Stomachaches while traveling??
 

I'm wondering if anyone else has this problem, and if so, what they do about it. On my honeymoon back in 2002, when we went to Hawaii, I got a terrible stomach pain about a week into the trip, which lasted for 2-3 days. I'd never felt anything like it. Since then, I've had the same thing when traveling to Italy, Puerto Vallarta, and Miami. I don't remember if I had it on my England/Scotland trip, but I wouldn't remember because I had terrible strep throat, so *that* is what I remember! In any event, it hardly ever happens on trips around mainland U.S. (except Miami). Every time, it is 4 or more days into the trip.It eventually goes away on its own within a couple to three days, but it makes those days hard because I am in pain. DH is a doctor and says that it is too generalized of a symptom for him to diagnose. He's thrown out that it could be the change in water, constipation (sorry, TMI), irritable bowel syndrome (but traveling only doesn't make sense), or any number of things! I wonder if it might be a change in time or food, or just pent up stress that comes on when I finally slow down. In any event I wonder if anyone else has this problem, and if so, what they do about it!

PS-- I just returned from 6 nights in the Caymans. Last 2-3 days had it again!

Yes because whenever I fly the fear of starvation kicks in and I buy $20 worth of junk food from Hudson's News and eat it all on the plane.

Your DH is a doctor - travels with you - and says he can't diagnose? Good luck finding an answer on a travel forum. My best guess would be nerves or stress.

There are some herbs which can help you. I am not a doctor, unfortunately a user and sufferer :)

For stomach pain (not the belly pain, but the stomach, upper belly where your rib cage divides in 2 parts) try Catnip pills or tea. Not easy to find, Google and mail-order.

To sooth your nerves, try St John's Wart.

Could it be gas? I find I get very gass-y when I fly.

Could also be stress. Ibuprofren (Motrin, Advil etc.)is an anti-inflamatory and might help.

I too seem to have some stomach issues while traveling. We were in San Francisco last year and the second day into the trip, we are walking through chinatown on a tour, and I just suddenly got overheated and vomited.(yes,that was fun to have everyone standing around you suddenly think you have the plague! :( Anyway, after that I was fine.
Two years ago, I got sick in Aruba several days into the trip (I attribute that to being a pig :) )
And lastly, Hawaii this spring, two days into the trip, terrible gas pains for about 24 hours. I haven't a clue why. I generally try to eat bland and stick to bottled water, but something triggers it anyway. Once I feel better, well I enjoy the food and drink.
Some people are sensitive to the change in water. I think that once your system adjusts, you are fine. My case in SF and Hawaii. Of course, Aruba I was just overeating and Iknow that. Funny though, my kids almost expect this from me now.
It is hard. Bring some gas-x and try to be careful. It could be you have just had bad luck.

Note to self: Never sit behind mclaurie on a plane.

My stomach hurts when I travel, too. Flying and traveling are so stressful, that I am convinced it is stress and anxiety. An anti-diarrheal and a motion sickness pill make me feel better. The motion sickness medication really helps. Otherwise, I just try to manage the stress and "hang on" until I get to my destination with early flights, arrive early to te airport, bring my own food that I know I like and doesn't upset my stomach. Often, I bring a really good book or a pile of beautiful magazines and my own music - all work well to shut out the chaos.

Just know that you are not alone out there with stomach problems when you travel.

Best Regards,
Julia

I had it when I was a lot younger until I learned to ONLY drink the water I brought with me- bottled. Some people are extremely sensitive to water changes- which in turn will change the bowel function.

And I don't always succeed but try to eat plainer, and not the more "fancy" gourmet etc. Yes, even in Europe and places where I would like to try some cheese or something. I always regret it if I give in.

Nerves can do a job too, but try for ONLY your own bottled water first. At least that will start to eliminate possible causes.

I had this happen once, which was just noticeable to me as I don't normally ever have stomach pain. It was on a trip to Paris of about three weeks, and my stomach was painful for several days at the beginning of the trip--maybe a full week.

It wasn't excruciating, but noticeable, and seemed unrelated to what I was eating, which wasn't that unusual. I've never had this any other trip. I just took Pepto Bismol and that helped a lot. I did not have diarrhea, but I find Pepto Bismol just sort of generally soothes an upset stomach in a variety of ways. I carry a couple packets of the chewable tablets whenever I travel.

