Pill organizers for extended travel?

[brett]

+1

I was in Italy a few years ago when I smashed my big toe. It looked bad so I wandered to la farmacia and asked for an antibiotic ointment. He offered me an ointment and also the antibiotic pills. No Rx required.

We have experienced the same level of service and care from pharmacies in Portugal, Brazil, and Malaysia.

In Madeira, Portugal the pharmacist entered the symptoms on a computer. Then hit a key. A mechanical selector arm delivered opened three potential solutions .

My spouse, an RN, and the pharmacist discuss the relative merits and together they selected one. From start to finish it was no more that 15 minutes. It did the trick.

 

[brett]

Visitors to Latin America, among other places, sometimes develop a violent form of diarrhea. But in most places, unless things have changed since I lived there, you could walk into any drugstore and buy a package of Lomotil, which is kind of an industrial strength version of Immodium. No way can you buy that without a prescription in the USA.

That was my spouse's complaint in Rio, Brazil. And that was what she was given. The hardest part, and to some degree the funniest for me, was watching her trying to get across, sometimes by signing, to the pharmacist what her ailment was.

She was shocked at what she was given with no prescription. Then shocked at how little it cost compared to home.

After that it was here was the prescription and it resolved her issue PDQ.

 

[rodi]

I was just loading up my pills for a trip I leave for on Sunday. I have generic cipro and 600mg ibuprofen from our portugal trip.

I had a similar antibiotic experience in Italy as described above for a stubbed toe... In my case I'd scraped my knee, then fell again and scraped it deeper. The pharmacist in Modica was awesome and I got extra strong antibiotic ointment and pills. Later on the same trip, in Marsala, my son was having a bad allergic reaction to some bug bites... (eyes swolen shut) the pharmacist hooked us up with strong antihistamines.

 

[folivier]

What we need is something like a multi-Pez dispenser.

 

[Joggernot]

Cruises & airlines want all prescriptions in prescription bottles. I have been bag checked because my vitamins weren't.

 

[OldShooter]

Cruises & airlines want all prescriptions in prescription bottles. I have been bag checked because my vitamins weren't.

I know nothing about cruises but I have many hundreds of thousands of airline butt-in-seat miles and have never heard of this. How about some specifics to support your broad statement?

 

[Joggernot]

I know nothing about cruises but I have many hundreds of thousands of airline butt-in-seat miles and have never heard of this. How about some specifics to support your broad statement?

1. You can look up their "rules" online.
2. Don't ever take a white powder on a flight. Powdered vit. C stopped me for a bag check.
3. Don't take your nitrates separately or let them touch the inside of a pocket on the outside of your bag. They thought I was a bomber and searched for the bomb. Lots of fun.

 

[samcat]

You can't take any plastic bags to Kenya. Against the law. I sewed a strip of bags out of fabric and used that to carry pills.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Cruises & airlines want all prescriptions in prescription bottles. I have been bag checked because my vitamins weren't.

Because the prescription bottles take up a lot of luggage space, we use the little daily compartment boxes for short trips, and use Ziploc bags to refill the daily boxes when on long trips.
But I also line up all the bottles at home and take a photo with my cellphone, making sure that the prescription bottle pics show my name, the Dr's name, and the name of the medicine. No guarantee of acceptance, but I suspect it would be ok.
We've never been asked or inspected for our meds in over 50 years of international travel.

 

[brett]

Cruises & airlines want all prescriptions in prescription bottles. I have been bag checked because my vitamins weren't.

Twenty plus cruises and 40 plus years of international travel, business and pleasure, and we have never once encountered an objection to how we pack our prescription pills and vitamins. Not once. Never by the cruise line, the airline, or in country customs.

DW bungs them all in one container...usually but not always a vitamin container.

We have never even been asked about them. Only issues we have ever had were a corkscrew and once in SE Asia an issue with bug dope that contained DDT.

 

[meleana]

marko's post on CVS's Simple Dose reminded me, I've planned a trip to visit friends and family where I grew up for 11 days, and my weekly pill minder, which I've taken on trips before, won't be enough. And once we retire, we hope to travel a lot more than we do now.

For this next trip I'll probably buy a second weekly minder, which I need mostly for my vitamins & supplements in the morning; I just take a statin at night, which is easier as I can just keep a lot of it in one container. But this got me thinking, if I was going away for longer, I'd probably need to bring each bottle and refill a weekly minder while away...although I do see 3 and 4-row weekly minders for sale!

So, what do you all do for 2+week trips? Any issues with vitamins, supplements, or prescriptions while traveling internationally? IIRC you should bring prescriptions in their original bottles, but I can imagine some countries may have much stricter policies.

When I go away I just skip the vitamins. Nothing will happen to you. Really.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

When I go away I just skip the vitamins. Nothing will happen to you. Really.

Thank you for the helpful medical advice, SGOTI; if that works for you, good for you. My doctor actually told me to take Co-Q enzyme for PVCs, and when I cut back from 200mg to 100mg I started getting them again, so I went back to 200mg.

 

[sengsational]

Count me as one with 95th or higher cruise experience with zero concern for pills that I've always carried. DW does the mixed bag of otc stuff, and I have the tiny zip locks. If it's "personal use" quantities, they won't bother you. Even the dry powder in a bag thing. An air travel example...they called over another TSA rep, and I thought I'd have some 'splainin to do, but he waved it through without even looking at it.