Getting Sick Abroad: Aachoo, Sniff, Hack, Cough

By Doris Gallan –

When you live abroad, get sick, and you have to keep working, you sometimes wish for the conveniences you’re used to—like a doctor who understands your language or a self-serve drugstore.

In most foreign countries, you can’t just go to the drug store and buy some over-the-counter cold medicine to prop yourself up for the day. No, you have to describe your symptoms to a doctor (to get a prescription) or a pharmacist (to get over-the-counter drugs).

You rarely see aisle after aisle of medicines to treat your cough, sore throat, headache, or backache. So you have no choice but to struggle in the local language when you’re feeling sick enough that you aren’t sure you could describe your symptoms in your own language.

When you’re traveling for a few weeks, you can carry with you any prescription meds you take regularly as well as a bunch of just-in-case stuff like pain relievers, cortisone, and motion-sickness pills.

When you live the expat life, you bring enough of these to hold you over, but you usually run out after a few months, so you must go looking for similar products in your new country.

In France, a pharmacist gave me medicine to treat a cold that I was sure was a throat spray: turned out to be a nose spray. The second medicine he gave me was a suppository—we’re so not going there!

The best line, however, was when I asked a pharmacist in Brazil for diarrhea medicine and he asked: “This is to stop it, no?” It never occurred to me it could be for any other purpose!

Doris Gallan is the author of The Boomers’ Guide to Going Abroad to Travel | Live | Give | Learn and a travel coach. She has been to all seven continents and 50+ countries. Daily travel tips and hilarious stories about her exploits are available at http://www.babyboomerstraveling.com/.