7 Tips for Travelling Abroad While Living with MS
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I'm going to share seven tips for traveling abroad while living with multiple sclerosis. These are my do's and the don'ts of traveling to Europe. I live with MS in this video and blog I'm referencing my experience and learnings from traveling to Spain and Greece over seven years ago.
TIP SUMMARY
Tip #1 - Don't bring too much luggage
Tip #2 - Do go to the bathroom before you have to
Tip #3 - Don't stay in your seat too long during the flight
Tip #4 - Do take trips that are least three weeks long to adjust to jet lag
Tip #5 - Calm - Do take a cab to your accommodations so you don't get lost
Tip #6 - Calm - Don't assume your where you are staying has an elevator (or one that is big enough)
Tip #7 - Don't sleep all day when adjust to jet lag
[Full transcript]
7 Tips for Travelling Abroad with Multiple Sclerosis
I'm going to share seven that's right, seven tips for traveling abroad while living with multiple sclerosis. Here are do's and the don'ts of traveling to Europe. Of course, I live with multiple sclerosis. I'm going to reference my experience and learnings from seven years ago when I travelled to Europe.
I had been diagnosed, I think at that point five years prior to this trip. Let's dive into these tips before I do, I want to share with you that I'm Jen DeTracey, I'm the founder of Women Thriving with MS.
If you want to get these travel videos or videos about Thriving with MS, you can go to the Women Thriving with MS YouTube Channel.
Seven years ago, I went to Spain and to Greece. At that time I felt uncertain. How would that be for me to do this traveling and manage my energy and my capacity.
It was a big question mark. I learned a lot. So first of all, tip number one is don't bring too much luggage. Of course, if you are only going to one location and you're going to have a huge suitcase, and it's just going to be open at wherever you're staying fine that's just fine. That wasn't the case for me. My sweetie and I flew into Barcelona.
We stayed there for about three days at one accommodation, then went to my daughter who lives in Tarragona, Spain for a week, and then flew to Thessaloniki, Greece and then flew to Athens Greece. That's four locations in just over one month.
In this type of situation when you have a lot of luggage, that can be a big challenge. Having a lot of luggage is a big responsibility. Obviously there are certain things that you might need to bring, and as you get to travel more, you'll determine what's really necessary. Another factor is what time of year are you traveling.
So in the case of my trip seven years ago, I was traveling at a time when it was cooler because it was March and then going until mid April. I needed warmer clothing and I also lighter clothing. That's what's happening on this trip too.
So it's a balancing act because when I get there, it's only going to be six degrees Celsius, which will feel like two degrees. Although it's very different from where I'm living in Montreal right now which is much colder.
I need to have long sleeve shirts. I need to be able to layer up. And then I need my summer dresses and t-shirts and a light jacket.
It's a balancing act, but I like to make sure that my suitcase weighs less, than the maximum weight allowed, which is 23 kilograms which works out to 50 pounds. This time around I suit case weighted 19 kilograms.
My suitcase will get lighter each time I travel to another city because items like sunscreen, body cream and snack bars will be less.
Tip number two is don't wait until you have to go to the bathroom to go to the bathroom. So when I'm thinking about this, I'm always as a person who lives with MS.
I wondering no matter where I go, whether it's overseas or on a plane or just in my neighborhood where the closest bathroom is. I need to go to the bathroom often. So I want to ensure that I have a plan. I always go to the bathroom right before I have to get on the plane.
In fact, when I do get on the plane and they call for children and elderly folks or people who need assistance, that's when I get on the plane, It's a little hard for me to stand for a long period of time in a lineup, and then a long time on the plane until I get to my seat. So I like to get on there as quickly as possible.
That means that I need to get to the bathroom before they start the first call to board the plane. So I keep track of that very closely. I just dash off to the bathroom. It doesn't matter whether I have to go or not. I do it because I don't know when I'm going to be able to pee on the plane. That's the key.
Then once I get on the plane, I like to ideally have already booked my seat in advance so that I'm sitting close to the bathroom, but not so close that I have a huge lineup of people waiting to go to the bathroom. That is not fun to have all these people standing around you the whole time that you're flying, that everybody's allowed to use the bathroom.
And if you traveled before, which many of you I'm sure have, even if you haven't gone over to Europe, you know that until the safety belt light goes off, you cannot get up. And so, as soon as that light goes off and the plane has already taken off and it's stabilized in the air, I'm bee lining it for the bathroom before anybody else does.
From my experience, when I'm on a plane, I notice that the beverage cart comes out fairly quickly after the plane stabilizes, after they have given out headphones. Then the cart comes through with snacks and beverages. I don't want to wait until then to use the bathroom because it's very difficult once the cart comes out and the flight attendants are pushing it to get to the bathroom.
For me, I'm basically going to the bathroom every hour to hour and a half maximum two hours. I will be on a flight for seven hours and 15 minutes. So I'll likely go to the bathroom about five times during that flight give or take, depending on what my needs are. I will always go to the bathroom before I really need to.
