Keeping eyedrops cool

Chill the medicine and chill your clothes and wrap the medicine in the clothes in your suitcase. The insulation properties of the clothing will see a very slowed-down warming - maybe none at all if they are flying in your hold luggage in an unheated freight compartment. That should get you to your destination.

I have no experience of medicines but I have regularly transported low melting point chocolate truffles to blisteringly hot destinations this way and the goods have arrived unharmed.

HTH

Nick

Just use an insulated cooler bag with one of those frozen packs wrapped in an old flannel or something.

Latanoprost and Cosopt (which are v similar) must not be refridgerated, just kept at normal temps below 25C. You should be ok inside the cabin.

If you have a supply of single-use droppers then its less of a worry than having to use a 28-day bottle

One simple solution that I've come across is a sort of wallet inside another wallet. The idea is that you soak the outer one in cold water and put your eye drops in the inner wallet. The outer one then provides evaporative cooling. The effect won't, I guess, be all that great if high temperatures are accompanied by high relative humidity. You can buy this cooling wallet from Glaucoma UK and no doubt other charities or medical suppliers. I have tried one and it works to some extent for a shortish period, but doesn't provide all that much cooling and would certainly not last as long as 48 hours. So I can't really recommend it, but YMMV.

Vacuum flask, with something else insulating to fill in the gap? Maybe even spray expanding foam into it, poking something in that you remove when it has set to make a space for the bottles. Pre-chill everything before you leave.

You would likely need to remove them for security, but you could put them in the X-ray baggy with an ice pack and then return them to the flask.

(If multiple flights are involved you might need to acquire some icecream in the lounge so they survive several security checkpoints)

Theo

I will study it - thanks for the link.

Actually, thinking about this it's a tradeoff between the insulation value of the 'stuff' inside, and the amount of 'cold' that's stored. Insulation will stop the cold leaking out, but it isn't very good as a reservoir.

In that case, filling the thermos flask full of sand and thoroughly chilling the whole thing (with the lid off) may provide a better reservoir of 'cold', even if that cold leaks out more rapidly (which is mostly via the neck, something expanding foam won't improve greatly).

I assuming freezing it is 'too cold' for the drops, else frozen sand would act as a good reservoir. Chilled sand will still help though, and be better than a liquid which can convect.

Theo

Read the leaflet that comes with your eye drops. Most will say 'Do NOT refridgerate or store above 25C'. All you need to do is keep them in some sort of cooler bag to avoid getting too warm. Inside the plane it will be air-conditioned as will most airline check-ins and holding areas.

I've ordered a large Frio bag now so let's hope it lives up to to its claims. Many thanks to GB and the others who offered advice.

Are these a prescription item? Could you just buy a new bottle on arrival (assuming the hotel has a fridge)?

I used a Frio pack to keep my diabetic injection pen cool. Kept it below