In my last post, I discussed my travel plans to Africa, which are coming up in a week. Traveling with mental and medical illnesses DOES make traveling extra stressful, but not impossible. I think just recognizing that it will take a lot more time and energy than it would for a “normal” person and planning for it accordingly makes travel more accessible to us.

Here are lessons that I have learned during the planning of this trip to Africa (I am sure I will have more post-trip!), as well as lessons I’ve learned in my travels all around the world. Hopefully they’ll be helpful to you and save you all the time and headache it would have me if I had known these things beforehand!

Note: Keep in mind, these are lessons from someone traveling as an American to other countries. This means that I have the advantages of an American passport, and I am sure there are other lessons associated with folks who travel on non-American passports that I am not aware of.

LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDED FOR THOSE OF US WITH MENTAL AND MEDICAL ILLNESS HURDLES

Lesson 1: If you will be joining a tour group, be upfront and honest with them about your physical limitations. Ask questions. Make sure they can accommodate you on this trip. Ascertain that you will physically be able to handle this trip before committing to it and paying for it. In my desire to go on this trip and fear that the tour company wouldn’t let me go if they knew my medical history, I failed to be completely honest with them as I maybe should have been. I may have a rude awakening when I finally get over there.

Lesson 2: Make sure your doctors sign off on this trip.

Lesson 3: If you have a medical procedure done before your trip, make sure it and/or the medication do not interfere with your vaccines. I recently just had intercostal nerve blocks done on the entire left side of my back, and the steroids injected in my back actually should not be taken near the time I take the rabies and the cholera vaccines. The steroids, while they will help my pain, will reduce the efficacy of the vaccines. This is a huge whoops on my part, and I feel like a complete idiot.

Lesson 4: Make a list of emergency numbers and nearby clinics in each place that you will be staying (probably good for “normal” people to do too!).

Lesson 5: Always carry a list of your medications as well as any medications you are allergic to. I also carry a list of my chronic illnesses, blood type, and doctors. I just keep both in my purse all the time (it makes it super easy when you are at a doctor’s office or at the ER – you don’t have to think of everything, especially when your brain probably isn’t firing on all pistons! You can just hand the doctors/medical personnel the list(s)!) This is a huge stress and time saver. I am attaching the charts that I created, here and here, in case you’d like to use them.

Lesson 6: Work with your doctors and/or insurance company to make sure you have enough of all of your prescription meds for the duration of your trip.

Lesson 7: If you take medications for your illnesses, do not assume that you can take them with you. This has been a huge problem for me on this trip. Because I haven’t traveled internationally in so long, I didn’t even think about ensuring my medications are legal in the countries I’m going to until a couple of weeks ago. What is legal in America is NOT NECESSARILY legal somewhere else, especially when it comes to controlled substances. And if customs or border guards find your meds and you are carrying an illegal substance, at best your meds will be confiscated and you will be fined. At worst, you’ll be arrested. The last thing I want to happen is to be dumped in some foreign hole-in-the-ground considered a prison.

If you are prescribed controlled substances, here are things that you can do.

1. Go on the International Narcotics Control Board and look up each country you will be visiting. You will find a form that has some information on what is allowed in the country as well as contact information for someone who could give you more information.
2. These forms can be old and/or inaccurate. Reach out to the contact person as well as your embassy in country and explain your situation and ask for specific steps you need to take to ensure you are doing everything legally. This takes time, so again, do this as early as possible, preferably before you pay for the bulk of your trip.
3. Keep your meds in their prescription bottles (this is a huge pain for me since I have 13 of them!). But also keep a printout of all your medications and the prescription labels just in case.
4. Many countries require you to have a letter from your prescribing doctor explaining why you take the medication, what dosage they prescribe, and any instructions they give regarding the medication. This also takes time, so do this as early as possible.
5. Apparently, South Africa also requires you to get a permit for controlled substances crossing the border. I am sure some other places require this as well. This DEFINITELY takes a long time, so again, make sure you can get all this figured out before your departure date…or else just be ok with not taking your meds with you. Honestly, if I had known all the trouble I was going to have with vaccines and medication, I would not have planned this trip, as much as I want to go. This has been a nightmare.
6. Don’t assume anything. Get confirmation from the right officials, preferably in writing.

Lesson 8: Make sure you have whatever you need to manage your illness and your pain. For example, if you have Celiac Disease, make sure you take gluten-free snacks and/or meals with you and inform flights and tour companies of your dietary restrictions. For me, I need to make sure that I am taking braces, wraps, tape, meds, creams, etc. to try to alleviate whatever pain decides to hit me. Take mobility aids if you need them. Contact airports ahead of time if you need assistance for mobility. Do not forget to bring things that you just take for granted (like epi-pens or insulin needles!) and make sure you have your prescriptions for these too in case airports balk at the pseudo-weapons their machines think you’re carrying. Take any other precautions you can think of (I paid a little extra to have a single room (instead of sharing a room) because I already know I am going to be hurting and tired at the end of the day, and I will need as much rest as possible…plus the last thing I’ll want to do at that point is socialize).

Lesson 9: If you easily fatigue or injure yourself or just hurt for no damn reason, be prepared for traveling to make this worse. Be gentle with yourself. Let other people know of your limitations so that they can be understanding when something happens. Take frequent time-outs if you need to. Choose not to engage in every activity if you can tell your body is straining. Trust me, quality time is better than quantity time when on a trip.

Lesson 10: If you have a medical or mental illness that could adversely affect the rest of the group (ex: I could dislocate my knee and that would affect our hike or my anxiety could get the better of me and I might not be able to make myself canoe in hippo-filled rivers) try to mitigate this as much as possible. Don’t complain, just explain what is going on and that you don’t want to prevent anyone else from having a good time. Find alternatives that will help you/keep you safe, but not cause problems within or for the group.

I have a whole bunch of other lessons for anyone/everyone, but have decided to write a Part 3 post because otherwise this will just be too long.

Have you learned some other lessons while managing a medical or mental illness and traveling? I would love to hear about them!

Keep on keeping on, Friends.