Timings of medication when travelling

[Karendeena]

Does anyone have any advice about taking medication when travelling? I take Sotalol and apixaban and I am aware that apixaban should be taken twice daily 12 hours apart. The clocks change to one hour back at the end of this month and I am travelling to Cyprus on the 2nd of November and they are 2 hours in front I believe. I have never done this before, please advise

[Smokas]

Apixaban half life is ~12 hours. 2 hours doesn’t matter.

[BobD Volunteer]

Just forget time diferences and take as normal local time. A couple of hours makes no difference. If you were going a long way I would suggest moving your dose half an hour a day over a week or so before and after your trip but your shift is too short to worry about

[Karendeena in reply to BobD]

Cheers Bob 🙂

[BenHall1]

Don't worry on such a short trip. I do Sydney (21 hrs ) and just carry on as normal. I just ignore time zones. Usually leave Heathrow in evening and take my evening dose when I leave home. If I change planes ( say, Hong Kong or Singapore ) I take another dose and arrive Sydney around breakfast time take my morning dose asap after arrival.

[Karendeena in reply to BenHall1]

You mean you revert to taking your meds at their local time irrespective of the time changes? Sorry if this is a stupid question!

[CDreamer in reply to Karendeena]

I do think this is what is meant - simply because if you are taking 2bd ie: 12 hourly it really doesn’t matter as you would have 2x10.5hour gap which is within tolerance.

I have to say I am not that strict with my 12 hourly even at home so sometimes there is 10 hour gap and others 14 hour between taking meds. If I forget to take a med though and it’s past the 2 hour window I just miss a dose and take a little earlier in the evening.

[BenHall1 in reply to Karendeena]

Hi Karendeena,

Yeah, basically, that's just what I mean ............ otherwise you drive yerself loopy trying to work out the time zones. But all my trips are to Sydney usually Cathay via Hong Kong. However, I understand that Qantas have a flight non stop Heathrow to Perth, in W.A. direct, non stop about 15 hours, in which case if I chose that flight I'd pop a pill on leaving home and another when I arrived in Perth. Hope all that helps.

John

[CDreamer]

Ditto to what everyone has said. I found the most difficult one to manage was when your destination is +\-6-8 hours.

[Alicant]

morning depends when I wake up….evening varies by up to 3 hours (when I look at my pill box on the table)🤔

[Dudtbin]

we went to st lucia last year and i was in knots trying to work out the time difference, asked the pharmacist he sort of rolled his eyes and said just move to local time !

[Qualipop]

I Just take a spare watch or alarm clock with me that remains set at U K time and I go by that

[ibuputih]

Hi Karendeena - I was in Cyprus a week ago. Weather was fab and we had a great time. Hope you do too!

I take Edoxaban and Bisoprolol once a day in the morning. Just kept the alarm on my phone the same time as normal, and took my tablets when the alarm went off …. as normal. (Obvs my phone had adjusted to the 2 hour time difference on arrival so I was taking them 2 hours later than normal). No ill effects and did the same on return (ie my tablets were 2 hours earlier than the previous week in Paphos).

Enjoy your holiday.

[Karendeena in reply to ibuputih]

Thanks 👍😊 Yes, I am hoping the weather stays nice for us. We usually go the first 2 weeks in November and have never had bad weather by before but we haven't been since 2019 because of covid and then I was waiting for an ablation which I had in March. First time I feel confident enough to go

[Tellingfibs]

Whenever I have gone abroad, I wear a watch that I keep on UK time. That way, I just take any pills in keeping with my usual time. I take Warfarin and also Bisoprolol twice daily.

Annie

[Snowgirl65]

I try to even out the difference between time zones, i.e. when traveling from US to the UK. There's a 5-hour time difference presently, so I adjust my pills to 2-1/2 hours difference the first day on arrival. Then I do the opposite the first day I return home. I hope this helps. I few hours one way or the other really doesn't make much of a difference though.