I am going to be traveling to Hawaii in September. I will be gone 10 days. I am in my second month of Forteo. Should I skip those days--or has anyone had any success with keeping it cold on long travel days? There is a refrig in our hotel so I will be fine after I get there. It will be a 14 hour trip that I will need to keep the pen chilled. Anyone have suggestions or travel experience with Forteo?
Thanks for your help!
Mary Ann
I've been taking Forteo for 2 months also. I would definitely NOT go off the shots for the time of your trip! I've missed my shot a couple of times due to middle age crazy memory loss! The next day I suffered extremely with the old back pain from before I started Forteo. I had not realized how bad the pain was before until it returned.
A couple of weeks ago, I went on a weekend trip. The drive up was about 3 hours. For the trip I put my injection pen in an insulated lunch box with a large "blue ice" pack in the bottom. I put a terry towel folded between the two to keep it from freezing. It worked just fine, and I put it in the fridge when we got there. I refroze the ice pack for the trip home. No problem.
Maybe when you see that the ice pack is warming up, you could ask the flight attendant for some ice. Carry a couple of zipper bags or a plastic container with a lid to hold the ice... Of course, the less you open the bag, the longer it will hold the temperature.
Enjoy your trip!
Sandra
I believe that in some of the info. Lily furnishes they say to contact them for instructions if your travel time will be longer than the 10 hours.
When my Forteo is delivered (overnight) the container has several freezer packs that are for the most part still frozen. I have saved those in my freezer in case we have to leave because of a hurricane threat.
Check the Forteo website but I think if you call the Customer Support line they can tell you what to do.
Enjoy your trip.
Hi Maryanns: Did you get a "travel bag" with your first pen? When I went to the class that Lily conducted for instructions on the pen, we got a black travel bag that came with 2 gel packs that you can freeze, which work really well. The bag has a pen compartment in the middle of the bag, with 2 insulated inserts on either side that holds the frozen gel packs. I didn't have to pay for this they just gave one to everyone attending the class.
If you didn't get one I would call the customer care line like blues said and ask about it. The bag also has a pouch area in the front of the bag that holds 28 needles and we were also given a sample bag full of a months supply of needles and alcohol wipes. The front pouch also holds your id info that say's "This case is important to me, if found, please return to..."
It's a insulated bag that's approximately 4x6 inches. The insulated sides, bottom and top are about 1/2 of an inch, and it will keep a gel pack frozen for at least 24 hours or longer. Once the packs melt you will have to replace them with new frozen ones, but it does work even in a hot car. The bag will also hold a thermometer.
If you get the Forteo newsletter from Lily, I believe they mention this pack on the faqs page.
Good luck, I would call them and try to get one of these, and if you can't look around, or ask your pharmacist where you can buy this type of bag that is used for refrigerated meds.
Hi Maryann
I live in Australia and am about to start month 4 on Forteo.... my starter pack also included the large bag box of sharps and disposal box as well as a smaller zip one with the two gel packs. I was told by Lily "not to freeze" them but chill in fridge only (with pen) .. the gel packs stays cold up to 4 hours... I am going to Japan in October and asked Eli Lily for advice re taking a pen.. they said to put the zip pack (with chilled gel packs).. in a cooler bag with normal frozen "bricks" and a thermometer to monitor temp. Then ask airline to store the zip pack in their fridge.. Its all too hard as I will be travelling with 15 high school students over 15 hrs including layover in Singapore... then ALL day one and a couple of days in Kyoto will not have facility of any refrigeration even at accomm... plus cannot manage to carry a cooler bag + back pack + large suitcase when with the kids.... so I am going to stop for the 2 weeks!! At A$850 a pen I am also reluctant to take an almost full one and have it spoil.. My back pain is due to a fracture slowly healing and this medication doesnt make any difference to it ,so probably wont matter. Unfortunately Forteo must be kept cool - below 10 degrees...unlike diabetic insulin pens which are stable up to 20 degrees and a bit more.
hope this helps.. Aida
Maryanns, you probably know about this but just in case....On the Forteo website they have a letter that you can have your doctor sign to assist with security at the airport. With all the rules of what you can and can't take through security the letter should help if you have a problem.
