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 flat 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 preoccupied with beforehand was the question: how do I take my medication with me, refrigerated? I have to admit that this worried me more than anything else. Without being able to take my refrigerated medication with me, the trip simply would not happen.
Since 2023, I have known that I have Crohn's disease, and I use biologicals for it. Fortunately, my medication works well and I don't suffer much from side effects. My doctor did say that I had to keep using my medication while travelling. But my doctor didn't know how I could keep the medication properly cool for so long, and the hospital pharmacy couldn't really help me with that either.
So it was up to me to work out how to do it. That cost me a fair few sleepless nights, I can tell you. After a lot of googling, I came across Medicooler and made an appointment to look at the products at the office. Pieter showed me the options and, above all, was able to reassure me that travelling with refrigerated medication really was possible. I still remember cycling home after the appointment, calling a friend and shouting: “It's all going to be fine and I can go travelling after all!”
In the end, I took two Medicooler products with me: the iCool Prestige cooling bag and the electric medication cool box travel set. That combination worked perfectly for me while backpacking. On travel days, my medication went into the cooling bag, and at our destination back into the cool box. My medication stayed properly cool throughout the whole 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 had to find a freezer somewhere for the gel packs, or when customs at the airport wanted to see 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 came with me, from Japan to Australia. And I am still very grateful for that.
Madou
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