Two Travel Tips that Can Help Prevent Health Problems for Overnight Travelers
Copyright © November 1, 2019 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
During the course of my life I have spent a lot of nights away from home in a motel for both business and vacation purposes. The majority of my overnight trips did not adversely impact my health. However, on two occasions I did experience the following problems on two different business trips. In both situations I spent the night in a nice motel and I went to bed in excellent health.
- Sore Throat: When I woke up in my motel room in the morning I had a sore throat and my voice sounded deep and hoarse. Unfortunately I had two more days of work scheduled before I could return home. Therefore I tolerated my sore throat until I arrived back home and then I immediately begin taking antibiotics to cure my sore throat.
- Eye Infection: When I woke up in my motel room in the morning my vision was blurred and when I looked in the mirror my eyes were red and bloodshot. I knew it wasn't pink eye because I could easily open my eyes and there was no crusty substance on my eyelids. However, this time I was prepared and I had a few antibiotics in my overnight bag. Therefore I immediately began taking some medicine. By midday my eyes felt much better and I could see clearly. After two days my eye infection was completely gone because I had begun taking antibiotics as soon as it became obvious to me that I was sick.
My Two Travel Tips
My first travel tip should be obvious based on my comments above. Include a few general purpose antibiotics, such as Amoxicillin or Erythromycin, in your overnight bag when you are traveling. You can tell your family doctor the reason you would like a prescription for about 3 days worth of a general purpose antibiotic that you are not allergic to, and your family doctor may be willing to provide you with a prescription. Keep the antibiotics in your refrigerator until you are ready to travel and then transfer them to your overnight bag. If you don't need them while you are away from home then immediately put them back in the refrigerator when you return home unless the antibiotic has instructions that says it should not be refrigerated.
My second travel tip may not be so obvious. Both of the health problems I described above happened after I spent the night in a nice clean motel. The rooms were spotless, the bathroom was extremely clean, and the bed sheets had been washed and they looked clean and they smelled clean. But I suspect that during the night I was exposed to some type of contagious germ that was lingering inside the soft pillow that I slept on. Even though the pillowcase was clean I suspect that the tiny germs made their way through the pillowcase and into my body. I had my head, nose, closed mouth, closed eyes, and ears on that pillow all night while I was asleep and the infection didn't have to travel very far to make me sick. Therefore my second travel tip is to purchase a high-quality hypoallergenic "king size" pillow protector with a zipper, and also purchase a nice soft "king size" pillowcase. Before you go to bed at night in a motel, put the pillow protector around the pillow you will be sleeping on (including around the motel's pillowcase) and close the zipper. Then put you own pillowcase around the pillow protector. The "king size" pillow protector and the "king size" pillowcase will fit around almost any size motel pillow but it will be a little big on a "standard size" or a "queen size" pillow. But your objective is not to create the "perfect look." Your objective is to protect yourself from germs. A "king size" pillow protector and pillowcase will fit whatever size pillow that may be in your motel room. But if you purchase a "standard or queen size" pillow protector and pillowcase then they may not fit on some motel pillows. Therefore it would be better to err on the side of being a little too big instead of a little too small.
You will only need one hypoallergenic pillow protector. But you will probably need a different pillowcase for each night that you spend away from home. If there are germs on the bed sheets that you are sleeping on, then those germs may get onto the underside of your pillowcase. Therefore, in order to protect yourself, it would be wise to have a clean pillowcase for each night that you intend to spend away from home.
A "king size" pillow protector and one or more pillowcases will fit nicely inside a one-gallon heavy-duty plastic freezer bag. You can remove them from their protective plastic bag at night and put them around the motel pillow. The next morning you can remove them from the motel pillow and return them to the zipper plastic bag and then put the zipper bag back in your overnight bag. If there are any germs on the inside of either of your two personal pillow items then the zipper bag should contain those germs so that they do not get on the rest of your clothes or on the other items in your overnight bag. When you get home you can wash all your pillow items and dry them in the clothes dryer and this will terminate any germs that may be on those two items. Then you can put them into a "new" clean one-gallon plastic freezer bag for you next overnight adventure.
If you are traveling by car then a different option would be to take your own pillow with you and sleep on it at night instead of the motel pillow. I have done this many times with good results. However, as soon as I get home I remove the pillowcase and the pillow protector from my pillow and I wash and dry them to kill any germs that they may have picked up from the motel room or the motel bed.
Conclusion
I realize that both of the above suggestions are just good common sense. But my experience has been that good common sense is usually the best answer because it solves the original problem in the most logical manner.
Respectfully,
Grandpappy.
Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com