I don't know what it was, it would be self-diagnosis, as I don't usually have those problems and that was not a particularly stressful trip for me compared to many others. I could speculate it was the water, as they do have a different mineral content in Paris than where I live (salts/magnesium, etc). It was not immediate or violent enough to be any real kind of food poisoning, bacteria or viral infection from an illness I just happened to get at the time.

Your symptoms sound pretty similar to mine, but I don't know what else you can do but take some medication that helps you in such situation. Why did your DH "throw out" the idea that it could be related to a change in water? It doesn't make any sense to me that it could be a change in food, but not a change in water.

GoT, the problem is <i>after</i> the flight, not during. :))

Well thank goodness! LOL!

But, does she fard during flights? :-)

What's a fard?

Do you drink only bottled water when you travel? That'd be the first thing I try, if you don't already.

GoT, here's the link on farding
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34882019

It has been kind of comforting to hear that other people have random traveling-related stomach pain. I'm definitely going to start with only drinking my own bottled water and see what happens from there!

Hi lukesaunt, I know many women that have the same problem you do, and obviously a lot of our dear Fodorites do also.

If you can obtain a brand of bottled water that your system is use to that agrees with you while travelling I think that would be of help. Not always possible of course. Water from a different area can cause stomach distress. A family member who lived in SF use to have problems everytime she was at Lake Tahoe and drank the tap water.

And often unusual food, overeating or undereating, eating at times different than your system is use to can bring on problems.

And stress..getting prepared for the trip, perhaps some worries, stress at the airport, sitting for a long time on a flight, jetlag etc can all cause stomach problems.

So do try to keep to a certain brand of bottled water if at all possible, try, again if possible, to eat as you do at home, getting all arrangements and packing for the trip done 48 hours before you leave home will no doubt help you. I find Advil Gel tablets work well..a suggestion from my doctor several years ago. If you need an antianxiety pill do talk to your doctor. I assume you have a doctor other than your husband, that is always strongly suggested. A family member stopped having stomach problem after her doctor have her a RX for flights. She just takes one for each flight and now loves travelling.

Best wishes to you with hope that some of the ideas here will help you and others have healthier trips!!

While I don't want to disagree with a doctor, I too wouldn't dismiss that it could be the water .....or the ice cubes ! My daughter had this problem, she was always careful about drinking only bottled water or sodas, The third time she was in St. Lucia and it happened on about day 3 and the wonderful gentlemen who was taking her and some friends around the island said to her &quot;it's the ice cubes, you're asking for ice in your drinks, and it's probably the water.&quot; She stopped having ice right away and the pain went away in about a day - since then (this was about 6 yrs ago) she never even has the ice cubes when she travels and avoids foods like soup or dishes that would have &quot;more water&quot; in them than say, just being rinsed in the water, and she hasn't experienced the debilitating stomach pain again -
so you might want to stick to bottled anything and no ice and give that a try - and definitely bring along as one suggested some stomach aides whether herbal or pepto bismol or Gas-x, or even a script for 'nervous stomachs'

and to file under TMI : she also takes a ducoset tablet every other day....:)

oops,
&quot;The third time she was in St. Lucia&quot; - not meaning the 3rd trip to St. Lucia, but the 3rd vacation which she experienced it -

when i went to ixtapa, mexico in 2000 i got terribly sick to my stomach the day we returned- i mean diarreah every 20 minutes or so. i think it was montezuma's revenge, and so that being very common, i didn't think anything of it.

then, on our honeymoon in 2004 i got EXTREMELY sick on the final 24 hours in tahiti. beyond anything i'd ever experienced before. with high fever and aches and pains. bathroom every 5-8 minutes. not kidding. this lasted for six weeks. turned out it was giardia.

so, stomach ailments are common for a lot of people while travelling in foreign countries. i'm generally a VERY healthy person- went three years without getting sick (2001- 2003). i'm afraid it'll happen again when we go to hawaii next month....

This happens to me quite often. I agree with other posters that it's probably a combination of water and stress. My stomach is fairly sensitive and even a change in water in the United States can throw my system for a loop. I guess that makes sense, since different cities treat their water in different ways. Since switching to bottled water and skipping ice tea on trips, it's been much better.