I'll never leave it to chance. If you are a person who knows that you absolutely have to go to the bathroom when you have to go, you will want to consider wearing a pad. I remember meeting a really amazing guy named John many years ago, early in my diagnosis. He used a walker to get around and he used to be a race car driver before living with MS.
He told me that he was on a plane and he couldn't get up because there was a lot of turbulence. He couldn't hold it and they wouldn't let him go to the bathroom, so he peed himself. So be sure to wear a pad if you're ever concerned about that. No one can see it. It's in your pants. It's not a big deal. Take care of yourself so that you don't have extreme discomfort.
Tip number three is don't stay in your seat too long. If you're not a person that needs to go to the bathroom a lot, or if you have a pad on, you're not going to get up as often, you still need to get up and stretch. That's part of the reason I like to go to the bathroom.
My body gets uncomfortable, it gets sore. I stretch and move around as much as possible. People might think I'm crazy but I don't mind. The bathroom, gives me a chance to get up and move my body for a little bit. Like I said, I get up at least five times.
So having that opportunity is really important. You want to be able to stretch your body during a long flight. Plus the time it takes from the time you board the plane and wait for it to take off, then land and get to the gate is more than the actual flight time scheduled. That's a long time to sit.
If you have spasms or muscle discomfort or your back starts to hurt, you want to get your body moving. You can do exercises even in your seat to stretch and move around. You might want to check out a video on YouTube to see what plane exercises stretching exercises you can do to make sure that your body is comfortable.
Tip number four, schedule longer trips if you are going abroad to adjust to the time difference if it is 6 hours or more.
In this case in Greece, from where I live right now, Montreal, Canada, on Eastern standard time, it's seven hours difference. Before when I was on Pacific standard time, it was 10 hours. I really struggled with jet lag. It was really hard for me when I arrived. The transition took about a week and a half, possibly longer. They say one hour a day, it took me probably two times that to adjust. So in my case, I was away for just over four weeks and that worked perfectly on this trip. This time I'll be away for 70 days and that will help me really adjust to the seven hour difference.
By the time my daughter comes to visit me with her fiancé and Greece this time around, I will be totally adjusted to the time zone because they'll be visiting at the end of the trip. I purposely planned it that way.
I know that when I'm adjusting to that time zone, I'm a basket case. I can't really keep it together as much as I would like to. When you're visiting with people, you haven't seen a while, sometimes years, it's very special. You want to be present. You want to have the energy and the capacity to do that. So that's what I have planned. I'm super excited about that.
Tip number five, don't risk trying to find your accommodation on your own in Europe.
So when the plane lands, take a cab directly to your or accommodation, if you think you know where it is, you probably don't. When you're in Europe, there's windy roads and numbers of the hidden places. It was so funny actually, because when we got to Barcelona, we had taken a bus and then we walked a down a small hill for a short distance with our luggage. We got to the address if our accommodations and we're like, could this be it?
There was no sign, this can't be our hotel.? There was like tiny little number on the door. In Europe, there are mystery places that you wouldn't even know are accommodations.
The key with tip number five is that when you are going to your accommodation, just take a cab and make sure that they get you to the right place. Ask the driver to just stick around for a few minutes to make sure that you're at the right location. They know the city best. They should be able to get you to the right place.
Number six is don't assume there are elevators. For example, when we got to this first location in Barcelona, we discovered that there were at least two long, very long flights of stairs and no elevator just to get to the main check-in desk. It was crazy. That was a good reason not to have a heavy suitcase.
When there are elevators available, definitely do your research. They may say there's an elevator available, however, those elevators are very small. They might be enough for one, maybe two people to squeeze in with small suitcases. You might be able to fit a regular wheelchair in with a suitcase. You might be able to fit a walker in with a suitcase, but not a scooter and most probably not a power wheelchair.
So these are factors that you need to consider unless you're going to a totally mainstream hotel. That's likely going to be very expensive to get your typical North American sized elevators. So definitely make sure that you check that out before you secure your accommodations.
Tip number seven is don't sleep all day when you are faced with jet lag. You want to adapt to your new time zone as quickly as possible Now, it's mostly likely going to be an adjustment and rocky at first, for sure. When we got to Barcelona, Spain, we slept for an hour. Then we got up and we went for dinner. Trying to get on the schedule of the country you are staying in will make a big difference with that adjustment.
It's definitely hard at first, but if you were just asleep, sleep, sleep in the way that you would in the country of origin, it's going to take you longer and longer to adjust to the time difference. It's one hour a day, technically to make the time zone adjustment. So if I'm going to a time zone that has seven hour difference, be prepared it's going to take you a minimum of one week.
So we've covered all seven tips, the dos and the don'ts. So I hope those tips have been helpful for you. I'm Jen, DeTracey the founder of Women, Thriving with MS. I'm doing this travel series. It's been many years since I've traveled to Europe and I'm pumped.
I'll be keeping you posted on my journey as a woman who lives with MS.
