Inside the medicine box

Has anyone ever told you to put a wet washcloth over your eyes to relieve allergies?

It sucks.

There is nothing in the world like appropriate medication. Allergy eyedrops allow me to continue on with my day, eyes open. Ibuprofen allows me to stand upright after hiking thirty floors of stairs the day before. Anti-diarrhea medication needs no accolade or introduction; it is simply the work of the gods.

Few things are less enjoyable than illness or moderate discomfort during travel, and many of these inconveniences can be treated with modern medicine. These are the few that I take with me on every trip (pardon brand preferences and substitute as you see fit).

1. Anti-inflammatory (I use Advil)
2. Anti-diarrhea (Immodium, one tablet in the original packaging)
3. Anti-allergy (I usually bring both Claritin and Benadryl)
4. Artificial tears (there are some sold in single use, tiny containers. These are excellent for long days, excess driving, excess plane time).
5. I don't suffer digestive woes, but I might suggest Gas-x or Tums, if you need them on an occasional basis.
6. Anything else that is clearly labeled and you use on a regular basis.

I like to carry with me anything that will enable me to get to a drug store to obtain the appropriate medication, or anything I might like to take in the middle of the night. If you need cold medicine, you'll likely know in time to get yourself what you need. The same is true if you need a second tablet of anything. These cannot be substituted with other products (there is nothing in a standard American hotel room that will treat diarrhea like Immodium).

Some travelers I know (who shall remain nameless) carry a pharmacy with them. I find this unnecessary unless one is traveling outside of the country or into a remote area where one will not have ready access to replacement medications. In this case, the medications should be carried on your person, particularly if they include antibiotics or injection medications.

Note also that this does not include prescription medications or vitamins, which I recommend you bring as one of the five travel essentials. Note also that this is per traveler. If you are headed to a location where all of your travel buddies are likely to need anti-diarrhea medication, you ought to recommend that they bring their own, or in the case of your family, bring one per mouth.

I keep all of these "emergency" medications in a small baggie inside my toiletry kit. Most of the pills remain in their original blister packs, with clear labels and expiration dates. Pills like Advil travel in a very small pill bottle (capacity of ten pills) in my purse. I don't travel with the labels and dosing instructions, because my intended use is "take as needed and get thyself to a drug store."

Less is More

Three weeks ago I ran through New Haven towards the train station in inappropriate footwear. I thought momentarily about dropping my shoulder bag and just living out of my purse, and decided against it. Instead, I kicked myself for bringing so many things with me, schlepped my bag to the other shoulder, and ran on.

Does that sound familiar?

While weight-bearing exercise is good for everyone, lifting weights as a part of a pre-departure fitness program was not appealing to me. However, I didn't want to be THAT person on my flight who couldn't lift her bag into the overhead bin (or worse, as I saw this fall) the person not quite strong enough to prevent my roll-aboard from bonking someone on the head. What to do?

My answer has been to take less. Each time I travel I evaluate what I brought that I
- needed
- brought and didn't use
- didn't bring and wish I did or had to buy

There are usually items that I brought with me that I didn't touch, and a couple of them are still travel necessities (medications, etc). However, keeping track mentally or otherwise of what you must have in Houston in December vs. August can help prevent travel shoulder in the future.

Case in point: I use an unreasonable number of personal care products. I know this. I have special lotion for morning, night, eye cream, hair gel, and a number of other products most folks would find unnecessary. My solution to this particularly troubling limitation (thanks to the TSA quart-sized bag of liquids rule) has been contact cases. Seriously. I travel with three contact cases but wear no contacts. I have labeled each with a sharpie, and am able to travel with six liquids for the space (and weight) of one.

Note this solution isn't fantastic for watery liquids, but ideal for creams, gels, lotions and other quasi-liquids. Depending on your usage, you could certainly fill TWO containers with the SAME THING, but I find that one container for morning face lotion and one container for evening face lotion is perfectly suitable for a ten day travel period.

Shirk Fear

In the last ten days more than a dozen people have asked me for packing advice. Seriously. I may not be an expert packer, but I've come about an idea or two and thought I'd better write them down before I completely run out of voice.

My parents are heading to Europe in a day or two, and they are defying many of my travel codes:

Travel Code (for travel less than one month in a developed country)
1. Don't check a bag.
2. The total weight of the stuff you bring with you should be less half of your total weight.
3. Worst case scenarios can be handled by a very few essentials:
a. A credit card
b. Your passport/driver's license
c. Prescription medication
d. Listerine pocket packs
e. Ear plugs

In preparation for their trip, my parents have packed and repacked bags. They are deciding how many pairs of underwear and socks to bring on a ten-day trip to Europe, how many batteries, how much ibuprofen and it has been challenging for me to listen to them agonize about what to take and what to leave. What can they live without? Apparently, not much.

It comes down to a more fundamental question: what are you afraid of? In the case of my parents, they are afraid of death. Literally, their most notable fears are: airline disaster, heart attack, being knifed over the $50 in their pockets. While it is difficult to say to my parents (and hence, why I am saying it here) is that socks and ibuprofen are unlikely to stave off any of these disasters, even if MacGyver happens to be nearby.

I inherited much of this fear, and shaking it has been the most important travel lesson I have learned. No matter what you bring on your trip, You Can't Take it With You.