Pain Meds for travel accident
 

Don't freak out. I'm not a drug user and don't even drink. Talking to a world motorcycle traveler and one point he made is that if you wipe out, are hurt and alone - you have to be able to get out. To get on the bike and ride to get help or to the hospital. And if you're badly hurt, you may need pain medication to do this.

My initial reaction was to say - this is a really good idea. SO I tried to get a prescription for some really power pain meds, just a few to carry with me for emergencies. Things are bad in our province at the moment and I can't even get in to see a doctor.

A second piece of advice was - There's such a thing as too much information, and that letting people at borders know that you have these little pills may not be the best way forward.

But smuggling them seems worse.

I got some from a friend. They sit there accusingly saying take me with you. But I'm totally not comfortable.

Advice? What do you do? Anything. We are talking 4 pills here, not a jar of them.

I think a well stocked first aid kit is an important piece of anyone's luggage.

The best pain meds are obviously only from a Doctor/Prescription. In my experience, they don't like handing them out unless they think you need them. Because many are addictive or used for the wrong reason.

Although in many parts of the world you can just buy them without question. India/SE Asia etc.

I often borrow/buy the "Good stuff" from friends who have prescripitions or spares.

Or fake some Chronic pain.

Paracetemol and Ibuprofen are a minimum for me.

Naproxen is great for pain and swelling from inflamation. Muscle pain, twists and accidents.

Codene is another good one for pain.

I also carry Anti-biotics.

No one cares about your paracetamol, ibuprofen, naproxen, or antibiotics, Ted. But codeine will get you jailed or worse in a few countries, whether the bottle has your name on it or your friend's. I don't know whether codeine is still available in Canada without a prescription, but it's an opioid, a class of meds which is frowned upon in most places.

The official travelers' best practice is to carry such drugs in original bottles, labels and all, and also carry a copy of your prescription. Some people carry actual letters from their prescribers justifying whatever they're carrying. I've carried meds all mixed together into generic bottles (to save space, you know), including many which need prescriptions in my own country. I don't worry much about it, and while I've been hassled a time or two nothing serious has ever come of it.

But I would definitely not do this if headed for, say, Dubai, Singapore, or Saudi Arabia. I don't know what people do if they're subject to seizures, have severe chronic pain, or other syndromes which require stuff that's totally illegal in certain countries, but I'd rather not find out firsthand.

First Google result, which I can't vouch for: https://drugabuse.com/blog/the-20-co...-in-the-world/

Have fun out there!

Mark

It is a packet of aspirin or paracetamol for me which has always been sufficient, hopefully always will be, if I had somethig that required stronger I would see a local doctor and get a prescription.

Good points !!

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You have good instincts - trust those instincts.

I don't think you risk getting into much trouble if you have a couple of 292 tablets (aspirin & codeine) or a couple of Valium tablets in your travel kit when you enter into any western European country, but I sure as heck would not carry anything like that into an African, Asian, or Middle Eastern country.

There's really not much point to taking any risks, because unless you are wild camping out in the middle of a desert, you can easily go and see a local physician and get a prescription for something stronger if you need it.

Michael

As others have mentioned - in many countries such strong painkillers could in worst case scenario get you thrown i jail. Another aspect is that one should be very careful about riding «under the influence» of such strong painkillers. For many people who for example arent used to take such medications or react much to such medications - its not a good idea and in many cases illegal to take on the task of riding a bike or driving a car.

An example - my friends sister flew out to SE-Asia for a holiday. A flight that is 12 hours in the air (and significantly time at the airport, transport to airport etc etc) And from Europe to SE-Asia she flew and couldnt sleep on the plane and got completely shattered. So she decided to get some medication so that she could sleep on plane back to Europe - as she didnt want to got that shattered again. She bought Hydroxine - which actually an antihistamin medication but it has a bit of a sedative effect too. But this sedative effect is normally very very light.
My friends sister only took one pill of this stuff on the return flight. She did not only fall asleep - she could hardly be awakened! Her travel companion had to almost carry her off the plane at the connecting flight. She drooled and couldnt talk and was more or less totally unconcious! It was like she had been drinking a couple of bottles of local moonshine…a really scary incident for her travel buddy and later when she got back to normal for her too…

And this from a more or less totally «innocent» medication as Hydroxine. I would be very very careful about taking strong painkillers such as opiats as for example Oxycodone or similar medication and then jump on a bike….

Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and maybe some Diclofenac - if you cannot control your pain with such painkillers - one should probably not ride a bike for long stretch…

Mark is on the nail. Anything opiate based is a big no-no at many borders, with or without prescription. I don't bring anything stronger than Ibuprofen. For anything worse than that I carry a PLB.

All of this seems to be based on slim chances vs slim chances; the slim chance that you’ll have some kind of issue that only four tablets of eg codeine will help vs the slim chance that border officials will go through your first aid kit tablet by tablet. Others may have experienced things differently but I’ve never had my luggage examined in such forensic detail. Drug dogs sniffing around, yes, many times, luggage turfed out on the floor, yes, that as well, but questions about what this or that is or whether I have guns, knives ( or drones) is as far as it’s gone. Maybe I look honest or something but the contents of my first aid kit ( or the inside of my air filter if you want another approach) have never been examined.

Quite why you’d need anything much stronger than Paracetamol or Ibuprofen unless you have a specific medical issue I’m also struggling with. I have loads of pain issues that flare up from time to time but other than hospitalisation with kidney stones I’ve never used or needed serious opioid pain relief. Codeine isn’t even that good ( for my pain issues anyway).

Last year I managed to break my collar bone and some ribs (I didn't realise about the ribs for a few days as the pain from the collar bone was masking any pain from the ribs). I was about an hour and a half from home - now I could go to the hospital close to where I was or I could go home. I drove home - gear changing was "interesting". Whether I should have driven is open to question but the adrenaline was sufficient to mask the pain and I got home without incident. Personally I would suggest taking ibuprofen and paracetamol but nothing stronger. To cope with the constant aching as the bones healed I used a TENS machine 2-3 tomes a day and that helped enormously.

To carry an opioid is asking for trouble IMHO.

So I would carry:

• Paracetamol
• Ibuprofen
• TENS machine
• Spot type system in case of really deep trouble

Link to the TENS machine I used here

I think the OP is overthinking things. If you need such strong painkillers that are illegal in some countries without prescription, then you've either got a pre-existing medical condition and will have the relevant paperwork should the 0.001% likelihood of them being "found" happen, or after a really bad crash you wouldn't be in any state to self administer anything weak or strong anyway.

In travels to more than fourscore countries and multiple hundred of thousands of km over 3 decades on a motorcycle I recall maybe 5 times my luggage was inspected and then it was only cursory. Never was the contents of my first aid kit examined.

During a potential search, maybe I look innocent :innocent: , or I slow down dramatically and become incredibly lethargic , or I insist they do the unpacking and repacking unless they tell me what they're specifically looking for. All while pretending to be really respectful and blowing so much sugar up their ar$es that they can't remember why they stopped me on the first place. In Latin America I struggled keeping a straight face when saying "yo no fumo español". I only safely managed it with a full face helmet and sunglasses on :mchappy:

My first aid kit includes antibiotics (expensive and with prescription in Europe, but cheap and over the counter in Asia), ibuprofen, minor would dressings, bandages, sterile things, a dental kit and syringes.

I never carry weapons, except a penknife like a Leatherman with a very short blade and to really avoid jail, I don't own or ever transport/ use a drone, although I am responsible for a guy in San Diego, CA crashing one by showing too much interest in how fast it went that he flew it into a cliff at 45 mph. At least that's what I saw on his phone display while standing next to him when it "lost connection". I briefly felt some guilt :oops2: The upside was that he never flew it where it's forbidden, so avoided the strong arm of the law :thumbup1:

Unlike others posting above, I've actually had the pills in my kit gone through and had to identify each one--I think it was entering Gambia, but I'm honestly not sure. That was tiresome, but it did work out fine in the end. But having had that experience I'm always prepared for it to happen again.

