An emergency travel medical kit could make your trip!

If you don’t yet have an emergency travel medical kit – you should.

The best safety precaution for you to make you feel at ease on your vacation is an emergency travel medical kit.  It can make you feel confident that you will be prepared for any or almost any eventuality. But why put a medical kit together? Why not just be confident that you’ll be able to find help? Well, I can tell you from experience that this doesn’t always work out well, or at least not the way you want it to. Read this post of having an emergency travel medical kit to learn more.

The Incident

I’m thinking of a particular incident we had while on a cruise in the Caribbean in 2013. We were busy with work and rushing around at the last minute to catch the plane, so not as organized as I usually am.  I didn’t put as much thought into my packing for that trip. Even though I had an emergency travel medical kit, I didn’t even think to throw it into our suitcase. 

Fast forward about three days a bad headache and upset stomach.  I looked in the drawers, the suitcase, and we didn’t have it with us. I was hoping to find some Pepto-Bismol. Maybe I would luck out and find some Imodium. I found nothing but Tylenol.  It was possible Extra Strength Tylenol might work in a high dose, but honestly, I thought it unlikely. 

If you have not cruised before, you may not know (at least then, I assume it is still the same) that Pepto and Imodium are not typically for sale in the onboard amenity shops. These type of items require a visit to the medical clinic onboard.  I went there and asked for some and was promptly quarantined to our room. They assumed the worst – Norovirus – and I was confined to our room for at least 48 hours with a strict diet.  Our emergency travel medical kit would have gotten me through this along with some healthy hygiene.

Going Forward

I learned from this experience to make sure that I always pack the emergency travel medical kit. By no stretch of our imagination do we get sick very often on our travels.  We have been very fortunate. However, I do like being prepared and being confident that I do have at least something to help tide me over until I can go and see a pharmacist or a medical professional if needed. 

What do I put in this medical kit? Typically, whatever would prepare us for a wide variety of potential maladies. I like feeling the same comfort as I do at home if something crops up.  At home for example, I typically would want to have access to Tylenol, Pepto-Bismol, Gaviscon, an Anti-Itch ointment or Cortizone cream in case of bug bites, sometimes mosquito repellent, Band-Aids and so on. 

In order to have a well-rounded emergency travel medical kit, I checked out the some websites.  The two below are very helpful:

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/travel-first-aid-kit

https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/health-safety/kit

You’ll notice that while I note a few brand-names above, you can absolutely use the equivalent.  It is more important to focus on the primary active ingredient as you may have to replenish your supply in other destinations.  This has been the case for us in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as couple times in Athens, Greece. Know the basic ingredient and/or what it’s intended to do and pharmacists will be very helpful in guiding you to what you need to purchase.  

Size of the Kit

You might be wondering – how much is in this emergency travel medical kit?  How do we carry it all with us on our trips? I have a small cosmetics bag that zips up. I wrap up with a rubber band all the pills together.  If they don’t have writing on the back saying what they are, I write that on them. I then cut the directions and dosage information off each box and put it in the bag as well and if it’s not labelled, I label it. This bag is thrown in a suitcase (typically a checked one.  If carry-on, we mini-size the kit!). Once done, you don’t really need to do it again. 

We always have room for the emergency travel medical kit.

Check out our other travel planning posts here!