Our Honeymoon! (My tips & tricks for traveling with health issues)
When you have any type of health issues, especially ones involving food and medications, traveling can be a stressful. Our honeymoon was an absolute dream, getting to spend 2 whole weeks off in Costa Rica, but it also presented some challenges being away from home that long. There are a lot of things I did to prepare, and also some lessons we learned along the way of things to do differently in the future. Here is a recap of our trip with all the tips I used and lessons I learned!
First off, my husband always makes me use a carry-on suitcase when we travel but for this trip, I was able to convince him I needed to check a big suitcase which gave me a lot more flexibility with packing. I brought all my daily medications, and enough for an extra 10 days in case we somehow got Covid and had to quarantine (we didn’t thank goodness!). That’s my first tip- bring all your medications, and enough for a few extra days, so if your trip gets delayed a few days your health is still taken care of. Also, pack them in your personal item that goes under the seat just in case your bag ends up being checked and somehow gets lost- you NEVER want to be stressed on vacation because you don’t have the meds your body needs. On that same tangent, I also brought a whole medicine cabinet with us just in case. I had specific pill cases for storing basic meds for things like pain, headaches, nausea, allergies and stuff like that. I also brought an entire bottle of digestive enzymes knowing I would not have very much control over my meals for the next two weeks.
For toiletries, I brought all the products I would need like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, etc… I never use the hotel’s provided products because I don’t know what is in them and I don’t want to risk an unnecessary reaction. Most of the time I just fill up a lot travel-sized containers with everything I need- I have a whole bin of travel bottles and jars ready to go so I can always pack everything I need. Something else you can do is look for the companies that sell travel sizes of their products, over the years I have bought a few of those and kept some of the containers to re-fill in the future.
My next struggle, and probably biggest struggle, is food. I knew I would have to relax a bit on what I ate- and that’s okay! Accepting things won’t be perfect is the first step in preparing for your trip. However, we did learn there are ways to make it easier. We stayed at two different resorts on this trip. The first resort was more family oriented, bigger and had included but ehh food options. The second resort was a 5-star hotel, was smaller, and had much nicer food options that were not included. Obviously, the second resort was much easier to eat at and much more allergy-conscious, but also more expensive. That taught us a valuable lesson- we need to pay much more attention to the food options available at hotels. Paying a little more for a nicer resort, with nicer food options goes a long way in making our trip more comfortable. Instead of being stressed about food every meal, knowing there are things I can safely eat without side effects just makes everything smoother. At the first resort, I felt sick after most dinners, and was very limited on what I could eat during the day. I also got some kind of something, GI bug maybe? That wreaked havoc on me for days (not exactly ideal on your honeymoon). Luckily, I had brought an army of medications with me and after taking an absurd amount of them, I was able to get over whatever it was I had come into contact with. Always make sure you have what you need with you in case things go south (sometimes no matter how careful you are, things happen). Looking back, I would have ordered less things that needed modifications because I learned a lot of allergy information gets lost in translation ordering in a country that does not primarily speak English. There were definitely nights I spent making food symptoms go away after eating dinner. I really try not to obsess over foods on vacation, and come to terms with the fact that I might have to make some concessions along the way. It will be okay, just do the best you can and enjoy your time away!
Another food thing you can do to help is packing snacks. I always bring my own plane snacks so I know I’ll have food during travel (airports are NOT allergy friendly and it makes me so mad!) and I also brought lots of snacks and bars along in my suitcase so I would have things to bring on excursions and eat in our room if I got hungry between meals. Having those go-to foods that I know are safe, and I know I like, are so helpful in decreasing the stress I feel around food. There is nothing more frustrating that being hungry and not finding any immediate options around, not to mention if my blood sugar starts dropping, I have very little time to get something in my body before it starts falling apart.
Having POTS can also affect the excursions and activities you plan along the way. Typically, walking around all day and standing in long lines is not an option for me and we made sure to plan all our excursions accordingly. We made sure they would not be too strenuous, that I sat as much as possible, and built-in rest days in-between so I wouldn’t be worn out on vacation. I also had to be super honest with my husband about how I was feeling, and not push myself too hard. We knew if I didn’t pace myself, we wouldn’t get to do what we wanted to do. I learned very quickly we are two different people on vacations, I like to lay on the beach all day and he wants to be out seeing all the things. I think we compromised pretty well and luckily, we were able to get through everything we had planned!
Something else related to travel I’ve learned recently is that for some reason, flying really messes with me now. I have no idea why, maybe I just can’t tolerate the changes in pressure? But regardless of the reason, I have to prepare before, during and after flying to make it as smooth as possible. I make sure to eat plenty of food, but even more importantly, I drink SO much water. Water (with electrolytes sprinkled in) is ESSENTIAL to making sure I feel as good as possible when we land. Flying has started making me have mild POTS flare symptoms afterwards and it can really affect the start of our trip and the timeline coming home. Something I’ve done is making sure I don’t work the day after we get back from a trip, allowing myself time to recover from the flight before needing to be anywhere. I haven’t gone this far yet (I already wear them every day I work) but I think compression socks would also help quite a bit.
These tips definitely helped me make it through our honeymoon, but I also use them to make it through just about any trip we take. I know leaving home can be overwhelming when you have so many health issues to manage. It can be so stressful figuring out how to eat, sleep and move in a way that maintains your health, while also actually enjoying the trip you’ve spent so much time planning. Hopefully you can use some of these tips to make your next trip a little less stressful! Just remember, no matter what you do, it most likely won’t be perfect, and there will be things outside of your control. All you can do is prepare. Prepare as best you can to feel as good as you can, while also preparing for those moments when you might not be feeling 100% and enjoy the trip you’ve worked so hard for!