I, too, have had my first aid kit closely examined, twice: once entering Azerbaijian and once entering Uzbekistan.

Every item was examined, and at one point the officer asked if he could take one of the pills for lab testing ( it was a water purification tablet, packed individually in labeled, sealed foil wrappers.

I was very happy not to have any kind of codeine or opiate pain killers in my bag.

................shu

I’ve been through a number of Gambia borders a number of times, and quite a few other West African ones as well and never had that. Luggage over the floor (as mentioned) but not that close examination. Mostly they were after ‘une cadeau’ and once it cost me my rape alarm to get my Swiss Army knife back. They’d have picked on anything ‘suspicious’ though, not just some minor medical pills. Paracetamol or Ibuprofen would be equally ‘banned’ drugs

I started travelling with an extensive medical kit when trekking in the Andes, which is how I found myself using one of my suturing kits to stitch the fetlock of a mule when I was trekking in the High Atlas mountains. If I hadn't been able to get the beast able to walk unaided to the trailhead it would have been destroyed. So I did some 'mule whispering' in its ear to get it used to me, then started to stitch. There was no subcutaneous fat and I could see ligament, muscles, bones, so I only managed half a dozen stitches before starting to recognise the enormity of what I had taken on, and getting light headed. Fortunately the muleteer then took over from me. I then used a cohesive support bandage (loose then tight) to give the mule some confidence and off it trotted.

Starting off with non-prescription drugs, you undoubtedly know you are limited in the number of paracetamol or ibuprofen doses you can take each day, but it is perfectly fine to mix the two drugs and as if often the case when drugs are mixed, the effect is amplified. So you could take 2x 500mg paracetamol and two hours later take 2x 200mg ibuprofen, then after another couple of hours another 2x 500mg paracetamol, and so on. On top of this you can use Ibuprofen applied topically (on the skin) to provide focused aid that doesn't involve the stomach. If you don't have ibuprofen gel, you can crush ibuprofen tablets in skin cream. You can also apply diclofenac or movelat topically but these are primarily NSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inflamation drugs).

But that won't help with really severe pain. I raised the subject with my doctor, saying that I travelled in really remote places and could be injured miles from assistance. It appears in his youth he worked as a missionary doctor in South America riding a moped to visit patients so he totally understood. I ended up with a prescription for 100x tablets of 500/30 co-codamol which is a combination of 500mg paracetamol plus 30mg codeine. The two work together well and another advantage of mixing them in this way is that you would avoid overdosing the codeine as you already know you can't take too much of the paracetamol.

You can't get this mix in the UK without prescription, but you can get a lower strength 500/8 mix from Boots @ £4 for 32 tablets. Boots also sell their own brand of Ibuprofen + codeine in the combination of 200/12.5. A similar mix is marketed as Neurofen Plus. So again you could mix these giving potentially 41mg codeine. I also have more powerful opiates both slow acting and fast acting but you really have to be careful which countries you might take these into.

Equally important is the ability to support the injured limb (limbs are normally the issue) and I carry cohesive support bandages for this, plus a wide range of really huge dressings. The 'First biker on scene' first aid course is also useful.

When participating in Horizons Unlimited 'Mountain Madness' orienteering event in the Pyrenees many years back, we came across a lad in absolute agony at a saw mill. His foot had been crushed with logs and the only other person had disappeared to get a vehicle to transport him to help. So we dosed him with codeine and this started working within 15 mins. I wrote in an indelible pen across his forehead what we had given, and then in the true competitive spirit we resumed the event.

I think it´s not worth to take any riscs at problems at borders because of carying something when the chances you will ever need that item are so slim.
You can´t prepare for every situation you might encounter.
I don´t know much about medicines but aren´t they expiring at some point? If it is so difficult to get a prescription then you would have the same difficulty again and again when you need to buy new onces, and discard the old ones you (hopefully) never used. I have a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher and they are both expired.

