How To Travel After A Chronic Illness Diagnosis
Nobody wants to be given the news that they are suffering from a chronic illness. It can be an extreme emotional shock that can take a while to recover. You may have to change your lifestyle, and you’ll be looking at the world with a fresh perspective.
However, being diagnosed with a chronic illness doesn’t mean you can stop having fun. Nothing stops you from doing everything you did before or the things you want to do; it just might need a bit more extra planning. If you love travelling, we’ve compiled a guide with some tips to help you travel safely after a chronic illness diagnosis.
Choose The Right Type Of Holiday
Depending on your chronic illness, you might find yourself fatigued more often or not as able to do as many things as usual.
When it comes to choosing a holiday, you’ll need to take your physical abilities into consideration. If you are currently experiencing mobility issues, you may want to avoid hilly locations with steep inclines.
You’re not missing out by missing the more remote holiday; a simple scenic city break can be every bit as thrilling. You’re still exploring somewhere new and experiencing an unfamiliar culture.
If you aren’t feeling a city break this time round, you can go for one closer to a beach or a resort town featuring a beach.
Is Your Destination Suitable?
In the UK, more and more locations have featured accessibility features, and while most tourist destinations will have the same features, smaller establishments and non-chain businesses may not have accessibility features that we take for granted. You could find certain facilities are unsuitable or not as accessible as you would like them, particularly if you are suffering from mobility issues around the time of your departure.
Do your research ahead of time. Draw up a list of destinations and go through them one by one, checking each point of visit for accessibility; if in doubt, you can rely on Google Images. Don’t be afraid to call and talk to the staff either; a quick phone call to a hotel can immediately let you know whether it will work for you.
Bring Everything You Need
In certain cases, you may mean you need to take medication such as insulin regularly, or you might require using a mobility aid such as crutches.
Travelling with medication might cause some issues when you’re navigating through airport security, but in most cases, this is highly unlikely. Just as a safety measure, it’s worth checking with your airline to see if they have specific rules about bringing medication on board so you aren’t stuck in an awkward position.
And the most obvious advice is to arrive at the airport as early as possible to ensure any commuting delays won’t risk you missing your flight.
Get Travel Insurance
While you may be well-versed in the process of accessing medical care at home, things might work a little differently at your destination. Medical services abroad can be complicated and tricky to navigate. What’s more, they are often expensive; you could find yourself faced with an enormous bill even for routine treatment. Just to be the safe side, it’s worth booking travel insurance. Look at providers like Staysure, who offer cover for people living with pre-existing medical conditions. Getting travel cover like this offers you unlimited medical expenses and gives you access to a 24-hour emergency medical helpline.
Collaborative post