WEGO Health: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why? Maybe you’ve already traveled to an exciting place and want to go back. We know travelling with a chronic illness can be challenging, so any tips for others that you can share would be great!
There are a few places that I would travel. I love going to Alaska during the summer. It’s so beautiful up there. I also love going to Lake George in upper state New York. The lake there is so beautiful and there’s so many things to do. I really miss going there. I hope to visit again soon. I also want to go skiing somewhere in Colorado one of these days. I’ve always wanted to go skiing there. I’m hoping to make it one of these years.
I actually do a lot of traveling for work so I have a lot of experience traveling as someone who has a chronic illness and inflammatory bowel disease. There are things I always pack with me in my checked baggage and my carry on when I fly or when I have to travel out of town for work.
I’m currently on Humira but I’ve only had to fly with it once. You can get a cooler from AbbVie through their patient services. I got really good freezer packs to put in it and it kept my Humira cold for around 10-12 hours. I also made sure to have a doctors note from my GI. You never know what you need. I also made sure that my Humira was in the box it came in with the prescription information on it. I told the TSA what it was when I got to the airport. The only thing they wanted to know was if my freezer packs were frozen and lot liquid. I had to open the cooler so they could verify that and that was it. The rest of the trip went well with it.
Carry On
- Extra Underwear
- Angel Baby Bottom Balm
- Tylenol
- Imodium
- I Gotta Go! card from CCFA and The Great Bowel Movement
Checked Baggage
- Calmoseptime Ointment
- Wet wipes
- Extra underwear
- Hemorrhoid Ointment
- Extra Prednisone if I have it
- Panty Liners
When flying I make sure to have a middle or an aisle seat. This is so if I have to go to the bathroom I don’t have as many people to get through to go. Eating while traveling isn’t the easiest thing in the world. There are times I have a hard time figuring out what to eat that isn’t going to upset my stomach. Especially with having fructose malabsorption. I tend to stick to soups and salads if I’m traveling to the training academy for work. For dinner I just try and read the menu well and try to figure out what to eat that won’t give me an upset stomach. My problem is normally getting abdominal cramping when food doesn’t sit well.
I also drive a lot for work. There are times that I have to drive 3 or 4 hours for work to get to a site. I always carry with me my emergency kit in my car and thankfully I’ve only needed it once. But it’s always in my car. I also always have Imodium with me now too.
Emergency Kit for Car
- Extra underwear
- Extra pair of pants
- Wet wipes
- Two or Three Plastic Bags