30 Second Advice – No 16: Don’t Leave Home Without – Medications

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There Are Some Medications I Never Leave Home Without

If you are a female traveler there are some medications that I’ve learned the hard way, I should always have on hand.

I’m going to start this by saying – I’m not a doctor! See your doctor and make informed decisions about your medical requirements. These are items that I need and work for me, however check with your medical professional before you make any decision regarding your health.

The two things I always have:

1: Canesoral Oral Capsules. I hadn’t had thrush in decades, and then we spent two weeks lounging around the Greek Islands and BOOM I was struck down. It was quite interesting to have to explain to the local pharmacy on some remote Greek Island what I needed medication for. When I did get it across, all they had was that awful cream. I was relieved to have found it, but man that was crap. It was either cut our trip short and get back to the mainland or suffer through with the stupid cream, so that’s what I did. Now I always take a few Canesoral Oral Thrush tablets. One tablet and your worries are over usually and that is worth the tiny amount of space they take in my bathroom bag.

2: Ural – the same thing applies here. I thought my UTI days were over until I got struck down in the first hour of a flight from LA to Brisbane. 14 hours of hovering around the toilet, peeing constantly and drinking about 6 liters of water later, I had actually flushed that damn thing out with the level of water I guzzled. 1 sachet of Ural would have got me through that flight in much better form, and I might have actually had a little bit of time to relax instead of having to explain my situation to about 7 flight attendants. Thank goodness it was on the way home from the US as they get really weird about people “congregating around the toilets” on the way over.

3: Strapping Tape – I’ve rolled both my ankles pretty badly and have a knee that HATES down so I’ve started to take strapping tape everywhere. If you do roll your ankle, between YouTube and your tape you can make sure youn can actually walk well enough to get to the next bus or plane if you have to. I’m not saying you should walk on a badly rolled ankle, but knowing that you could if push came to shove is pretty reassuring. And you can use it to fix holes in your bag too!

4: Headache and Anti Inflammatory Tablets – Here in Australia we can get pain releif tablets that also have a decent level of anti inflammatory component. I never get headaches and I’m blessed with a huge pain threshold but should I need pain releif, these will do both and because I almost never need them they work really well. I’ve torn ligaments and broken bones and only needed headache tablets for pain releif but I was so glad I had them.

That’s all I take usually. Of course if I’m going to a Malaria area I make sure I have malaria tablets and I almost always have Immodium but I pretty much never take those. Most people don’t realise they usually take about 24 hours to work properly but which time I’ve usually got rid of whatever it was in my gut. If I absolutely HAVE to travel on a bus the next day sure I might take a half of one, but I tend to try and get it out – not keep it in!

30 second advice: Medications you probably should take with you
30 Second Advice – Medications