Can someone tell me how to travel with refrigerated meds?

[1st_trip4us]

My daughter is on an injectible medication that requires refrigeration and needles. With the security measures the airports are taking now will I be able to bring needles onto the plane? They're really small but they're still needles. I don't want to put it in the suitcase and risk it getting lost as the medication is extremely expensive.
Has anyone traveled with refrigerated medicine? How can I keep it cold for several hours from our house to checking into the resort? I know dry ice will work but is that something I can buy? And can I buy it in WDW? This medicine is new for us and we've never traveled before with it.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I travel with both insulin (in bottles) and a Byetta pen. I always carry the meds, syringes and needles in my carry-on and have never had any problem (and I travel by air a lot). The only time Iwill check anything medical is if I am on the way home and know that I have lots of medicine at home.

Do not consider dry ice under any circumstance. First of all there is the posibility that you could freeze the medicine and ruin it. Also, I believe it is considered a hazardous material and you could not bring it on board the aircraft anyway.

One person, several months ago, recommended use of "Frio" wallets which can be ordered from http://www.coolerconcept.com/

I have bought one for myself. It activates using water and will hold the temperature close to 40 for over a day. It does work and I have had no problem with airport security keeping two insulin bottles and a Byetta pen in it.

 

[Ms_Butterfly]

Check out the TSA site about bringing needles - tsa.gov . I think you have to have a note from your doctor saying that you need them for medical purposes or something.

 

[SueM in MN]

Do not consider dry ice under any circumstance. First of all there is the posibility that you could freeze the medicine and ruin it. Also, I believe it is considered a hazardous material and you could not bring it on board the aircraft anyway.

You are right. When you go to the TSA website, it did list dry ice as something that is not allowed. Dry ice breaks down into carbon monoxide as it melts. The TSA website has been crashing my internet browser, so I can't go there and post a link. but, as was already posted, if you go there and look around a bit, you will find the official word on what you need to know.

I used to work in Public Health and we received vaccines packed in dry ice. It is VERY cold and things can get frozen easily with it if not packed correctly. You can also get a cold burn (kind of like severe frostbite) from touching it.

 

[Selket]

We travel with insulin and the ADA website is helpful. The info discusses insulin but any refrigerated med should be the same: http://diabetes.org/advocacy-and-legalresources/discrimination/public_accommodation/travel.jsp

I like using ice packs but there is no way to freeze them at the WDW hotels. The little room fridges don't have freezers. We usually just bring some ziplocs and double or triple ziploc the ice. But I have not traveled by airline with insulin since the new restrictions on liquids.

 

[zaza]

I've never had trouble flying with insulin syringes, although when we went to London, I did have my pharmacist make prescription labels for the bags of syringes.

For refrigerated medication, you could double zip-lock ice and use a little soft-side cooler. Dump the ice right before security, then get more on the other side. That's what we're planning to do with our granddaughter's bottle of milk for our flight next month.

 

[BCV23]

Frios do work well for insulin. In fact, I need to order a new one as ours somehow degraded.

But I have also packed insulin in my son's small cooler. Since he is type I diabetic, I always pack food for him. I just use the frozen Coleman packs (lots of other brands). The DVC units do have freezer sections and the GF little refrigs do too right now. That will probably change after the rehab there though if they follow the pattern of the Polynesian and CR. Anyway, the cooler would work for liquid prescriptions too.

Personally I would be reluctant to use ice. You won't be able to take ice through security and I wouldn't risk not being able to get more or running out of time to do so on the other side.

 

[Ms_Butterfly]

For refrigerated medication, you could double zip-lock ice and use a little soft-side cooler. Dump the ice right before security, then get more on the other side. That's what we're planning to do with our granddaughter's bottle of milk for our flight next month.

A bottle of milk is allowed when you are travelling with an infant. (If you are not travelling with her, you can't bring the milk. But if you are, you are allowed to bring the milk through security - after they x-ray it and all, of course.)

Check TSA's Web site for more info. on travelling with infants.

 

[NJBlackBerry]

Dry ice breaks down into carbon monoxide as it melts.

While Dry Ice can be very dangerous, I always thought it was frozen Carbon Dioxide - Carbon Monoxide is extremely toxic....

In any event, please don't bring frozen Carbon Dioxide (Dry Ice) onto a plane!

The advise here, as always, is outstanding.

 

[VanniGirl]

One person, several months ago, recommended use of "Frio" wallets which can be ordered from http://www.coolerconcept.com/

Thanks for this link - I just ordered this for our upcomig trip. I was concerned about keeping my DH's Insulin cool all day, this seems perfect!

 

[SueM in MN]

While Dry Ice can be very dangerous, I always thought it was frozen Carbon Dioxide - Carbon Monoxide is extremely toxic....

In any event, please don't bring frozen Carbon Dioxide (Dry Ice) onto a plane!

The advise here, as always, is outstanding.

You're right. I typed the wrong 'carbon' without thinking.

 

[kmjmom]

My daughter's medication is also an injectable which requires refrigeration. We have used a soft sided cooler bag with ice packs in the past. With the new regulations, the Frio bags mentioned here look really appealing. I had a bad experience at POFQ when I brought my ice packs down to the front desk to be frozen two days in advance of my trip. I was reassured that they would be ready for our departure time. I stressed the critical nature and was assured it would be ready. Imagine my shock and horror when I arrived to retrieve my packs on our way to our limo, only to have an inappropriate CM return to laugh and and chuckle (as if it was funny) as she said "Oh didn't they tell you our freezer doesn't work!" I immediately burst into tears as my frightened 10 year old and I wondered how we would make our plane to travel 3 hours with her incredibly expensive medicine without ice! They sent us out the door with the meds packed in a leaky bag of ice which dripped through the bag all the way home. Needless to say our next trip I checked and rechecked at the BC concierge desk to verify the packs would be ready for our return flight and they were! Frio here I come!

 

[DumboDash2006]

My dd has type 1 diabetes and we went to WDW in August. I just used the Frio pack and it worked wonderfully. Is your dd on insulin or is the medication something else? For insulin at least the Frio is great. Note, it doesn't keep it cold necessarily, it just keeps it from getting warm. Since opened vials of insulin are fine for one month at room temperature, that isn't a problem. But if your dd is on some other type of medication that must be COLD, then it may not work perhaps?

ETA-regarding the plane, just make sure you have the prescription labels for EVERYTHING and perhaps for added reassurance a doctor's note stating your dd's health condition and the things she needs on the plane. We flew in to WDW the day before the terror scare in Aug and had no problems on the way there. Seriously I had syringes, insulin, test kits, glucagon kits etc up the wazoo and was never questioned about any of it even ONCE! On the way home however I was questioned by three different people about all of it (they were confused by the glucagon kit and glucose gel as I didn't have a label for those I think, eventually though they let us on).

 

[1st_trip4us]

Thank you! So much great information here. It's a growth hormone therapy drug. It cannot be not cold for more than 15 minutes. And at $2,000 a month for this drug I want to make sure we are so careful.

I WILL NOT bring dry ice on the plane. Had no idea that was a big no-no.
I'll have to watch the way the drug company ships it to me. I thought they used dry ice. We've only received 2 shipments so far, I didn't pay that much attention. I will calculate the days before the trip so that we leave with the exact amount of meds we need left in the vial so we don't have to worry about keeping anything cold on the way home. One less thing to think about.

I will also get a doctors note and prescription. Hopefully I'll have covered all my bases and there won't be any problems. It's not like we're the first people to go through security with medication. But they did question us about my daughter's inhaler last year and we had to actually explain why she needed it. I figured with needles and vials of medicine there may be even more questioning.

 

[1st_trip4us]

Ooh...I love the Frio products! That sounds like a perfect solution!

 

[BCV23]

If the medication has to be kept truly cold, I would use a small cooler with lots of cool packs or look into another type of pack besides the Frio. As someone said, it doesn't keep the medication very cold.

I don't have time right now but I'll look for the name of a product that works well. However, you do need to freeze the insert for it so that could be dicier for a return trip. I would talk to special services about that if you're not staying DVC. They may have an idea for you.

 

[BCV23]

Here's info on the product I was talking about.http://www.medicool.com/diabetes/diabetes_travel_insulprot.php?ref=g2

It seems to me that insulin stays truly cool longer in this system than the Frio. But at $2,000/month, I would want to be sure if I were you. Have you talked to your doctor about it? Or try contacting the manufacturer.

Good luck.

Oh, my husband travels with insulin every week and has never had a problem. No note, no prescription with him. I would have the original box with you since yours is a more unusual medication.

 

[DVCisME]

Just a suggestion, but you might want to go to a store like Babies R Us and get a pack that is used for baby formula. I have one and you can put ice packs on both sides and then put the medicine in the middle. If this will work for you it would probably also be the cheapest solution.