PART 1: managing sickness on vacation: what happened!

OK, we have to talk about an unpleasant but important topic! And it’s, how to manage sickness on vacation.

Whether it’s a stomach bug, an injury or an unforeseen illness, many of us have experienced this and particularly if you’re away from your home country and / or using a different language, this can be a stressful scenario.

And it happened to us in Costa Rica! My husband got a serious case of food poisoning that led to dehydration. Here’s how we managed it and what I would do differently next time.

In Part 1 of this series, I’m sharing what happened and how we managed it. 

In Part 2, I’ll share some recs from my friend, Dikeysha, from @Roamreadyfamily. She has helped me come up with a game plan for next time!

packing mistakes

On this trip, I overprepared for bugs - I packed mosquito repellant wipes, stickers and other products and prescription anti-itch creams. I underprepared for food borne illness and didn’t pack things like: rehydration salts and anti-nausea meds.

We also had a lingering case of strep in 3/5 family members as we headed into Costa Rica, so I had to make sure we packed enough antibiotics to last the trip, which, spoiler alert, I didn’t pack enough.

when illness hits

Two things happened at once:

(1 ) I realized that we didn’t bring enough antibiotic medication for the 2 sick kids and I would need to get more and I’d need to get the pharmacy and…

(2) My husband got violently ill.

visiting a pharmacy and speaking spanish

I grabbed our antibiotic prescriptions, an empty bottle of amoxycillin and a taxi and headed to a pharmacy. I showed this to the pharmacist and said we needed more medication for the kids.

THEN I told her “mi esposo” was also sick. She said “vomito? diarrhea?” and I said “los dos…”

So she gave me some meds too.

My husband was out of commission for about 2 days and I had some exhausting solo parenting to do. Gatorade, tums and rehydration salts were his best friend and thankfully, he was better by the end of the trip.

to being more prepared!

No one wants to think about getting sick on a trip but better to be safe than sorry. In Part 2, I’ll share our game plan for next time!