Eight months of backpacking through Asia and Australia. It had been a dream of ours for a long time, and last year we decided: we’re just going to do it! We both quit our jobs, left our apartment in Amsterdam behind, and booked two one-way tickets to Japan. We were incredibly excited and busy with all the preparations. But what I was mainly concerned with beforehand was the question: how do I take my medication with me, kept refrigerated? I have to honestly admit that this was what I worried about the most. After all, without refrigerated medication on the trip, it simply wouldn't happen.
I have known since 2023 that I have Crohn's disease, and I use biologics for it. Fortunately, my medication works well, and I do not suffer much from side effects. My doctor did indicate that I should continue taking my medication while traveling. However, my doctor did not know how I could keep the medication properly refrigerated for such a long time, and the clinical pharmacy couldn't really help me with that either.
So it was up to me to figure out how I was going to do it. This resulted in quite a few sleepless nights, I can tell you. After a lot of Googling, I ended up at Medicooler and made an appointment to view the products at the office. Pieter showed me the possibilities and, above all, was able to reassure me that traveling with refrigerated medication really was possible. I vividly remember calling a friend on my bike after the appointment and shouting: “It’s all going to work out after all, and I can just go on my trip!”
In the end, I took two Medicooler products with me: the iCool Prestige cooler bag and the electric medicine cooler travel set. That combination worked perfectly for me while backpacking. On travel days, my medication went into the cooler bag, and at our destination, back into the cooler. My medication stayed well chilled the entire trip, even in places where it was often above 30 degrees!
Of course, we sometimes had to be a bit creative, for example when we needed to find a freezer somewhere for the cool packs or when customs at the airport wanted to check exactly what I had in my hand luggage. That sometimes led to funny moments. But something I had worried so much about beforehand actually became more and more normal during the trip. My medication simply went with me, from Japan to Australia. And I am still very grateful for that.
Madou
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