While You're Away

Before you go

If you are travelling overseas see your doctor a few months before you go. The immunisations you may need depends on where you plan to travel. You may need to have a course of injections for rabies or hepatitis B, or start a course of anti-malaria tablets before you leave.

Declare any pre-existing medical conditions to your travel insurance company. If you are on any medication make sure you have enough to last the duration of your trip, and always carry medicine in a correctly labelled container. If you suffer from severe allergies (eg penicillin, nuts etc), it may be worth getting medic alert identification, especially if you are traveling alone.

If you're going away for an extended period make sure to get a dental check up.

Getting there

If you're traveling long distances, poor circulation on long distance flights can sometimes lead to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) - a blood clot in one of the deep veins in the body, usually the leg. Make sure to walk around on the plane, drink lots of water, consider wearing flight socks and ask the cabin crew for exercises you can do. Talk to your doctor if you have any concerns.

Dehydration - Try to drink plenty of fluids on the flight. It may be tempting to take advantage of those courtesy tipples, but try to avoid alcohol as it dehydrates you and has more effect at higher altitudes.

Motion sickness - Take motion sickness tablets a few hours before you plan to travel. Alternatively, ginger tablets are said to help with motion sickness and some people swear by wrist-bands that work on acupressure points.

Jet lag - Avoid alochol on flights and drink plenty of water. Change your watch to local time and try to follow the local routine. If it's daytime, try to stay up, if it's night time, go to bed and try to get some sleep, even if you're not tired. For fans of Die Hard why not try "taking off your shoes and make fists with your toes" the jury's still out on this one, but hey, if it's good enough for Bruce...

While You're Away