Whether you’re traveling for pleasure or business, most seasoned travelers already know the tips and tricks for staying healthy and that you need to prioritize your health when traveling abroad.
However, when you receive a cancer diagnosis, the easy travel of the past can seem to fall behind you. While it’s important to consult your doctor before making any travel plans, it’s possible to travel and have fun while doing so, no matter your diagnosis. Below, you will find some tips to help you travel safely.
Consult Your Doctor
Whether you’re undergoing chemotherapy, radiation, or a safe and natural Bemer therapy for your cancer, you should never travel without consulting with your doctor first. She needs to make sure that you’re up to traveling and reschedule your treatments if need be and if she recommends it.
You should also get your medical records from your doctor to take with you on your travels. If something were to happen during your travels, if you have a copy of your medical records, it’ll make it easier for a doctor unfamiliar with your case to be brought up to speed and help you faster.
Check With Your Health Insurance Company
Check with your health insurance company before you decide to travel. You need to know if your insurance will cover you at your travel destination. This goes for traveling out of state and internationally as well. Pack a copy of your insurance policy and your insurance ID cards before you leave, just so you’re covered should something happen.
Check and Pack Your Medications
Make sure that you bring enough medications to last you the entirety of your trip. Ask your doctor to prescribe you a little over, just in case something happens and you’re delayed on returning home. It’s important to make sure that the medications you’re bringing with you are properly tagged and in the bottles they’re supposed to be in. If medical marijuana is legal in your state, find a list of the other states it’s legal in. If it’s not legal where you’re traveling, you’re going to need to leave it behind or have a prescription readily available for a cop to see if needed.
Locate Medical Care Options at Your Destination
Before you head out on your travels, make sure that you locate any medical care facilities you might need during your trip. You don’t want to get sick and not know where to go to get help. Ask your oncologist for recommendations or your primary care provider. Make sure that you bring your oncologist’s phone number and keep it with you, just in case something happens and the medical facility you choose needs to get in touch with her.
Make Sure to Relax and Destress
As you well know, many people come back from their vacation needing another vacation. While that’s fine for some people, and you want to have all the fun you can, you need to remember that you have cancer and whatever treatment you’re undergoing is going to make you tired and weak. Have fun, but make sure that you rest, relax, and destress when needed. You don’t have to not have fun, just have fun in small doses instead.
Living with cancer can make doing things more difficult, but with a little help and organization, and your doctor’s permission you should be able to travel or go on vacation when you want too. Traveling is good for you physically and mentally and will help you destress as well. So, yes, you can travel when you have cancer.