7 Unexpected Items ER Doctors Always Take On Vacation

Getting sick on vacation happens more than most people realize: nearly 30% of Americans say they’ve gotten sick or injured on a trip, throwing their travel plans for a loop.

While there’s only so much you can do to lower the risk of getting sick on vacation, emergency room doctors say it’s important to be prepared for certain situations. “You don’t want to ruin a great vacation with some type of bad event that happens to you,” said Dr. Eric Adkins, an emergency medicine physician at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “Sometimes you can prepare for simpler events. If you’re as prepared as you can be, hopefully you can still salvage your trip.”

There are some more obvious things to consider packing, like over-the-counter pain relievers and disposable bandages. But ER doctors tend to think beyond that, tossing essentials you might not think of in their bags for the just-in-case. With that in mind, we tapped four emergency room physicians for details on what they always reach for when it’s time to pack.

Several doctors we spoke to said they always have anti-nausea medication ready. “Always pack Zofran, just in case,” said Dr. Cedric Dark, associate professor of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “The feeling of nausea and vomiting is one of the most hated things you could ever imagine and there’s nothing over-the-counter that is that helpful.”

Adkins calls Zofran (generic name: ondansetron) “essential,” adding, “I’ll always have that with me.” He remembers a vacation a few years ago when Zofran came in handy as his family went on a whale-watching trip. “Four out of five of us vomited,” he said. “I was glad we had Zofran with us.”

The medication is only available by prescription, which is why Adkins recommends talking to your primary care physician before your trip. “It dissolves under your tongue,” he said. “It still works, even if you are having trouble keeping things down.”

Dark lists this as a must if he’s traveling someplace tropical. He uses a mosquito zapper racquet but a standalone trap can do the job, too. “My wife reacts horribly to mosquitoes,” he explained.

Not only are mosquito bites itchy and uncomfortable, the insects can carry a range of serious diseases, including West Nile virus, malaria, Zika virus and dengue fever. Dark recommends using your mosquito trap or racquet along with bug spray for maximum protection.

While they’re unlikely to be life-saving, tweezers are a must-pack item for Dr. Joy Crook, associate professor of clinical emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Someone always gets a splinter,” she explained. Having a pair of tweezers ready to go means she won’t have to hunt down a pharmacy and make an extra trip to remove something as simple as a splinter.

Traveling for more than four hours by air, car, or bus raises the risk of developing blood clots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But there are other factors that increase that risk even more, including being over the age of 40, being overweight or obese, or if you’re using birth control that contains estrogen.

Getting up and moving regularly during your trip can help lower the risk, but so can wearing compression socks. That’s why they’re a go-to for Dr. Erin Muckey, associate professor of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “I wear compression socks on long flights,” she said. “It’s helpful to prevent blood clots and to encourage general blood flow.”

You can’t look up directions to the nearest pharmacy or hospital, or even call for help, if your phone battery is on zero. That’s why Adkins always takes a portable USB battery pack with him on trips.

“A lot of places are doing better with having spots to charge your phone, but occasionally you’ll need a portable battery,” he said. “It seems simple, but you want to make sure your phone is charged so you can look things up or communicate with other people, if needed.”

There have been a series of headline-making stories of travelers dying from carbon monoxide poisoning on vacation over the past year alone. Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that’s odorless and colorless, and it’s produced when fuels like gasoline, oil, charcoal and natural gas burn incompletely, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In low concentrations, carbon monoxide can cause fatigue and chest pain; In high concentrations, it can cause flu-like symptoms and even be deadly. Because the gas is odorless and colorless, it can be hard to know if you’re being exposed without a carbon monoxide detector. Luckily, there are plenty of portable carbon monoxide detectors that can easily be packed in a suitcase.

“This is a recent addition to my travel bag,” Crook said. “It’s easy to bring and may save a life.”

Lack of sleep can weaken your immune system, leaving you vulnerable to getting sick. When he’s traveling across time zones, Adkins says he’ll often pack a melatonin supplement, just in case.

Melatonin is a hormone that your brain produces in response to darkness and can help with the timing of your circadian rhythms, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). The supplement gives your body more of the hormone. “It can help reset your internal clock,” Adkins explains. (Just talk to your healthcare provider before taking any new kind of supplement, including melatonin.)

While you’re at it, don’t forget to toss OTC pain relievers and Band-Aids in your bag. “These are important. You never know what will happen,” Muckey said.