Angela's Adventure: Traveling with RA

"Travel brings power and love back into your life." -Rumi

Hallo aus Köln, Deutschland! (Hello from Cologne, Germany)

I'm writing this from my friends' house in Cologne, Germany, where I've been staying since I arrived December 30, 2022. I did a very "crazy" (or not so crazy?) thing and decided at the last minute to make this trip. My friends were having a New Year's Eve party and I really wanted to go to that as a special way to celebrate the new year and to see my friends, whom I haven't seen since 2015 (very briefly when they visited New York City).

RA won't stop me from visiting friends

The last time I was in Europe and Cologne was 2012, and I can't believe it's been that long! I have missed my friends and Europe a lot during those 10 years. I was finally planning to come back in 2020 but then we all know what happened in 2020: COVID-19! So, no trip to Europe until...who knows when? Happily, I finally made it! Guten tag, Europa!

Last-minute planning

December and Christmastime in 2022 was very busy for me: work, family, medical appointments, and holiday stuff. It was stressful trying to manage everything, and I kept thinking, "Time is running out! Am I going to Europe for New Year's? Where? To visit which friends and where? Ireland? Germany? France?" It's fun and cool that I have several friends in Europe, however they are spread out over different cities and countries, which makes traveling more difficult. I want to see all of them!

My friends in Cologne were having a New Year's Eve party at their house, with several friends coming from the Netherlands and Germany. I thought, "Yes! A party!" and I thought it would be a fun opportunity to meet new people and see a couple of cool Dutch people I met in Cologne in 2012.

Managing stress, flares, and packing

Finally, I booked my flights to Germany on December 27th via Priceline (one-way because it was cheaper!) and I left Minneapolis two days later on December 29th. Oh, my God! It was so last-minute. I had never done anything like this before. How would I manage and be ready in only 2 days? Ahhh!

I was also very stressed about preparing to travel with my RA and actually traveling while in chronic pain. It was very stressful trying to get all of my medications together and planning things like shoes (ugh, I hate figuring out which shoes to pack!) and packing and what to do about taking my Humira.

Spontaneous travel and RA

I didn't know how long I would be staying in Germany or Europe in general; for the first time in my life I booked one-way tickets. Yikes! I was also afraid that the stress of getting ready for this trip would make my RA flare up, which always happens before I travel anywhere. ALWAYS. And yes, it did flare up. I was running around shopping for things and I was on my feet a lot and very anxious about getting everything sorted out in time. My hands, feet, and ankles began to swell up and hurt. I was worried and upset about this, of course, but I did NOT want to cancel my trip.

Despite the pain of RA, I wanted to make this work and go back to the people and places I love and had not seen for a long time.

December 27th, my adventure began: shopping, calling nurses, sending MyChart messages to my doctors, calling the pharmacy, getting prescription refills, TRYING to get prescription refills, packing.

So did everything work out ok by December 29th? To be continued!