International Travel with MC

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 8:56 am

International Travel - with MC

This information was collated in June 2010, based on my travels from Brisbane Australia to Marignane France. This was a 35 hour plus transit from when I stepped into the airport to depart, to when I exited the airport at my destination.
It involved 3 sectors of travel, airport time 1.5 hrs, Bris to Hong Kong (9.5hrs in economy), 4 hours airport time, Hong Kong to Paris (12 hrs 45 mins business class), 3.5 hours airport time then Paris to Marseille/Marignane (2 hrs economy class).

The laws regarding travelling on international flights with liquids are world wide universe laws.

Security checks at airports were increased after 9/11 and the restrictions and increased security checks for liquids was implemented in 2007.

The basics of these laws is that you can not carry any single item (tube, small bottle, container) of more than 100mls. All the liquid items have to be carried in a plastic snap lock bag of no more than 1 litre volume and must be clear so all the contents can viewed. This allowance does not include medications. Medications must have labels on the item to verify that it is for the traveller (in Australia the pharmacists applies a label to each item)

The law states that you can carry liquids for select purposes, ie mothers can carry quantity’s for babies, and for health reasons you can carry liquids, you have to have a letter from your doctor or specialist. ( I will detail suggested wording for this at the end of this post)

At the same security point the liquid check is done, you also have to remove all metal items from your person (watches, belts, keys, money etc shoes if the have metal supports in the soles which some brands do) If you are carrying a laptop you have to take the laptop out of your bag.

My experience with this over the past 3 years, is no matter what airport or what country, this can be pretty full on, it is crowded, there are queues, people that haven’t travelled before are confused by what is going on.

Before your items go through the x-ray – identify that you are carrying liquids. I put these onto a different tray, along with the letter from my doctor and the printout of my itinerary showing the notation for each sector of travel ‘requested meal options could not be guaranteed’
your items go through x-ray -
You will be flagged and a supervisor will come over. They will review the documents, they will look at what you are carrying. ( In hong kong they took note of my name, passport number and flight number) meanwhile i am redressing myself (watch shoes etc) and putting my laptop back in the bag etc etc.

Discussions with the airlines before travel is that most airlines for their Gluten Free meal will provide a salad, piece of fruit and yogurt. Airlines struggle with multiple intolerances, you can either have gluten free OR dairy free. Not both.

I had decided on gluten free meal as this was my worst trigger.
The food in business class was much better, but there was still a focus on salad and fruit with the meals.

Be mindful that I am not able to tolerate any salad or raw veges, or fruit, and only drink clear juice.

I carried with me a packet of rice cakes, some apple & blackcurrant juice in tetra packs (ind serve), 2 x small 20ml containers with nuttex spread (DF/SF margarine I use) to make the rice cakes more palatable.

Most airlines serve apple juice with no additives so effectively on the economy class flights I was having my rice cakes and apple juice.
Suitable food options at the airports while transiting was very limited. the only safe things I found was black coffee, apple juice and water.
Given the length of the transit and that I needed to be in good health on arrival, I was being super super cautious and was not willing to risk a meal or a food item that would cause issues. I ate one of my ‘gabes easy to digest meals’ before going to the airport.

Suggested wording for Doctors letter:
This was mine – please change to suit your intolerances

This patient has a medical condition which involves serious food intolerances; specifically she is unable to digest wheat/gluten, yeast, soy, lactose, raw fruit and vegetables and raw fruit.

I would be most grateful if you would respect these significant medical issues.

Signed Doctor

wonderwoman · Post by **wonderwoman** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 9:27 am

I can't imagine me going through what you went through. The troubles I had while traveling were nothing compared to yours. Hang in there. You are doing an excellent job.

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:05 am

Gabes thanks for putting that together. It is an excellent write up

--Joe

harma · Post by **harma** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:40 am

Gabes, thank you for putting your experiences here, I am sure they will be very useful information once I am ready to travel again. I am going to use the text you made for your medical letter nd hope my GI or PCP will sign it.

Another thing I thought about of what I would take on a flight longer than 2 - 3 hours is canned fish. It's nutritious and not heavy. Also maybe dried fruit and of course the famous rice cakes.

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:48 am

sorry, i forgot to mention

as i had only ONE copy of the doctors letter, i copied it and got the copies verified by a Justice of the peace (i think the US equivalent is a notary public)

I did this in case it got mislaid or taken at the airport, i wanted to ensure i had clean copies for my trip home.

I think (and this was more so for Hong Kong) because it had the official stamp and signature on the document it made it look more official

with project planning and risk management techniques, (which is my job so hence it is my forte) my main aim was to ensure that i had something in my stomach rather than nothing, and keep up the vit C and my hydration.
when i did have the airline provided meal on the business class, i did have a small dose of the questran as the safety net, this was mostly because I had another 8 hours on the plane after that meal, i wanted to ensure there were no D issues when i could be stuck in my seat due to turbulance.
not ideal for absorbing nutrient but the happy balance given the length of transit

For the record, thanks to using ants communication sheet regarding my diet limitations, i have not had too many major issues buying food items, and eating out in france.

so far, i have spoken to three people who had considerable empathy for my situation as they knew people with food allergies.

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Fri Jul 02, 2010 7:17 pm

Update - extra info
for notation

I have survived the journey home (just)

one thing to note that when requesting a gluten free meal from the airlines, when the meal arrives there is no information as to what the meal is so my entertainment on the flight was mmmm what could this be??

and of course aside from figuring what food items are in the meal, there is obviously no food label stating any other ingredients, ie yeast, dairy, soy.

basically the meals provided (when they were provided as one sector did not have any specially allocated meals for me) were mostly salad and fruit.

given that in the airports there is nothing suitable to eat ( it is all fast food), i ended up spending the 36 hours eating rice cakes / corn cakes and drinking apple juice .

