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Traveling with PD
Should have posted this question before we left on our trip. But, does anyone have any suggestions, tips, or tricks for traveling with PD. Traveled to Alaska for a cruise yesterday and got all messed up with my meds with the three-hour time-zone change and very long day. Will also be going on a land tour of Italy in Late September which will involve an even larger change in time and moving nightly instead of staying on the ship.
Blessed that we are still able to do these things and hope we can make them even more enjoyable. Thanks in advance for your insights.
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4 Replies
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I just got back from 3 weeks in Italy. I stayed on my normal schedule for meds ( 7AM, 11 AM, 3 PM
7 PM). Considering these are maintenance pills I wasn’t worried if missed 1 cycle.
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Talk to your doctor about your meds, relax, and have a good time! My husband and I have traveled to Europe a couple of times since I was diagnosed. I was very worried the first time, until I met another traveler with PD on the very first day, causing my confidence to be restored.
The most important thing is to pack your meds very carefully and make sure they stay in your carry-on. Whenever we travel, I pack my meds about a week earlier while I am relaxed, and I take extras of everything. After that, the rest is easy (because I have lots of medical conditions – all under control – I am on about 20 prescriptions!)
I have no trouble falling asleep, so whenever we are touring, I sleep as we ride from one place to another. My plan is that I will stay behind if I am not up a particular part of the tour. I can do less and still have a good time; getting upset about it won’t be good, so I always have my Kindle with me. Come to think of it, I did have two occasions when I decided to not join the rest of the group. I got to talk to some very lovely, interesting people as I waited in cool, comfortable spots, having my own very pleasant times. My husband and I then were able to tell each other about our experiences later in the day.
I will be thinking about you in late September. That’s when my husband and I are planning on traveling by car from NJ to CA and then back, with lots of stops along the way. We expect this to take about a month, and I have no idea how it will work out! This is something my husband has been wanting to do since the pandemic, and my neurologist gave me the okay for it.
Write here when you get back. I’ll do the same. Looking forward to hearing about your trip!
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Hi! What do you mean by maintenance pills?
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This is a very good letter and gives me hope to travel with my 84 yo wife who has PD for 20+ years(symptomatic for the last 5 years). We have flown to Toronto from NY but were afraid to fly to Tucson or San Francisco. This letter encourages me to make those longer trips. I wonder if non-stop travel will be better than taking 1 or 2 stops.
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I forgot to check the box saying Notify me of follow-up replies via email, so I am doing that with this note!
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My wife with PD and I are travelling to the UK from Australia in October for a month and we have checked in with our GP and the neurologist for their advice. Get your medications/prescriptions organised in the month before and have a list of them and a letter from your GP to cover you when you go though customs/border security. The neurologist said to keep to the timing schedule whilst you are awake (i.e. every 4 hours) and then to move onto “local” time once you arrive. I have done a printed schedule of the times (0600, 1000, 1400, 1800) for the kinson/levadopa and matched it with where we will be on our travel journey. As we are flying out at nightime and will be arriving at our first transit early in the morning and be on “daytime” from then our medication times will remain the same. Our first overseas trip since PD joined us so we will see how we go!
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