Traveling while sick is a nightmare! Who in their right mind would want to willingly board a plane under the duress of nausea, fatigue, shivers, and an upset stomach? I’m going to take a wild guess and say “no one”.
Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to change your travel plans at the drop of a hat. If you’re traveling for business or taking a long-anticipated family vacation, your options are limited. Canceling your travel plans could cost you big dollars.
However, you may need to weigh whether continuing to travel while sick will worsen your condition or if you can weather the storm.
7 Tips for traveling while sick
So what quick and simple action can you take if you’re traveling while sick and have very few cancellation options? I’m not a doctor, but here are a few things that helped me, some of which WebMD also suggests:
Rest
This is easier said than done for the busy mom or business person. Simply said, the less you rest, the longer it’s going to take you to get better. At a minimum, you should be getting 7-8 hours as recommended by doctors. If your body is tired, it doesn’t have the basic mechanism to help fight and fix what’s wrong with you. Unfortunately, you can’t compromise on this. The more rest you get, the stronger you’ll be.
Hydration
If you weren’t drinking your 8 glasses of water before, now’s the time to get it into your system. Vomiting, fever, and diarrhea cause dehydration. You can drink coconut water, Gatorade, Pedialyte as a part of your liquid intake. Clean water helps to flush your system out and keep all the necessary membranes in good working order. I own a portable glass water bottle that makes ionized alkaline water. It’s fantastic!
Essential Oils
Over the past three years, essential oils have been a buzz term. Some people are prophets for the movement, some not so much. I can’t speak to any scientific efficacy of them. I just know what has helped me feel better. My short list includes: diffusing peppermint oil or putting ONE drop of it in warm water to help with nausea; rubbing lavender oil on the back of my ears to help me sleep, and massaging oregano oil on the bottom of my feet to help with a cold.
Vitamin C Supplements
Get yourself some Emergen-C for a healthy dose of vitamin C. An increase in vitamin C can help to boost your immune system and strengthen your defenses. I also like to use Airborne effervescent tablets if I know I have to take a flight. The daily recommended value for vitamin C tablets is 500 mg but you can easily find 1000 mg tablets in your local drug store.
Neti pot
These are ceramic pots that use a saltwater solution to flush out your nasal passages, clearing it of pollen and possibly viruses. I use a neti pot religiously during allergy season and it provides amazing relief.
Saline nasal spray
WebMD suggests using it before and after the flight: “The plane air is so dry and that dries out your mucous membranes, which reduces your resistance to infection, but keeping these membranes moist with saline spray may help.”
Protect yourself from other sick people
If you’re comfortable with it, go ahead and pimp the face mask. Masks protect us from both allergens, dust, germs, and bacteria. People in other parts of the world have no qualms about it, so why should we?
My own sick travel dilemma
Last weekend I had the pleasure of catching a “bug”. At the time, I didn’t realize my sickness would be short-lived, so I prepared myself for the worst. The last thing on my mind was traveling while sick. All I knew was that I had a flight in 4 days, I needed to get better quickly, or find a “band-aid” to help me make it through the flight.
INCUBATION
Most of the times, it takes a good 24 hours to realize what’s really going on with our bodies when we fall sick. Fevers love to peak in that first day, aches begin their run, and then congestion starts to run its course.
That incubation period can make it hard to know what we’re dealing with or what we need to do to get better.
Luckily, my ailment (nausea, fatigue, headache, upset stomach) only lasted 24 hours. By the next day, I was at 90%, weak but mostly recuperated. In my situation, there was no need for anything more than rest and detoxification.
Prolonged and more severe symptoms (persistent high fever or a cough, red and patchy tonsils, vomiting, dizziness, palpitations, etc.) call for a visit to the doctor. It’s important to prioritize your self-care and travel sometimes makes that hard to do.
The above suggestions are also great preventative measures. Remember, consult your doctor if your body is feeling especially abnormal. Any sickness that lasts more than a few days may need professional medical attention.
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I have had the pleasure of traveling while sick and it was not fun. I think we forget to pack certain items to help us through a sick spell should one arise. I can see some much needed additions to my packing list including vitamin C and nasal spray.
If you are sick, dont travel. I consider it rude and vile human behaviour to expose countless hundreds to your ailment. If you are sick, STAY HOME. I have no sympathy for sick travelers and consider them rude.
Just last nigh I had the pleasure of being seated next to a sick traveler. He coughed and snorted what I calculate to be about a gallon of snot during the hour long flight. He hacked and coughed every 15 seconds. There was no peace for anybody near him. When I asked why he was traveling he said he was traveling to watch the bowl game with his buddies. What an ASS.
