Hi all and Merry Christmas
I am going to Thailand on 27th Dec for 2 weeks as its a very long flight any tips
we fly late in the evening so i am hoping to be able to get some sleep
Do i keep my watch on uk time for the first few days ?
Should i increase the pred for the flight ?
I am 9mg having started on 20mg in March -15 and feel i am doing well so far
Kay 
I've done a few longhaul flights since PMR and pred - Oz, Japan, China, the US. What I usually do is change my watch to the arrival time as soon as I get on the plane - it is said to help the adjustment to the new time. The west to east flight is easy I find - I take my usual dose in the morning before I leave and take the next dose the next morning "in the east" with breakfast on the plane. That is less than 24 hours but it works well. For the east to west flight - which is the very long day - I take a larger dose in the morning before leaving which almost always tides me over until the next morning. If you are someone for whom the single dose barely manages the 24 hours you could take a small dose of pred in the afternoon to prevent stiffening up overnight as you get beyond the 24 hours.
Some people say you should leave you watch at UK time and take medications at the same time you would at home but that can end up you need to take them in the middle of the night! Your body would normally make cortisol as part of the waking up process in the early morning so it makes sense to still take your pred dose in the early morning too. It certainly worked well for me.
I don't usually plan to do too much the first day I arrive - but don't consciously rest unless I'm tired. This summer we went to China and deliberately flew 24 hours early because the tour we had booked started at lunchtime after flights arrived in the morning! We went for a wander around the bit of Beijing where the hotel was and had a meal in their "beer garden". Most of the others had arrived in the morning - we were the only ones who had flown in who were compos mentis in the afternoon! There was another couple who'd been there for some time - they were far too frisky!
Make sure you have plenty of extra pred with you just in case you have a flare and don't even THINK of reducing any more until you are back! I was on 4mg before we went to China and upped it to 5mg for the trip and was better than I've been for ages - walking miles and climbing steps with no bother. I went back to 4mg when we came back and then tried for 3mg - again I got to 3 and 4 on alternate days and was SO tired. After discussing it with my GP we decided it could well be my adrenal glands not functioning well enough yet and I should go back to 5mg until the summer. I feel as well as I did in China again - and that is fine by me!
Try to not do too much the day you travel - it is a long time from leaving home to the flight when it is international, check-in and security can take forever! When we have a daytime flight we usually stay at a hotel the night before but it doesn't work so well for overnight flights since you have to be out of the hotel far too early. Don't try to haul your luggage around - use a trolley if you haven't asked for airport assistance.
Have a lovely holiday!
I got a "jet lag" formulation from our local aromatherapist. I know it works at least for the five hours between my home and Europe because: a few years ago we flew to Istanbul from Halifax, via Toronto and Frankfurt. I did not tell by husband that I had sprinkled this jet lag formula on his pillow. Our second dinner there we happened to be seated beside another couple from Canada, a different time zone, further away than ours. I asked my husband if he had adjusted to the time change better than usual (I had) and he said that he had, so I told him what I had done. The woman beside me laughed and said she had done the exact same thing and they had also found it worked. The bottle says it contains (undiluted) grapefruit, lavender and eucalyptus.
thanks for your reply
we are flying at 21.35 so i hope we will get some sleep
i will try and find the jet lag formula
Thanks good idea we are going to visit our daughter who living in Thailand so its fist time for us
Sorry to say Kay60, but long haul flights have been the low point of my PMR experience so far. My body does not like them anymore since getting PMR - but I have to do them for work. Try to get an aisle seat - so you can get up regularly and do small exercises so you don't get too stiff. Take some comfortable pillows with you to support your back / shoulders. Good luck - hope your body will react differently as no 2 people are the same.I always split my dose when I fly / and up it for one day
Hi,
Went from UK to NZ last Xmas, did similar to PMRPro, set watch on destination time. My flight was about mid morning on a Tues so I had taken that days Pred. Took the next dose at NZ time 8am Wednesday (which equates to UK time 7pm Tues). Then next dose at 8am Thursday (NZ) and stayed at that for duration of holiday.
This in essence meant I had three doses within 24 hours, which probably was no bad thing. And yes, don't arrange to do too much in the first couple of days of your holiday, just enjoy.
Don't try and reduce whilst you are on holiday, and take some extra tablets just in case!
And if you need assistance at the airport then just ask, if you're going from Heathrow it's a long walk for international flights.
Thank you dorset lady good advice as usual will let you know how i get on when i get back
Holidays!
Holiday!!
Long haul flights
symptoms after holiday 
