Hi, I’m 66 and last year developed severe back pain after gardening. Eventually after an X-ray and a Dexa scan, I was diagnosed with severe Osteoporosis as it was discovered I had afracture at my T12 and a minor fracture at T8 of my spine. No idea how I’ve done this. All they could offer was the Teriparatide daily injections for 2 years. I felt sick at the thought of injecting myself but it’s actually OK.
My problem is travelling with it. As it has to be kept in the fridge, it requires a special cold pack. There are so many on the market. I need one to last up to 12 hours, which I’ve found. However, not all hotels have a fridge in the room. Plus this particular cold p ack requires the freezer block to be put in the fridge 4-6 hours before freezing. Whilst the hotel I am staying in soon has said they can put my medication in a fridge and freeze the cold pack, I don’t feel I can ask that they put the cold pack in the fridge beforehand. What does everyone else do. This is causing me more stress than doing the injections! Corinne1
Hi Corinne I am in process of changing my medication from alendronic acid to teriparatide self injection for 2 years after reading your post my husband and I travel a lot making most of it our lives my concer is getting the cold back for travelling where did you get your bag that last up to 12 hours I can totally understand your concerns i am feeling the same.
Welcome to the community, thank you for joining and sharing with us here Thinking about managing medicines while travelling is a really important topic, so we just wanted to let you know that there are a couple of thoughtful conversations about how members travel with Teriparatide on the community that might be helpful to look at:
Hi, I haven’t bought mine yet but intend to buy a case for diabetic medication called CoolMeds Classic. It’s problem is that the conditioning of the cold packs is the most important step! Which is why I’m debating. It has an LCD display so you don’t need to open it to check on it. However, if anyone can give me a better suggestion, I’m all ears! Good luck!
As the moderator has said there are discussions on here which I found helpful, but as some feedback I bought a storage container that can be plugged in also and successfully used it on our recent cruise. Its brilliant as you use the cold pack with it for travelling then swap that with the plug in section.
I don’t think im allowed to post the make on here but I bought it from Amazon for about £50 on one of their prime days! I think it’s normally about £70 but worth every penny for peace of mind. Its kept the Teriparatide nicely chilled
Glad to know you’re ok with the injections, thank you for sharing. I am waiting for blood test results and then start of treatment and I’m a bit nervous about it, but I feel reassured now, although i know we’re all different, anyway, it’s great to hear a positive response to it.
I’ve been injecting Teriparatide for 6 weeks and am in the same boat choosing a travel cooler.I’ve not booked anything yet and am thinking I need to go in a rental when I do. I’m sure I’ve seen a thread on here about it a few months ago. I think you can do a search. Also I think you can get flasks to carry the pens that have a usb connection you can plug in. They’re expensive though and Jyoti need to ask if anyone has used one. Have your done all the other stuff for foreign travel. Prescription and a letter from doctor. Something they you can put the used sharps in just has to be small but sold. And checked regulations for the country. What a faff! I’ll see if I can find the thread and maybe a link to the flask thing. Let us know what your do and have a great holiday.
Hi, I’ve seen the USB flask - over £100. You have to be able to cool part of it before you switch from cool flask to fridge ( if I’ve read it correctly). I’m not going abroad thankfully, but its still a nightmare putting your trust in the Hotel to be able do all the necessary things required. They don’t tell you this when they say you should take it. I’ve had inconsistent information from the Professionals. My Consultant said it was ok for up to 36hrs out of the fridge (with no mention of a cool bag), a Nurse told me that once out of the fridge for a length if time, you couldn’t put it back in. The Nurse who came to show me what to do, didn’t agree with any of that! Talk about confusing!!
That us do helpful, thank you! Did you not have to cool part of it before you transfered it to the USB port? And did you ask the staff to freeze the ice pack before you left the Ship?
I froze the pack and travelled it with the ice back in the container - it remained cold for the 6 hrs it took us to travel and board ship.
I then converted to chiller version and plugged in to USB port in cabin where it stayed nicely chilled.
I didn’t bother refreezing the pack but just placed it in cabin fridge (which wasn’t cold enough for medication storage but .want ice pack was lower than room temperature) and it stayed nicely chilled for 5 hrs it took to get home.
Sorry I lost the rest of my reply id drafted as the phone rang! Just to say i did holiday in UK without the chiller container and it was a real faff. The hotel room fridge wasn’t really cold enough so had to keep rotating icepack that i had to get hotel kitchen to freeze for me. I would always use my medication travel fridge now!
