What to do when you leave your prescription medication at home while traveling
You anticipate and plan and prepare. You make sure everyone has everything they need. You get in the car, make your trek to your vacation destination and it hits you - you forgot something REALLY important - your prescription medication. You freak out for a second, but quickly shift to problem-solving mode.
Take a breath. We’ve experienced this and will share ideas for resolving the problem.
Well folks, this really happened to me this week. Please allow me to share what I’ve learned so - in case this happens to you - you can quickly get what you need.
Assess your options
Not all prescriptions are equally easy to get everywhere, so I generated a range of options to consider to solve your individual problem.
Option 1: Late arriving family or friends? Is part of your party coming late? Reach out to them and see if they can grab the meds and bring them to you. Are there other folks from your area arriving to your destination that you can task with transporting it? Assuming that’s a no…
Option 2: Overnight delivery. Particularly if you have expensive and/or hard-to-obtain prescriptions, might a friend go to your house, get the meds, and overnight them to you? This may be just as fast as some subsequent options.
Option 3: Work with a pharmacy locally to transfer your scripts to your vacation location. This assumes you have refills available on your prescription, but it allows you to quickly get meds filled at a pharmacy near your destination. When I called my local pharmacy, they recommended I have the destination pharmacy contact them. Consider working with both parties - whichever is open and most responsive. Pharmacists out there, if this isn’t the best protocol, please tell me and I’ll update this post.
If you need a prescription refill anyway and are due for it, maybe fill it completely.
If it’s too soon to refill a script, ask for an emergency supply. You may have to pay out of pocket, but this may be nominal relative to driving back home, missing vacation, and even overnight shipping fees.
Option 4: Schedule a telehealth visit with your prescribing physician. In the event your prescription can’t quickly be refilled or you get stuck in automated calling circles of hell, consider scheduling a telehealth visit. In order of preference, I’d say your doctor prescribing doctor, but if not possible, I’d try another physician in their practice. If still not possible, I’d consider telehealth or an in-person visit at an urgent care location to see if they can prescribe and connect you with what you need in the short term.
Everyone’s circumstances are different, but hopefully one of these four options will work for you to get what you need to stay healthy and strong and enjoy your vacation. If you’ve solved the problem differently, please let me know how! I’d love to give you credit and expand options for folks.
We can help with this - and so much more!
At Laura Kassner Consulting, our suite of Life Wife services includes travel planning and preparation - among other things. Our mission is to reduce your mental load so you can pursue things that bring you joy. From devising systems to make your home function smoothly to research and planning skills to make memories or navigate big life decisions, we are here to support you. Book a free 15 minute consultation and let’s discuss what is weighing on your mind.