I highly recommend for anyone embracing long distance travel to get the letter from your doctor and carry as much necessary food & liquid items as you can.
on reflection of my trip home, a small bag of GF/DF cereal and a small container of rice milk would have been a good meal option.

albeit, should i travel again i would never do more than 10 hours flying in any 24 hour period and i will get the letter from the doctor updated to include the statement that i can not eat raw foods (ie salads)

I have been home 28 hours, my body is going mmmmmmm gabes food (homer simpson style) with rest and my foods my body is slowly recovering from the trip and stressful transit.
and i dont want to see another rice cake or corn cake for at least a week!

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Fri Jul 02, 2010 7:22 pm

Welcome back Gabes and thanks for the updates. I'm glad you made the transit without major issues, but yeah you must hate rice cakes by now...

This information will be quite useful to all that travel with MC.

--Joe

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Fri Jul 02, 2010 7:27 pm

mmmm i wonder who is next to travel!

have you got your flights booked yet?

I was in quite a bit of pain by the end of the flight, it has taken lots of rest and of course 'gabes food' to feel a bit normal again. will stick to mashed up well cooked food for a few days yet.

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Fri Jul 02, 2010 7:36 pm

Gabes it looks like I will be traveling for business the third week of August. I have been asked to be an invited speaker for a post conference study session in Brisbane NSW at the University of Queensland. I will be reviewing a recently published paper of mine and moderating a plenary session.

I'm kind of glad that I was at home the past couple of days so I could get the draft of slides and speech ready for submission. Our travel office at work tells me its a 26 hour transit time...yuk At least its in business class. I do have an agreement with management that I can book my own hotels, I will start working on that this weekend.

I am going to have to start working on what foods to carry etc.. I am so glad for all your notes.

Thanks again for your postings

--Joe

Gloria · Post by **Gloria** » Fri Jul 02, 2010 9:48 pm

Welcome home, Gabes!

I'm glad you're back home and can eat your Gabes food again. I'm not sure everyone would be able to live on rice cake or corn cake for 36 hours as you did.

I might have an opportunity to travel to Germany with DH this month. DH was born in Hamburg and his last surviving aunt just passed away there last Sunday. She had no children and her husband is deceased. DH will probably need to go there to settle her estate. She had an apartment, and it is about 600 feet away from a train station. I was originally going to let DH go by himself, but when I realized we could stay in her apartment and use the train for transportation, I decided I could make my own meals and probably survive for the couple of weeks we'd be there. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I had pretty much given up on the idea of foreign travel, given all of my intolerances.

Your experience will be very helpful. Thank you for trailblazing! I'll keep you posted.

Gloria

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Sat Jul 03, 2010 3:32 am

gloria
if you feel up to embracing the trip then do it!

if you can cook your own foods when you get there, then handling MC on the trip wont be too bad. In the 3 days before the departure home, I only had one decent bland meal of meat and veges, so i think that also impacted my wellbeing for the trip home.
so realistically i had been living on mostly rice cakes, corn cakes, apple juice and coffee for 5 days.

and if DH is with you to help then it will be also a bit easier. not feeling 100% and being on my own was hard work.

based on my experience in France, multi intolerance type basics are available in health food shops or via the net. (and generally the websites are in german so if you can find someone to help you translate and order the basics when you first get there)

harma · Post by **harma** » Sat Jul 03, 2010 6:07 am

Gabes, glad you made it home, finally you can have no a descent meal again. And again thank you for sharing all your experiences here. I am sure they will be very useful once I will start traveling again.

Gloria, don't worry about going to Hamburg, I am sure when it comes to diet food, Germany is one the better European countries to go to. Every supermarket in Germany sells glutenfree stuff (Scharr is the best know German brand). Any lactose free milk you can buy in the Netherlands comes from Germany. Last year, when I went to a concert of Fleetwoodmac in Oberhaussen (also Germany), if was amazed and surprized that they served a cappuccino with lactose free milk (I almost fell of my chair, really couldn't believe it). Also any drugstore (don't know how you call them exactly in English, shops where you buy your personal care products as soap, creme, of the counter medicine etc) sells diet products.

Now your diet is like mine, so all these diet product won't be of any use, but it says something about a country, if almost any shop sells diet products and starbucks (or another brand) sells lactose free cappuccino. Also most Germans speak very well English, so I guess language won't be a problem.

Since Gabes and Ant met, Hamburg is not that far from Groningen (about 2 hours travelling I guess) and I have never been to Hamburg, this could be good reason, to visit you in Hamburg.

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Sat Jul 03, 2010 6:45 am

Harma I did notice at our local health food store that the majority of GF /YF foods were from Germany. I have several of the Scharr brands in my kitchen. I surprised to see a fair amount of the choices were from Israel.

We are going to have to setup a MC travel agency LOL

--Joe

Polly · Post by **Polly** » Sat Jul 03, 2010 7:04 am

Gabes,

Tex and I are in the very early stages of a book about MC. Perhaps you can do a chapter on international travel. You are certainly the resident expert now!

Love,

Polly

Post by **Rosie** » Sat Jul 03, 2010 10:23 am

Welcome home, Gabes! It sounds like you are a bit the worse for wear, but didn't have any major problems during those 3 weeks. That's quite an accomplishment. And even without the MC complications, recovering from such long travel would be an issue for anyone.

Your diary of coping with international travel will help all of us! Thanks for making that extra effort, in the midst of all your heavy work schedule!

Rosie