whether it's a drive to Grandma's house
for Thanksgiving or cruise to the
Caribbean for New Year's
nearly 150 million Americans will do
some traveling over the holidays I want
to go on that cruise for hours long car
rides cross country air travel and large
gatherings can disrupt our normal
routines and we can become susceptible
to sickness and fatigue with us today to
offer some healthy travel tips Minute
Clinic nurse practitioner Deborah Misha
good morning thank you so much for being
here with us so it's not a myth that
traveling can get you sick not at all
and that the point is whether you're
traveling by air by ship I think I heard
somebody car and even by large father
family gatherings that's going to be
really important you can pick up
anything it doesn't matter where you are
so some of the things that I kind of
picked out from must-haves for travel or
if you're traveling by plane it's even
more important to make sure you have
pill form because sometimes if you don't
have the right look you may not think
about that and then it may be maybe have
to toss and throw away good money so I
brought together some of the things so
multi cold symptoms because flu is on
the rise it's here and it's in Florida
so it's not if it's here it's all over
there content all over the country so I
tried to make sure I thought about
people who have high blood pressure so
there are medications for blood pressure
that and then also for just the rest of
us folks who don't have it and then
anti-diarrhea I hate to say it but if
you know if you're traveling to another
country or just even a change in your
water sometimes can make that happen so
have some anti dog herbal medication and
then pain relievers don't forget your
ibuprofen and your acetaminophen you
need to have that I did not bring the
children's but the children's would come
in liquid and they do have small sizes
so that you can have that in your
carry-on
you know it'll always fit when they're
on the plane unfortunately yes and you
mentioned that flu is here so that means
it's everywhere you know you see people
in airports traveling with the little
masks do you recommend that do you think
that's a good idea
you can I think it all depends on you
know beliefs and things so I mean people
will travel with masks and you ever
don't
look down on them it's just their way of
trying to protect themselves sometimes
they have an immunity issue too so
they're just trying to keep germs down
as much as possible the best that you
can do of course is wash your hands we
talk about that every time so wash wash
wash it's the best that you can do the
other piece too and I just kind of
brought just a little bit of something
for wiping your trays down on your plane
is the dirt I hate to say it it's the
dirtiest place on the plane it's your
seat your handles and the tray table is
the absolute worst children are changed
sometimes on those tables and then you
turn around the next flight in you're
you're there and you're eating and they
are not cleaning the they clean them
maybe once a day think of the fast
turnover that's occurring with that
right yeah between flights they don't
have time to wipe all that down so that
should probably be one of the first
things you do when you get her plane
start wiping it all down I actually
recommend it all the time yeah when I
have patients they say they're traveling
by plane I always always recommend
please wipe down those tables because
that's where you're going to catch the
most germs everything you touch the seat
you're putting stuff on the on the
overhead everything that you touch is
not being washed down so you eat would
you say even maybe like a little blanket
because maybe the kids are laying down
on somewhere near the seats I mean would
a blanket also help I've you if you're
bringing your own blanket yes times they
have the blankets that are shared you
just don't know and you hate to be that
picky about it but you know have your
own familiar things you know what you
washed you know what you clean and then
you know your child is safe in that area
let's talk about motion sickness which
people struggle with whether it's you
know by a vehicle or on a cruise say you
know you've got a large group to get
somewhere and the kids or the adults are
having trouble and sometimes it's
first-timers right they've never
traveled they've never been on a cruise
ship so they do make children's and and
Dramamine so that you can give that to
them chewable they also make it for
adults but if you're cruising one of the
things that we can provide at
MinuteClinic is like prescription
strength patches so that you don't have
to worry about that and we can help with
that piece of it so that you don't want
to ruin your vacation from you know
yeah motion sickness is no fun yeah
and if you remember a family member does
have just become sick and they need to
you know get to a minute clinic or what
not how does health insurance kind of
change when it comes to state to state
so it does change the state to state
most of your your carriers are going to
be fine within the country but when
you're traveling outside of the country
you really have to make sure you might
want to take advantage of buying the
insurance that when you're traveling
whether it's a cruise or it's on plane
they have that available always a good
idea to call and get your you know talk
to the providers on that end and find
out what your options are of course if
you're in the States you want to still
know that because there are different
Medicaid plans that are not allowed
outside of the state and then of course
our own usually will be accepted
everywhere but if you're not sure go
ahead and check and then we have many
clinics all over the country so you
certainly can go and be treated in our
systems all interact with each other so
it's like you just went from home to and
to another location