Asthma Bloggers: Share your tips for safe holiday travel

Over the river and through the woods can be a wonderful adventure, unless you suffer from asthma. Once you leave your safe, comfortable environment, triggers may lurk all around you.

Last year I wrote Surviving the holidays with allergies. Many of these suggestions also apply to asthma sufferers.

1. Know your triggers and try to avoid. If pets are your trigger, you may need to avoid a home that has pets.

2. Bring your own bedding, especially pillows. Between dust mites and feathers you will be better off with your own pillow.

3. Make sure that you bring all your meds with you. You never know what you'll need and it's better to bring too much than to not have what you need.

4. Depending on how you travel, you may want to wear a protective mask to guard against illness. Illness can take a toll on asthma sufferers and protecting your yourself and constantly washing your hands are your best defenses.

The holidays should be a time for fun and family, not illness. If you protect yourself and plan ahead, your season should be merry and bright.

For more tips on traveling with asthma see:

AAAI - Tips to Remember: Traveling with Allergies and Asthma . The tips here are invaluable! This is a must read link.

Asthma Doesn't Take a Vacation from Asthma Advocate

I got your holiday trigger info right here from Asthma Mom

Coping with asthma and allergies during the holiday season from Allergizer

Give the gift of breathing this year with Christmas Seals 2009 from the American Lung Association

What tips can your share for traveling asthma free this holiday season?
Does your community have an action plan on this topic? If not, do you think it would be a good idea to start one?
Are the holidays hard on your asthma? How do you handle flare ups during the holiday season?

Tags: allergies, asthma, holiday asthma survival tips, holidays, lung disease, lungs, travel

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Comment by Janeen on November 19, 2009 at 3:46pm: Kerri,
You are AWESOME! These tips are invaluable. Thanks so much for sharing them and your post {no such thing as shameless self promo:)}
Steve is not only an asthma ninja, but he is my hero!
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge on this subject. We haven't traveled much with my son, but the times that we have I"ve taken just about every asthma medication that we have.

Comment by kerri on November 18, 2009 at 10:22pm: "Are we there yet??"

I travel as much as I can, so I've got a few travel tips to share, and some that apply to travel packing lists. [You can read all of my "on the road" posts here.
. . . Shameless self promotion :)]
Through my blog, I've got lots of travel tips [mostly from Steve] for asthmatics. Here are his tips that he shared in the comment section of one of my entries:

". . . if you go overseas, make sure you have a nebulizer compressor (if you use one), preferably a battery operated one, or at the very least, one that will work with the local electric system..(Not all countries use 60hz). Make sure you bring a plug adapter if needed as well extra medications. In my case, I brought two nebs in case one decided not to work, and backs of all my meds.

It’s also a good idea to check the local climate conditions before you make travel plans. Some places can be very humid, especially during the summer months. This can make breathing miserable if you’re a touchy asthmatic.

Lastly, if you have severe lung disease, make sure you understand how the local medical system work. A lot of EU member countries have a medical care agreement in case you need hospital care, but the US does not have this type of agreement with other countries. Make sure your current medical insurance will cover you, or purchase separate travel insurance.

Don’t let your breathing problems stop you from traveling. Just prepare the best you can and go for it. A little planning can give you a lot of peace of mind."
[The dude is an asthma ninja! :)]

Here's my med-related packing list:
Control meds: Symbicort x2 (one in my backpack that is always with me, one in my suitcase), Singulair x2 (backpack, suitcase)
Ventolin x3 (pocket, backpack, suitcase) [Seriously, you can NEVER have too many rescue inhalers.]
Benadryl (scattered throughout my stuff :P)
Advil (backpack)
Peak flow meter (backpack)
AeroChamber (backpack)
Asthma Action Plan (in iPod touch, and copies with meds... just in case!)
Prednisone (backpack) [pred is the new addition!]
Antacids (backpack) [they go with the pred]
Halls Breezers [In my case, for sore throats only, not for coughing]
Hand sanitizer, band aids
Extra medical ID (in my case, just a simple dogtag I made in Wal Mart in the States) [I wear one of these all the time, though, so this is purely worst-case backup]

Aside from the peak flow meter, the "backpack" stuff is in my survival kit I carry around at pretty much all times [aka the Ziploc bag]

I'd like to hear what everybody else has to say! . . . Am I missing anything? :)

Happy travels! :)

Oh, and the Christmas tree is definitely NOT a good thing for me [duh, right?]. I was really insistent until I got asthma upon having a real tree, and I gave that idea up pretty quick after my diagnosis! :) As for treating flares, I'd treat them the same way I usually do and not mess around deviating from my plan [though, I really would rather NOT spend the holidays on pred :)]