The cruise ship infirmary did offer to store medication for me but would have meant going down 5 decks to retrieve it every evening, jabbing myself then returning it and I always feel nauseous afterwards so not ideal!
Hi Corinne, I replied earlier to your message on another thread, including how I have bought and used the Coolmeds Classic. I just want to let you know that the conditioning is absolutely fine. The instructions that come with it are very comprehensive. When testing I initially conditioned it for around 40 minutes as per instructions and it seemed to work fine, though only lasted about 10 hours.
However, I had a query in that the temperature changed depending on how I was storing the case. It was colder when laid flat than when on its end. So I rang the helpline. During that discussion the lady said just rely on when the water droplets appear not the time and that in hot weather in can sometimes only take 15 minutes. This is what I did both to and from my daughters and it worked fine. I was also concerned that the instructions say it could cool to 1.2 degrees C but if it falls below that just open the case for a few seconds to let warm air in. I did panic a bit when coming home it dropped to 1.2 - it had only dropped to 1.5 when going - so opened the case. It settled at 1.5 and stayed around 2 degrees C for hours after I got home. The medication was fine when I came to use it next - no cloudiness or particles.
As per my message on the other thread I did need to fill all 4 slots for the temperature probe to work correctly (I only have one pen and change cartridges every 28 days) Also my medication, Movymia, has to be kept refrigerated at all times, no 36 hour leeway for travel as with the Forteo brand.
It’s definitely true that the actual injections are fine but finding travel solutions can cause us to worry.
Hi Sheena, I manage fine with the inhections thanks. Your information has been very helpful. Did you refrigerate the gel packs before freezing too?
Corinne
Hi Corinne, yes I did, 4 or 5 hours in the fridge. I followed the instructions to the letter 14 hours in the freezer does seem like a long time but it worked. The gel packs did have slight bumps on them but no pointy bits.
That’s my main issue - requesting that the Hotel refrigerate the packs and keeping them flat, then asking them to freeze them flat. Its putting a lot of trust on someone else. Would there be a problem with them being frozen for longer do you think? I almost feel like not travelling at all! However, I’d hardly see my grandson then!
Yes, that is definitely the issue. It does make you not to want to travel abroad. I prefer to be in charge of things myself. Obviously I didn’t have that problem at my daughters for two nights, I could sort the gel blocks myself for travelling back
What we decided to do was look for a holiday where the flight home coincides with my 28th dose date so I don’t have to worry about getting the Medicine home unspoilt. This is problematic as obviously you only have a choice once in every 4 weeks. I inject in the morning so I would have the additional problem of keeping the medicine cool all day when you have an early check out and late flight. I did find some apartments that had fridge freezers that would hopefully help with the refreezing. I have looked at coach holidays too where the coaches have USB points where I could use the refrigerated cooler but I still think it would be a mix and match as I understand that feeder coaches don’t necessarily have USB points and I would need to use a power bank or the coolmeds.
Will just have to see how it goes, I don’t want to wait until the 2 years are up before travelling abroad again. Sheena x
Hi I been on Teriparatide for 13 months . I was worried about traveling as had travelled a lot with my late husband and wanted to still travel
End of last year I went to Malta found no problem, the fridge in room was not cold enough but it was put in mangers office fridge. Then on last day I asked for the ice pack it to go in hotel freezer.
I have since been on three coach trips in England and just asked for it to go in a fridge and again last day ice pack in a freezer .
I got my cooler bag from Healthnet who supply my jabs to me. I found the ice pack to Malta was fine . I have done test run and found it’s fine for over 12 hrs. As done with long hauls now it’s short haul I intend to get out and about while I can. But will ask for help at airport with my case.
Just get a letter to say want you got , I got from the Range a very small box with lid for used needles. Which I put in my hand luggage. I had no problem at the airport they did not ask to see the letter.
Next it’s September to Majorca. I hope this helps you with travelling.
So sorry to hear about your husband Monica, my husband died just over 2yrs ago. It’s good to hear that you’ve not had any difficulty with travelling with the medication. Health network don’t supply them in my area, I asked. Thank you for your help! Happy holidays!
Thank you Monica for letting us know how you had no problems with travelling with Teriparatide, and well done for continuing to travel without your late husband. It’s so good to know that hotels are willing to help refrigerating medication and refreezing gel packs for travel. Sheena
Thinking about managing medicines while travelling is a really important topic, so we just wanted to let you know that there are a couple of thoughtful conversations about how members travel with Teriparatide on the community that might be helpful to look at:
