Project POTS · Jul 15, 2021

PROJECT POTS - Episode 9: Traveling Tips When You Have POTS - Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome

EPISODE 9

Traveling Tips When You Have POTS - Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome

Hello NormaLyte community, it's Valerie here, back with another episode of Project POTS!

This week as we get closer and closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas time, I want to talk about traveling.

This can be something that's really tricky for people with POTS. Even the average person gets a little fatigued and dehydrated when traveling by plane, but that can be even worse for us, not to mention packing and making sure we have everything we need when leave our homes where we've got our doctors and all of our medical equipment and things like that.

A couple of my tips are making sure that you have doctor's notes for all of the things you need to bring with you. Even if you don't think it's gonna be an issue I can't tell you how many times I've been stopped at security and had to go through and pull out all of my documentation just to prove that I am allowed to carry these items that really the average person can carry anyways.
So having that extra documentation can really help you out.

Second is always making sure that in your carry-on you have at least a couple of days worth of medication and equipment with you. When my luggage gets lost I always know that no matter what, I can survive with the medications and things I have in my carry-on.

I don't necessarily have to worry or fear that it's going to mess up my medication schedule or get me off-kilter and things like that.

It's also really a good idea to just kind of scope things out in the place you're going. This may not be necessary for short-term visits but if you're gonna be someplace for a while just having a good idea of what health care centers are nearby, if there's a doctor in the area that maybe specializes in POTS in case of emergency can be really helpful.

That way if something does come up, you're not just blindly googling at last minute to try to find.

Most importantly have fun. Usually travel is exciting, don't let the stress of it get to you.

Start ahead with a packing list and just methodically go through everything you use in the average day and make sure you have enough for your trip.

Take your time at the airport, pace yourself; drink lots of water on the plane, but for the most part have fun, enjoy yourself and relax.

I'd love to know what are some things that you do when you travel and I look forward to seeing y'all next week.