Flying without shame

a short packing list

I’m writing this post from a plane and in fact, I’m sending off this newsletter as we fly - just because I can. Technology is getting a bad rap these days because of ChatGPT ruining education, for example, but I’m still getting a kick out being able to post this mid-flight. I have to hurry, though, because we’ll be flying across the Atlantic any minute now, and the wonder of Wi-Fi doesn’t quite extend to the ocean. Perhaps we can be thankful that the ocean remains relatively untouched by our desire to always be connected.

So, this will be a short wave from high up in the air. I was thinking about writing while I packed for this trip, and realized there’s really only 2 things I need to take with me: my identification/immigration documents, and my meds. I weighed them up in my mind to see which would be worse to leave behind.

If I didn’t bring the documents, I wouldn’t be able to travel, so the trip wouldn’t take place. Sad as that would be, consider the other alternative: forgetting my meds. I’m on a regimen that has taken a decade to establish, and still gets tweaked quite often (I’m currently going through a med change period, for example, as a med got added to treat my sleep apnea, and it upset the balance of the others).

Suddenly arriving in another country where it would be next to impossible to obtain the needed medications, well that would be…an absolute disaster. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to go cold turkey from the collection, physically for my body let alone for my mental health, which most of the meds are, ostensibly, treating. I hope I never have to find out.

Such is the reality for chronic illnesses. I remember once a friend being embarrassed that I had pulled out a medicine box in the middle of dinner. I think they felt that at my age at the time, it was shameful to need such a container. It has only grown in the past decade to become the behemoth it is today.

I stopped feeling any shred of shame a long time ago, other people’s feelings about it notwithstanding. These days, I’m just glad they make pill boxes big enough to fit my all my meds.