Windblown, I'll have to check my bag; yours sounds better. My frozen gel packs were beginning to thaw after approx. 9 hours.
Thanks so much for your help. I will not stop taking it on my trip and will try your lunch bag suggestion--I have a good insulated lunch bag. Did you use a thermometer to check the temp of the Forteo pen?
Mary Ann
Thanks. I called the Lilly consumer support line. They are sending the travel bag to me in the mail--and were very helpful with suggestions of how to travel with the Pen for extended time (more than the 10 hours the travel bag will keep the pen cool). Thanks so much for your suggestion,
Mary Ann
Thanks for your help--got the letter for 'hand check' and not x-ray security on the website. When I called customer care they also told me to be sure the Forteo pen is not x-rayed.
Thanks,
Mary Ann
Wow, I didn't know about the travel bag, and I probably would not have thought about the x-rays either. I've learned a lot from all of you!
Sandra
Hi All: I'm glad that everyone has gotten some info from Lily about the x-ray, hand check etc.
I wanted to mention that the reason I know my gel packs lasted as long as they did, was from a test it did on them before using them. I left 2 of the packs out over night, and I also did this with the gel packs the rx distributor used for shipping the med to me via FedEx. The distributors gel packs last longer than the Lily ones, and you can use these instead of the 2 that come with the bag. The shipping dist packs were only slightly melted at the 24 hour mark. What I mean is that at least 85% of the gel was still rock hard with about a 1/3 of an inch of melted liquid around it. They use the type that has a penguin logo on it, but I'm not sure of the name.
The Lily packs melted faster and were about 50% or more melted at 24 hours, but still cold. You can test this yourself so you can see how it will work. Of course I did this indoors so that may have something to do with the results, but you could also try it outside or in a warm room and see what happens.
Just make sure the pen goes with you on the inside of the plane, because those baggage compartments aren't refrigerated, plus they throw the bags around, and could certainly damage the pen.
Aida: On my travel pack, and from what the Lily rep said to me, you are suppose to freeze the gel packs before inserting them in the bag. On my bag it says: ATTENTION Before using your travel bag, Insert frozen gel pack on both sides of pen compartment. So I'm a bit confused about what they told you, did they say why you would only refrigerate them and not freeze them? Thanks for any info you have...
Good Luck...
Lily has two different bags one uses refrigerated gel packs (and they do say do not freeze) for short distance travel (such as going for training or to doc.'s office) that was the first bag I got with my started kit. When I went to training I was told about the travel bag with freezer packs. I, too, called Forteo and received the bag with freezer packs. Perhaps the bag Aida has is the one with the refrigerator packs; you might want to get the travel bag with freezer packs.
Also, when traveling I have waited until I was right up to the security personnel before removing my pen from the travel bag. I keep my pen in the original box because it has my prescription attached to it. I remove the pen from the box and give the pen and letter to security and then place the box back in the bag and send the bag through x-ray and walk through the metal detector. On the other side they handed me the pen and letter.
This is all very informative. I just started Forteo, and didn't really understand how serious they were about keeping it refrigerated. I'll be flying to California in December, so now I'm going to contact Lilly about getting a travel pack. Thanks so much to all of you!
Hi windblown, just read your comment re the gel packs directed to me - my gel packs say: " Refrigerate for 24 hrs; do not freeze; then place in the small travel pack (in each of the two zip compartments.... ) HOWEVER interestingly on BACK of gel packs it states they are SAFE in household freezers!! My recent pen came express to pharmacy in a foam box (which I got to keep) with two large hard plastic freezer "bricks" wrapped in plastic and then paper.. pen was in usual cardboard box.
I experimented with thermometer and frozen bricks in the foam box.. for over 24 hrs the frozen bricks kept box at 7-8 degrees celcius (recommended for the pen). I travelled last weekend with this plus the two gel packs. On second day I put bricks in a bar fridge freezer and pen and gel packs on door of fridge. When travelling home again everything was still okay for another 12 hrs plus. Ok for local travel but not long haul airlines ..... Aida
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