Its not always the case
that we can cancell our travling plans while we are sick.., Sometimes we need to comprmise with our health becozz the circumsances are not same at al times ….
No of course not. It’s not feasible for everyone to just cancel their plans. The point of the article is to provide you with tips to manage your sickness so that you can continue with your travel plans. Thanks for stopping by.
Richard, I couldn’t help but crack up at your comment because you’re obviously pissed off from your recent trip. And it’s a shame that you had to sit next to a “hacking, coughing, ASS.” However, we can’t control getting sick – Lord knows we all wish we could and changing travel plans on the fly isn’t always feasible. People need to get to work, duty, family, wherever. If the airlines didn’t charge folks their first born to make travel changes, maybe some people would delay their journeys. And then maybe some won’t. In situations like these, where you had to be exposed to a sickly passenger, the ideal thing would have been to either quarantine him (that’ll never happen) or the flight attendants could supply him with a face mask. Hey, that’s a thought. But hopefully my suggestions will help people who don’t have a choice when they get sick while traveling.
I am sick right now and have to fly home tomorrow. I can’t afford another night in my hotel and I can’t afford to change or cancel my flight. I really need to get back home so what choice do I have? I’m loaded up on mucinex, sudafed, nasal spray, vitamin C, and cough drops, but I have to get on that plane. Of course that means I’ll be miserable and likely prolong and increase the severity of my cold (or whatever it is), but at least I won’t be coughing or leaking and I’ll ask for a mask. That guy should’ve stayed home, but at the least he could’ve drugged himself to mitigate symptoms and worn a mask.
Yes, he should have worn a mask. I think the airlines should keep them stashed on the plane as well. Hope you feel better. Rest, water, and all the meds you’re taking will probably sustain you. If you have to get home, you have to get home. People can’t always afford to change their travel plans on a dime.
I am sick and have to fly home for a funeral. So there’s that.
You have to do what you have to do. Hopefully the article provided you with some useful ideas to help you feel better while traveling!
I was just wondering if I have fever would I be allowed on a flight????
Hi Jessie, You can fly with a fever under certain conditions. The CDC notes you should not travel if you: ” Have a fever of 100° F (38° C) or greater AND one or more of the following:
Understand How Infectious Diseases Are Spread
Obvious signs of illness (e.g., severe headache, weakness, skin and eyes turning yellow)
Skin rash
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Persistent, severe cough
Confusion, especially if it has just started
Bruising or bleeding (without previous injury)
Diarrhea that does not go away
Vomiting that does not go away (other than motion sickness)
Some airlines check for visibly sick passengers in the waiting area and during boarding. If you look like you may be sick, the airline may not let you get on the plane.”
Due to the current global health climate, I must point out that if you have knowingly been exposed to someone with Ebola then you should consult a doctor immediately and NOT board a plane.
I’m more than a little aggravated at this. I actually had a dream last night (which must have been my subconscious letting me know I was coming down with something) that I was at the airport and a lady expressed those same sentiments to me. I’ll say to you what I said to her in that dream: I’m not going to waste the thousand dollars I’ve spent on airline tickets (for a flight I have to take TODAY), and miss out on a huge and important event in my brother’s life just because you might be inconvenienced. Colds go away, but birthdays, graduations, business trips, ailing family members? Those do not wait for you just because you’re sick. It’s actually more rude of YOU to assume people have the luxury of cancelling when unexpected illnesses come up. Get over it.
Hey Alex, I’m not sure why you’re aggravated with this. If you read the article closely, I say very clearly “Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to change your travel plans at the drop of a hat. If you’re traveling for business or taking a long-anticipated family vacation, your options are limited. Canceling your travel plans could cost you big dollars.” It is NOT realistic for most people to change their travel plans. THIS is mentioned in the second paragraph AND the entire premise of the article is to give travelers TIPS for what to do when they have to travel even while they are sick. So please, before you try to attack, make sure that you’re actually READING the article instead of just looking at the words. Feel better!
So while you’re jaunting off to your birthday/wedding/whtever, you are spreading germs that can infect at least ten other people. Then they can infect ten people each and so on and so on. Charming!
thanks for the information
good one keep it up
Thankyou for sharing such a nice article and your knowledge with us. Well this article was really helpful as this tell us how to take care of ourselves while we are travelling and also most of the people don’t know how to cure themselves when they are travelling and not feeling well.