suitable solutions.

Here's what I have done in the past. This is my reminder to myself. You must do what suits you and what your pill instructions and doctor advise.

Angela's System - Self Reminder

1 Place empty pill boxes in suitcases. When you pack, this reminds you to take the pills. If you forget to pack the pills, you can show the box to the pharmacist at the destination, or airport.

Write pills on the top of our packing list.

2 Keep pills handy in your jacket pocket, bag, or hand luggage.

3 Travel with a pill organizer. 

Options:

Write in your diary each day when you have taken the pill. Place inside each box the person who takes the pill, the type and/or brand of pill, vital reminder (eg not with grapefruit, one hour before eating). In case you leave the pill box in the suitcase and find it later and don't know how old the pills are, add the expiry date, which you can tear off the packet, and place inside one of the pill compartments, or sticky tape to the pill box.

4 Have a bottle of water on your hotel bedside table with the pill box beside it. Take the pill on rising, if the instructions tell you to take the pill half an hour or an hour before taking food. (That's so the pill is absorbed into your bloodstream, not carried out with the first churning of food out of your stomach.)

5 Take a copy of your prescription, showing that the pills are for you, and that a doctor has prescribed them. The cardboard pill box from your drug store might show your name and address, even if you have decanted the pills into a plastic pill box.

6 If there's no fridge in the hotel or conference bedroom, you could ask the reception or catering manager if you can store your pills in a food fridge or wine fridge. Label the box with your name, the date, and your room number and phone number.

Happy travelling.

You will find pill containers in the drug stores all over London.

Calcium & Vitamin D Chewable Tablets!

In a branch of Boots by the exit on the Baker Street side of Baker Street Station, I found chewable vitamin D tablets. Not my usual brand which are disc shaped.

These were vanilla flavoured. I still have my tubes from the other brand, and the tubes are a better shape for my bag, although longer, they are long and thin and less bulky.