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Step 15PILLS!!!
Tim sez:
When travelling, BUY DRUGS!
Medicines that is. They're usually a whole lot cheaper outside the U.S., and usually you can get them at any pharmacy without a prescription. Here are some of the medicines I like to carry and why.
Ciprofloxacin - bring 14 or so 500 mg. pills. - a broad-spectrum antibiotic.
Much cheaper in other countries than it is here. Available in most countries.
While trapped by a gale on an island off the coast of New Zealand, I got a bad infection in my leg from shards of oyster shell. I might have died if I hadn't had some Cipro with me.
Also works for Bladder/UTI infections in women. On a kayak trip in Costarica my girlfriend took Cipro for a UTI. Unfortunately there are side effects. Sun sensitivity causing nausea. She was fortunate to have skin pigment and it was hot, so she didn't believe me about the need to cover up completely in the sun. She was mildy sunburned, nausea/seasick, and very irritable for the next week and a half. We quit paddling and toured by bus, but her mood did not improve. A nice trip turned into a terminal relationship ordeal.
Malarone - 7 to 40 pills.
Malaria. Very good daily anti-malarial. Not usually available in malarial] regions. No side effects and effective against all five strains of plasmodia. Lariam is much cheaper and taken once a week, but try it before you go, it can give you nighmares. Some people aren't affected. If you're unlucky it can be a bad trip in more ways than one. Lariam is only prophylactic. Malarone can cure, so I carry it and won't take it until I get malaria.
In malarial areas the doctors will diagnose you with malaria regardless of what you have. Many tropical diseases present the same symptoms.
Do not take any antimalarials they give you there without looking them up. Some of them are horrible. One such drug gave a doctor friend-of-friend tinnitis (ringing in the ears) so bad he was unable to practice medicine or do anything complicated. As is typical with bad tinnitis, he became suicidal. For the rest of his life.
A friend just came back from Africa recommending a new antimalarial called Coartem
Albendazole - cures giardia and other swimmers. Love it.
Metronidazole a.k.a. flagyl - HATE IT. Makes you pee brown blood, lose your hair, and feel like crap. Cures nothing I've ever had.
Praziquantel a.k.a. Biltricide - cures bilharzia a.k.a schistosomiasis. Just cures it. Love it.
drugs and disease narrative, unfinished: In Jayapura, Papua, I and my girlfriend (the same one lost to cipro, above) were taking malarone daily. I got sickernadog with red blotches all over my body, bone ache, and very high fever at night. (night sweats). The worst thing that ever happened to me in my life up to that point was once when she woke me up to ask me how I was doing. Eventually I got gave up and we went to THE WORST HOSPITAL IN THE WORLD etc etc. The driver asked us "you live in the murder house, yes? Yes, apparently the house were staying in was known locally as "the murder house", because of an unsolved you guessed it. etc etc. Then it was her turn. She got the night sweats, etc etc.
I usually ask my friends if they have this stuff before I go on a trip. Especially Malarone, which isn't available in places I've been.
Check to see whether a specific drug goes bad over time, or if it does so in the conditions where yours was stored.
Airline security doesn't seem to care about pills, whose name is on the bottle or whether you have a prescription for it.
Bring along the drug information in your notes. dosage/time/bodyweight, what conditions, side effects, drug interactions. That is easily found online or in "Physician's Desk Reference" (PDR)
Be aware that drug counterfeiting is a problem in some countries. A friend who lived in Brazil for a long time told me no one trusted the birth control pills there because there had been so many cases of counterfeits leading to pregnancies.
When travelling, BUY DRUGS!
Medicines that is. They're usually a whole lot cheaper outside the U.S., and usually you can get them at any pharmacy without a prescription. Here are some of the medicines I like to carry and why.
Ciprofloxacin - bring 14 or so 500 mg. pills. - a broad-spectrum antibiotic.
Much cheaper in other countries than it is here. Available in most countries.
While trapped by a gale on an island off the coast of New Zealand, I got a bad infection in my leg from shards of oyster shell. I might have died if I hadn't had some Cipro with me.
Also works for Bladder/UTI infections in women. On a kayak trip in Costarica my girlfriend took Cipro for a UTI. Unfortunately there are side effects. Sun sensitivity causing nausea. She was fortunate to have skin pigment and it was hot, so she didn't believe me about the need to cover up completely in the sun. She was mildy sunburned, nausea/seasick, and very irritable for the next week and a half. We quit paddling and toured by bus, but her mood did not improve. A nice trip turned into a terminal relationship ordeal.
Malarone - 7 to 40 pills.
Malaria. Very good daily anti-malarial. Not usually available in malarial] regions. No side effects and effective against all five strains of plasmodia. Lariam is much cheaper and taken once a week, but try it before you go, it can give you nighmares. Some people aren't affected. If you're unlucky it can be a bad trip in more ways than one. Lariam is only prophylactic. Malarone can cure, so I carry it and won't take it until I get malaria.
In malarial areas the doctors will diagnose you with malaria regardless of what you have. Many tropical diseases present the same symptoms.
Do not take any antimalarials they give you there without looking them up. Some of them are horrible. One such drug gave a doctor friend-of-friend tinnitis (ringing in the ears) so bad he was unable to practice medicine or do anything complicated. As is typical with bad tinnitis, he became suicidal. For the rest of his life.
A friend just came back from Africa recommending a new antimalarial called Coartem
Albendazole - cures giardia and other swimmers. Love it.
Metronidazole a.k.a. flagyl - HATE IT. Makes you pee brown blood, lose your hair, and feel like crap. Cures nothing I've ever had.
Praziquantel a.k.a. Biltricide - cures bilharzia a.k.a schistosomiasis. Just cures it. Love it.
drugs and disease narrative, unfinished: In Jayapura, Papua, I and my girlfriend (the same one lost to cipro, above) were taking malarone daily. I got sickernadog with red blotches all over my body, bone ache, and very high fever at night. (night sweats). The worst thing that ever happened to me in my life up to that point was once when she woke me up to ask me how I was doing. Eventually I got gave up and we went to THE WORST HOSPITAL IN THE WORLD etc etc. The driver asked us "you live in the murder house, yes? Yes, apparently the house were staying in was known locally as "the murder house", because of an unsolved you guessed it. etc etc. Then it was her turn. She got the night sweats, etc etc.
I usually ask my friends if they have this stuff before I go on a trip. Especially Malarone, which isn't available in places I've been.
Check to see whether a specific drug goes bad over time, or if it does so in the conditions where yours was stored.
Airline security doesn't seem to care about pills, whose name is on the bottle or whether you have a prescription for it.
Bring along the drug information in your notes. dosage/time/bodyweight, what conditions, side effects, drug interactions. That is easily found online or in "Physician's Desk Reference" (PDR)
Be aware that drug counterfeiting is a problem in some countries. A friend who lived in Brazil for a long time told me no one trusted the birth control pills there because there had been so many cases of counterfeits leading to pregnancies.
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Jan 6, 2011. 7:32 PMdent244
says:
my ausie friend travels to australia and buys a bunch of medicine because its soooo much cheaper there
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