Just started daily self- injections, using Terrosa pen, and am thoroughly confused as to best type of coolbag to use for travelling. Amazon is full of them, but all seem to refer to diabetes meds, and have extra space for additional medical requirements.
I’d like a bag as neat as possible, but with room for a couple of ice packs, preferably with hard shell, and with a temperature display if possible. Also, not mega-expensive!
Also wondering about a mini fridge, possibly USB chargeable, just big enough for meds. We travel quite a lot, both long haul (family visits) and within UK.
Not every hotel provides room fridge, those that do, frequently not cold enough for meds, I think?
The actual injecting is proving a dawdle, but storage and travel have me bewildered!
Any helpful suggestions much appreciated, please? 🙏
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Blackcat99
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Your Terrosa pen looks very similar to my Movymia pen which delivers teriparatide.
I was advised by the specialist nurse from Alcura, who deliver the medication on behalf of the NHS, to ask for a dedicated travel bag and a letter for border security to advise them that the pen and cartridges should not go through X-ray machines or be put in hold baggage.
The letter came quickly via email and the travel bag also arrived quickly. It is just the right size with a small gel bag to freeze and insert before a travel day.
I’ve made sure that all the hotels I will be staying in this year have a mini fridge but the advise from the nurse was that a fridge was not essential and if the medication was kept somewhere cool like the tiled floor of a bathroom it would be okay.
Had I not known that there would be mini fridges, I would have invested in a small portable fridge.
Thank you so much for this information. Did you have to request the travel pack and letter from the Specialist Nurse and who gave you the information. Many thanks.
The specialist nurse suggested that I either phone or email the company with my unique patient ID (for the Alcura company that delivers my medication to my home).
I chose to email them and, as I said, got a fairly quick response. Perhaps you could approach your own provider or specialist nurse with the same requests?
Hello, I'm also in the UK where the NHS provides the cool bags, so they are obviously 'right'!The site given on the leaflet is cool-safe.com and it will show you all the options. Mine fits six ice-packs around the central compartment, where the pen/cartridge go.
Main travel restriction is needing a freezer the night before you travel to put the ice-packs in. Theoretically they shouldn't be stacked, so would take up a whole shelf, but I've found it ok to stack in two layers with grease proof paper or even a tea-towel in between to stop them sticking together.
Hi Blackcat99. I bought my cool bag from a company calked MediGenix . I’ve only used it once travelling in this Country and it kept my Teriparatide pen at the correct temperature.. I’m be using it again travelling abroad in a few months . Now when I’ll looking at holidays I’ve got to make sure the accommodation has a fridge with freezer compartment.
Many thanks to you all for the helpful replies, very much appreciated! Internet is a bit temperamental today, with the very high winds, so I thought I might have a better chance of sending just the one reply to all, before it cuts out again.
I'm in north-east Scotland (Hi, DonsAreRed! - are you in Aberdeen, by any chance?😉) and my supplies come via Lloyd's Clinical. Travel letter re meds came as soon as I'd had first 'phone chat with their Helpline. Nurse came this week, lovely lady, spent ages talking me through everything, she said that Lloyd's stopped providing carry bags as there was such a wide selection of inexpensive ones on Amazon, and they'd found that a lot of people preferred to choose their own. I'm happy to buy my own, was just a bit confused as to what would work best. After reading your replies, and checking out the websites mentioned by Jemima48 and Motown_1960, I've got a clearer idea of what sort of thing I need, especially for likely long haul trips to south Asia and USA. Found one on Amazon - Tilcare Insulin Cooler Travel Case - that I liked the look of, only issue being the lack of a temperature read-out on the outside. Will think about pros and cons over the weekend, and then decide.
I’m glad that I bought one with a temp read out. One of the hotels which I stayed in kindly provided a very suitable fridge. However, one of the room staff removed the hotel key card from the slot which maintained the power supply to the fridge - even though the card had suitable wording to indicate that it should not be removed! I had stored the bag in the fridge, in order to check the running temp of the fridge. On that occasion the temp had risen to 18 degrees C unfortunately. Thankfully I was returning hoe the following day so next injection was only delayed by 8 hours on that occasion.
The cooling bricks are quite compact and need to be frozen before use. At times when they are not required they can be kept (in the bag) at ambient temperature. They need to be laid flat when freezing as they are quite a neat fit in the sleeves within the bag. They should also be allowed to sit out of the freezer for a short time before placing into the bag and the spacers inserted to avoid the pen and its contents becoming too cold. I found the internal temperature sensor helpful in learning how the bag was performing.
Thanks for the information. Have you got any trouble in finding a freezer at all while travelling? If you don't mind, can you share which brand of cool bag you are using?
I purchased my bag from MediGenix, a UK company who have a number of products. Probably not the cheapest, but I have been content with the product and its performance has delivered as described. Re access to freezer not all hotel fridges provided had a freezer box. All hotels by arrangement were happy to put my freezer packs into their freezer if required. I carried a bag suitably labelled to keep my packs together. So far, this has worked, and most hotels endeavoured to accommodate requests for temperature controlled medication provision. I was not prepared to leave my medication in an open hotel fridge which was not in my room. Always open to suggestions to find a better solution.
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