How To Keep Medication Cool When Travelling
This was the first question that came to my mind during our preparation for our two-months road trip through Europe: how to keep medication cool when travelling?
As you recall, I suffer from Ulcerative Colitis and my treatment requires injections every once in a while. Keeping this medication cool is absolutely crucial.
So how do you do this when your travelling over a longer period of time?
I'll tell you right away how to keep your medication cool when travelling if you keep on reading!
Phase I - road tripping through Europe
Our two-months itinerary
As our world-trip-plans got screwed up by the lovely Coronavirus, the first part wasn't that big of a deal to keep my medication cool all the time. Here's what we did during the two summer months:
Yet another road trip in Croatia
Then we continued our journey to Greece by taking several ferries. After a quick stop to visit the Sassi di Matera in Italy, we visited the truly amazing Meteora Monasteries in Greece before heading to the best beaches in Crete.
Keeping the medication cool at all times
When it comes to travelling with Ulcerative Colitis treatments, it obviously depends on what your treatment actually is.
For me, as you can read in my extensive health story, it comes in the form of injections that I have to administrate once very 8 weeks.
But here's the catch: these injections have to be kept at a temperature between 2 and 8°C at the maximum.
So how do you do this when travelling?
Road tripping through Europe - level: easy
While road tripping in Europe, we visited lots of places: we did day-trips from Split in Croatia, we checked off all the things to do in Pula, went all the way down to Dubrovnik and admired the famous sunset in Santorini.
All the while carrying my injection I needed somewhere in the middle of the two-months trip.
So what we did was the following:
- We carried a cooling box with ice-blocks
- We booked our accommodation accordingly: with a fridge
- When on the road, we packed the injection in a cooling bag with ice-blocks inside the bigger cooling box
Quite complicated, I know. But it worked!
I was able to keep the injection pretty much at temperature until it was time to use it in Spit.
Phase II - Costa Rica
This was a lot more complicated.
After getting home from our road trip, mainly because we attended two weddings in Austria, it was time for us to choose our next possible destination.
We decided to go for Costa Rica in October - even if this was rainy season and this means high temperatures and VERY humid weather.
But getting there meant: driving to Zurich airport from Sebi's home in Austria. Then a 2 hour flight to Frankfurt and about 12 hours from Frankfurt to San José, Costa Rica.
How on earth were we going to keep the injections cool at all time??
Enter: the mini-fridge.
The mini-fridge for insulin injections at a glance
Up until recently, I didn't even know this kind of mini-fridge existed!
I won't link it here as I'm still testing it and until I'm not 100% satisfied by a product, I won't try to sell it on this blog.
But if you're curious, it's a mini-fridge by a Chinese brand called "Cgoldenwall".
Here's the thing in a nutshell:
Like I said: it's actually destined to transport insulin injections which have to be kept cool as well.
Testing the mini-fridge at the airport
Here was the first hurdle to battle: will they let me on the plane with this thing knowing that it's an electronic device that runs on a rechargeable battery + holds injections (which are liquid AND might be considered a weapon)??
Turns out: so far they did!
Of the four airports we visited so far (Zurich, Frankfurt, San José and Houston), only one security worked asked what this thing was (in Frankfurt). And this was only because she hadn't seen anything like this before.
I did have a document from my hospital certifying that I needed to carry these injections in a cooling box - but I didn't even have to show it. She was just happy with me answering that it was my treatment and surprised that carrying something like this was possible - and she wished me good luck in my travels.
Keeping medication cool = keeping the fridge charged all the time?
At the airport
The M-Cool contains a battery that needs to be fully charged in order to function well. But it also comes with a USB-charger and several adapters in order to not overuse the battery.
Modern airports now have USB-charging-sockets in almost every waiting area. We just plugged it in while waiting for our flights to spare the battery.
The box in action at the airport
What about in the plane?
Okay, here is where we made our first mistake: in order to spare the battery, you can disconnect it while you plug in the box.
When we wanted to charge the battery the night before taking our first plane, we forgot about that. So the battery didn't get charged at all - our mistake.
Luckily, we flew with Lufthansa and their planes are equipped with a USB-charger on every seat - so we could plug the machine in!
In the plane, when I first asked if I could put the medication in their airplane-fridge, a stewardess also asked about the box - understandable. It looks weird. But here again: I explained and everything was fine.
Unfortunately, due to the Covid19-crisis, they were not allowed to put anything belonging to passengers in their fridge.
So I kept constantly checking the temperature of the box during the whole flight as we still weren't sure if it would all work as planned.
Keeping the medication cool in the rainforest
Alright, we made in to Costa Rica. But Costa Rica in October is rainy season. This means high temperatures (up to 30 °C) and very humid.
And as we were renting a car, we sometimes spent 3 to 4 hours driving around. Unfortunately, the car we chose didn't have a USB-charger and the cigarette lighter didn't work (it wasn't the most modern car...).
So we had to rely on the battery.
Keeping the 6°C when the airco works
And here's the thing: when the ambient temperature is under 20 °C, the battery works fine and it kept the inside temperature at 6°C like I wanted.
BUT: as soon as the outside temperature kept rising above 20° C, the box struggled a lot to keep it at a low.
Here's our first advice: carry enough fully charged power-banks with you! As soon as we plugged it into one of our power-banks, the M-Cool worked properly again. But only if the air-conditioning of the car was working at full speed and the air in inside the car was cool enough as well...
Phase III - Mexico
Getting there
I am currently writing this blogpost from Guanajuato in central Mexico.
Again: no problem at all at the airports of San José in Costa Rica, nor at the one in Houston where we had to transit in order to get to Mexico City.
In the plane: the air was cool enough, the battery fully charged and it worked perfectly.
At the destination: sunny Mexico
This is where I slightly panicked.
To get to our destination in Guanajuato (we are currently staying with a friend who lives here), we had a 4 hour drive from the airport of Mexico City.
This would have been fine only... even though we rented a car WITH air-conditioning, it appeared after we had already left the city that it was broken.
The first two hours were fine. As off the third hour, as noon was coming closer, outside temperatures were rising and it was impossible to keep the inside of the car cool.
Panic at the disc... in the car
We had plugged the box into the cigarette lighter - thinking that the power of the car would do it.
It didn't: I fell asleep for about 15 minutes and when I woke up, I saw the box showing 11 °C! Way too high for my injections!!
So I took our power-banks and connected them instead - yay, the temperature went down to 7° C again!
This didn't last long, though. During the final hour of hour trip, outside temperatures just kept rising and rising. Until they were above 30° C!
And here's where the M-Cool showed its limits: even with the power-banks, it couldn't keep it lower than 9° C.
Luckily, we only had about 20 minutes left to drive and immediately put the injections in my friends' fridge as soon as we arrived.
But we know now that outside temperatures above 27° C are just too much to handle for that little box - it's what they say on the description anyway.
To sum up: the pros and cons of the M-Cool
Pros:
Cons:
Conclusion: yes or no?
Does it work perfectly? No.
Would I still recommend it? Absolutely yes!
Seeing how much we struggled to keep the injections cool while road tripping in Europe and travelling from fridge to fridge, this little box really made life easier!
It think without this, we wouldn't be able to travel during months at a stretch like we're currently doing.
It also reassured me that I might even be able to do multi-hike treks WITH the injections by using power-banks running on solar power. Still have to test this, though!
But I certainly will and yes, I'll have another blogpost about that in due time!
In the meantime, don't forget to comment, ask questions, pin and share this article as it might be of use to you or others struggling with combining travel and keeping their medication cool.
As ever
xx
Cyn
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