Chronic on holiday: Bring extra meds or pay the price!

by Jenni Prokopy, the Editrix

How come when I go on vacation, my chronic has to come with me? Wah. Wannnnnhhh. Venting. Whining. Wannhh.

I know, it's ridiculous. Of course it comes with me. But sometimes it is just so damn frustrating! I already pack too much baggage.

Steve and I went to Myrtle Beach and had a great beach vacation. We were there while Tropical Hurricane Ophelia was still trying to decide what to do, so we had the Weather Channel on in the background a lot of the time. We were pretty committed to riding out whatever happened when I realized that I didn't have extra meds.

Brilliant, right? A ChronicBabe goes on vacation in hurricane country, knowing a storm is headed her way, and doesn't bring extra days' worth of meds. Well, I'm going to blame my lapse on the fact that it had been about three years since my last vacation. Uh-huh. (Urm, that's another article. Three years?!)

So, here's how you can get screwed if you don't have extra meds and you get trapped somewhere:

You'll probably freak out. I wasted a ton of mental energy stressing about the logistics of acquiring extra meds in case I needed them. The stress, in turn, kind of messes with the whole relaxing vacation thing.
You're likely to get the run-around from your insurance. Mine only answers calls Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 eastern time, and I needed info on a Saturday. Silly me, I thought they might have some sort of urgency line or something for people who dare to need assistance on a weekend. Nope.
Your usually helpful hometown pharmacy can suddenly be taken over by pinch-hitting staffers who don't know how to help you. I was so naive: I thought my Osco could just talk to the Wal-Mart pharmacy near the hotel, explain that I needed a couple days of my five pills, and bingo. Instead, the chick I spoke with at my pharmacy suggested that I simply transfer all my prescriptions to Wal-Mart and get a whole month's refills. Except that because I had just picked up refills for everything a week earlier, my insurance wouldn't cover new ones, so I would have to pay full price. And two of them didn't have refills left, so I'd have to call my doctor to have him fax in new prescriptions. On a Saturday. Yea, that's happening.
You inevitably wind up sitting on the bed, counting pills and wondering which ones you could skip. Can I skip any of these for more than a day? Can I cut this one in half to make it last longer? Will I have withdrawal symptoms? What if something happens like Katrina and a couple of days bleeds into weeks? What kind of an idiot am I? Argh!
Most importantly: Odds are good that your husband (or girlfriend, or pal, or whoever) will tease you by pointing out that THEY brought plenty of extra meds and vitamins. Grr.

We wound up coming home a day early so it was moot anyway. Good thing I did all that worrying! Seriously, not bringing extra meds with me was extra dopey. It didn't ruin my vacation -- I was lucky -- but it could have.

So learn from the Editrix's mistake. Bring extra meds! And even if you want to minimize your baggage by putting pills in daily-minder boxes, pack the whole bottles with prescription numbers, too, in case you need them (to prove they're yours -- to doctors, pharmacists, or homeland security). Bring an extra week's worth, and keep them all together in a bag you carry on -- never check any of them. And before you go on your trip, find out if your insurance offers late-night and weekend help via phone and bring that number along. Pack your pharmacy number too, along with digits for your docs.

I know I sound like a mom, but I was mortified at my goof. Just goes to show we all need a reminder sometimes!

Last but not least... check out our Resources section for articles on finding cute pillboxes.

Happy medicated travels!

Posted: 9/17/2005 in Coping | Also posted in: Venting

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Chronic on holiday: Bring extra meds or pay the price!