This Spoonie Travels: Before the Trip

About The Trip!

The 29th to the 7th I’m going to be in Ireland! I’m going to Ireland with my boyfriend and his parents. This trip is actually my boyfriend’s graduation present from his parents, he recently graduated from pharmacy school.

This is a trip through AAA, we’ll be going around mostly the edge of Ireland and there’s a wide variety of things we’re going to see. We actually chose to leave a day early so we can adjust to the time difference. Now I've actually gone on a lot of vacations before I got really sick and I'm pretty used to flying and the utter boredom and discomfort a flight brings. Though flying with my feeding tube has brought a new set of annoyances to deal with. My boyfriend on the other hand has never flown in a plane before, so I'm interested to see what his reactions will be at the airport. He'll be stuck to my side because he's my "Service Human", the one pushing my wheelchair and helping me walk when I'm not in my chair.   

I’m also going to lay out a short base itinerary for you guys so you can see what we’re in store for. Also keep in mind I’m going to try to do a blog post for everyday that we’re in Ireland. I’m also going to post a lot of pictures on my Instagram as well (@spoonie_speaks) so if you don’t see a post here, head on over to Instagram and you’ll probably see some awesome pictures.

Jonathan and I at graduation

My Health

Some of you might be wondering if it’s safe for me to travel out of the country when I’m dependent on a feeding tube. The answer is yes, I’ve spent the last couple months getting checked over by my Rheumatologist (my main doctor). I’ve had tons of labs run, steroid injections for my Arthritis and a long talk about my Arthritis and my feeding tube in general. But in the end my labs came back looking decent nutrition and blood count wise, so I got the green light to go on the trip. I’m so excited to go, I’ve been to Canada and the Caribbean before I got really sick but this will be my first big trip. Honestly I’m a bit nervous about it but still really excited.

The Itinerary

Day One (5/29)- Fly to Dublin Overnight

Day Two (5/30)- “Independent Arrangements

Day Three (5/31)- Dublin Tour and Book of Kells

Day Four (6/1)- 6th Century Glendalough and Waterford Crystal

Day Five (6/2)- Cobh and Blarney Castle

Day Six (6/3)- Ring of Kerry Drive and Skellig Experience

Day Seven (6/4)- Cliffs of Moher and Galway

Day Eight (6/5)- Sheepdogs and Derry’s Medieval Walls

Day Nine (6/6)- Giants Causeway and Titanic Belfast

Day Ten (6/7)- We Leave

Medical Items

So as far as medical items go I have a bunch of stuff related to my feeding tube, really it’s kind of a wreck now that I think about it. I have things like my formula, pump bags, 60ml syringes, another extension set, tape, tubie pads and split gauze. Because I’m traveling internationally all my medications need to be in their prescription bottles. I found a nice medication bag that zips up so I can easily unzip it and easily show all my medications at one time without messing with them too much, I’ll leave a link at the end of the post if you’re interested. I also made a small version of my medical binder, with my medications listed as well as the dosage separated by doctor, and copies of my prescriptions and doctors letters as well. I’m traveling with a couple of controlled substances so I just wanted to have all my bases covered. I’m also hoping that my travel IV pole will fit in my big suitcase so I don’t have to hang my feeding tube backpack off a ironing board or something similar during the night.

Things I’ll Keep on Me

So even though I’ll have my feeding tube backpack I’m also going to have a small purse with me too. It’ll be home to my iPad and Kindle, as well as my headphones. As well as other important thing’s like my wallet, passport, external battery, tape, extra tubie pads, Glucose tablets, split gauze, sanitizing wipes, Tums  and a tubie clip. I’ll also have a set of night and day medications to take on the plane and my medications for pain and nausea will also be within easy reach because I know I’ll need them. 

This will also be the first trip using my wheelchair! Because of my EDS my hips dislocate making it hard for me to walk long distances on top of Arthritis pain. So a few months ago my Rheumatologist thought it was reasonable that I get a wheelchair to maintain a sense of freedom even if I'm in too much pain to walk. Probably doesn't make much sense for someone who's Arthritis is worsened by rain to go somewhere, where it rains near constantly. And yeah I do kind of low key think that's a bad idea, but I want to have adventures before I'm too sick. This trip is going to wipe me out big time but, I'm hoping I just have so much fun that I don't notice how awful I feel. I'm really excited for this adventure and my boyfriend is too, honestly we kind of resemble two kids gearing up for Christmas morning.

Also for anyone who might be interested, I bought this medication carrier. It's nice and sturdy, though unfortunately the elastic loops that hold the medication bottle don't fit much of a range of prescription bottle sizes.