Thanks for all the replies. Things I've learned reading these - some people don't read the actual post. Its a good idea if replying.

On topic. You can't be prepared for everything, I agree. But being prepared also means thinking deeply about the worst case. And preparing, at least mentally for that.

I'm NOT taking the meds with me. In countries where they are easily purchased, I'll get some. A few, for that emergency situation - and toss them before crossing a border.

I do have antibiotics and am keeping them. I do have 400mg liquid caps Ibuprofin and am keeping them.

Its not worth it. That SLIM change you get searched carefully.

I was surprised by the comments on drones and the border. I have a drone. How much of a problem might this be, and is there a way to mitigate it? I know some countries they are not allowed, like Iran - but more than that?

I do carrying a first aid bag on travels by 4x4 for trips abroad like on a transafrica or a remote south america trip.

I usually get / order them new before the big trip from my doctor. They usually are helpful, if you tell them about your upcoming adventure! I ask too for an english written prescriptions signed & stamped by the doctor.

Each medicine is labled with my name and how I had to use them.

- Painkillers, antibiotics, anti hystamins etc etc.

No real hard stuff like oxi`s, there are other hard paincillers available.

It never got checked once. But if - it probably could help.

I did not do that effort for my 2 month europe trip, because it is not that remote - and because local pharmacys would have everything on stock.

As a biker you usually dont will have the required space, to carry so much stuff... Single tablets in your luckage, could lead to problems. Also if they are free to buy in a pharmacy at home.

But yes, any "car search" at borders they was looking for forbidden meat / fruits and never for drugs or similar.

I did blog about that topic in german language, if someone like to see the full first aid packing list and all kind of included medicine . I too add a link to an article, who do reports about jailed travellers.

Surfy

Thank you. Not too many and not for a while. I will ship the drone to the next legal destination before entering any of these countries. And this may be a moving target, so keep up and informed.

Misuse of antibiotics is a real problem in the medical world. Even if you have something like a lower respiratory tract infection (aka pneumonia or bronchitis), you don't know whether it was caused by a virus—in which case antibiotics are a waste of time—or a bacterial infection.

I have the same avoidance of imodium and similar drugs. You stomach has detected something poisonous and wants to get rid of it, why on earth would you choose to bottle it up inside you?

This is certainly true...although sometimes you get strep throat, a topical or systemic bacterial infection, or even a potentially-lyme-inducing tick bite, and you really, really want antibiotics. I carry antibiotics and anti-parasitics, try not to use them inappropriately, and am sometimes thankful to have them close at hand.

Under-use of antibiotics is part of the problem, too: stopping partway through a course of antibiotics can serve to select for the resistant bugs, allowing them to thrive while killing off their less-resistant competitors.

Mark

Carrying antibiotics just makes sense. Its not like they'll be eaten like candy or used for a tummy ache.. But I know I have a recurring infection in my mouth where I either get surgery that I have to pay for, or take a few pills a day for 4 days and I'm good for a few more years.

There's just times when medicine makes sense. Even imodium.

On the road I can think of one very good reason.

Yes, it's good to avoid incidents where you end up having to wash out everything including your boots! :nono:

..............shu

As others have said, label and carry a copy of the prescription for medication.

Declare at point of entry.

I travel with a heavy drug and had to dispose of only once.

Have fun.


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Did you read my post? I don't believe its confusing. I don't have a prescription and can't get one. But thanks for posting.

Pain Meds for travel accident
 

No I didn’t read it. I just randomly post hoping to guess the subject. ;)
The conversation has moved on from your initial post, to medicine and travel in general.

And if you want harder pain medication ‘just in case’ a doctor will prescribe it for you. Just find a Dr on your travels.

One legal option is to use ibuprofen and paracetamol together. I have nerve damage and that combo works on mild days.

Here’s a link;

https://www.nps.org.au/news/paraceta...for-acute-pain


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Hi.

I use on trips :

Burana 400 - a good pain reliver
Activated charcoal - stomach problems

Both are available without a prescription.