Long term medication

[Matt999]

Hi there,

My girlfriend and I are planning a year long trip away from the grind of the UK in our Toyota landcruiser.

I require prescription medication for a medical condition, and while this is easily accessible in the UK how do people manage medical conditions away from home for more than a few weeks at a time and how do you sort out medication overseas? Do you purchase it locally, take enough with you to last 12 months or is it possible to get it shipped to you?

This might be a daft question but thank you in advance for your replies.

Matt999

[Tony LEE]

If you tell us where you are going you will get better answers.

[Walkabout]

You will have a UK "repeat" perscription; combine this with the global logistics system in place nowadays, subject to the medication does not require refrigeration while in transit.

[Matt999]

Originally Posted by Tony LEE

If you tell us where you are going you will get better answers.

London to Cape town

[davebetty]

Hopefully you will have someone who can get you medicines on repeat.

dosing and characteristics of medicines can be different from country to country. what you buy over the counter might be quite different to your won medicine, even if it has the same name.

You may need to depot your medicines in easy to transport things into countries ready to take them into harder to access countries.

In every language you are likely to encounter, print out a brief resume of your condition, the medicines you take and what they are for. Tape it onto you medicines. This really helps when you are being questioned and soon you have got everyone on your side.

I'm doing a talk and discussion group at HUBB UK this year about traveling with long term chronic illnesses, come along a join in if you can!

Dave

[The_Dude]

ill be facing the same issue next year.
taking 2 prescriptions drugs.
one for high blood pressue(minor issue but still) and some more serious stuff for my allergies. the idea was to simply take a years supply along, would be 12 packs of each along with a letter from the prescribing doc. would take up some space but not that much.
alternatively i could loose about 20kg(currently at 110kg) before leaving and thus eliminating the need for blood pressure medication

[davebetty]

A box with tablets in it will usually hold double the amount of pills that it has in it, especially if you take the leaflet out (always keep one leaflet though for reference).

If stuff is taped up and held tightly you probably don't even need the box, but for a year's trip you probalby do need the protection of a box. make sure it is in something waterproof too.