Sunshine, seaside and a big bag of drugs!

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Earlier this month my husband & I, our daughter and a suitcase full of drugs and medical equipment jetted off to sunny Portugal.

 Our nerves were evidenced by our extensive checklists,  packing and repacking of medication, letters form the hospital and of course passports!Every parent has concerns about travelling abroad with a toddler. CF intensifies these concerns. Will her meds arrive safely? How do we make sure she is having enough salt - people with CF require additional salt in their diet as they loose lots of salt  when they sweat. Hence it's more of a worry when when the temperatures are higher! How will we fit her physio and nebuliser routine into our holiday? Will she cope with the change of  environment? Should we put the creon in the fridge?




Our planning paid off and everything went really smoothly. Most importantly we all had fun and created new memories. Eloise learnt new words 'pool', 'pig' and 'Portugal' and by kissing a 19 month old Australia boy, had her first holiday romance! 

 Don't get me wrong, CF was present - we had to comply with medical treatments and guess how much fat was in restaurant food but it wasn't the focus of our holiday. We fitted it around our plans.



My top tips
  • We decided that self-catering was the way to go. Access to a fridge to store medicine, room to do physio and the nebuliser. More importantly a terrace with a stunning view where we enjoyed a cold beer after Eloise had gone to bed!
  • See if the airport you are flying from offer a service for people with hidden disabilities. A friend put me onto the service at Manchester Airport, it was both useful & reassuring.  We were provided with a discrete lanyard which alerted staff that we might need additional help and support as we travelled through the airport. Along with the letter from the hospital, it was useful when going through customs and helped explain all the unusual liquids were were carrying!
  • Let your CF team you are going away. They can provide tips and advice about travelling with CF and are very reassuring.
  • Keep on doing your child's care routine. Unfortunately there is no holiday from CF, but try and make it work around you. One day we cheekily did physio and nebs earlier in the afternoon and then went out into the evening - 9pm is late for us these days!
  • Take lots of photos and videos and enjoy the precious family time! I can wholeheartedly endorse the app one second every day. A brilliant way of capturing memories.
 If your child has CF and you haven't done so already, take a deep breath, book a holiday, plan extensively and have a damn good time!

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