I kind of crashed and burned on the last night of a weeklong trip to North Carolina last week. Headache, dizziness, stomach cramps--the whole thing. Spent the whole evening in bed watching Dancing with the Stars and Boston Legal and felt much better the next day. We'd been on a dead run for the whole trip and I think my body finally rebelled. Plus by that time I was missing my husband and kids (and dog...)--it was definitely time to go home.

Yes, escargot, I was going to mention the soups and liquid/sauce food items as well. I didn't because people who don't have it think you are nuts, and that everything &quot;cooks&quot; off. In the Southwestern USA, desert environs- all the way to Lake Tahoe in CA- I have the same thing and do not have soups or stews, or ice cubes or ANYTHING with the water. And it is not something that cooks off of the water, it's more like a mineral or element content problem.

It took me 3 full 5 day to 7 day trips of misery before I figured it out. Afterwards, never had it happen. This is not the runs at all, quite the opposite- and intense and steady stomach/ full abdominals pain.

Try that first and I bet it will help or narrow down the problem. And yes, LoveItaly is so right about women having this a whole lot more than men do.

People are describing kind of different things. If it is travel to Mexico, likely it is a bacteria you pick up from the food (without going into the gory details or montezumas revenge). Giardia another possibililty is even more serious.

Do you take the standard precautions in Mexico? No salads or raw vegetables, etc. Only bottled water. (Ice is OK in a place like Puerto Vallarta because restaurants buy it from the purification place, not make cubes from tap water).

lukesaunt, Without analyzing what you eat and drink when you travel, how careful you are, it's hard to tell whether it is from what you are intaking, or simply from a nervous stomach and digestive track brought on by the stress of the trip.

Purified water - from municipal plants or other places - is certainly better than drinking 'strange' water, but for some people, people with high sensitivity, (like my daughter) it can still cause problems - everyone's body and chemical make up differs - purified water , by nature of the process, is acidic - and the more you drink (whether liquid or ice) the higher acid content in some people's bodies, and the higher loss of electrolytes (which can cause stomach cramping, similar to the ones people can experience in the beginning stages of dehydration) - this is basically how her physican described it to us after one of our trips when she had bad stomach pain.

so for some it is fine, but for others who are sensitive it can still upset their systems.

balancing the electrolytes and acidity in everyone's system is different - just like some athletes need to replace electrolytes in their bodies with drinks that have electrolytes in them, (but for high endurance training) and others sometimes put too much of that stuff in their bodies when they don't need to replace or jack up their electrolytes which too much of can cause problems from that imbalance....so it's a balancing act for every individual.

that's the short version, longer versions are probably available from physicians and/or google health articles, but even with purified water in some spots we've traveled, my daughter needs bottled drinking water, juices, etc and even the purified water in and out of the US in some spots can cause havoc with her system and cause stomach pain.

Do you eat nuts on the plane? Maybe it is diverticulitis. It happens to me a few days after eating nuts.

I should have been more clear, when I said &quot;threw out that it could be the change in the water&quot; I meant &quot;throw out&quot; like &quot;just throwing it out there that it could be this,&quot; NOT &quot;threw out&quot; in the sense that he threw it out as a possibility. In other words, my husband agrees with several of you on here that I might not be used to the water. To answer one of the questions, I'm a pretty careful person. In Mexico, I would only drink bottled water, etc. I will also try skipping plane nuts, but I think this time it was pretzels anyway! :) You all are great for replying!

yeah, I figured out after I replied that you probably meant that was a possibility, not that he had discarded the idea as not possible. Well, you can only do your best, I know my problems are nothing like the severity of yours.

I don't think bottled water is always a perfect solution, as some of it has a much different mineral content than I usually drink, and that alone can be a laxative or diuretic or cause stomach upset. I think people say that in relation to bacteria in the water, not thinking that some bottled water may not be so great either in terms of your stomach. I know some European brands of bottled water really affect me. But, it's certainly safer (probably -- who knows the quality of a brand you don't know in some of these places, or the quality of the plastic container) if one is concerned about bacteria.

I have the same problem and only drink bottled water and watch what i eat-no spicey foods or anything that is hard to digest such as peanuts. I really think the bulk of the problem lies between our ears-stress!

Eat local yogurt and take Fiber-Con or generic (fiber-tabs @ Costco).
Wash (really wash) your hands 10 or more times a day.
Yerba de Perro (herbal tea) works well here.
M (SMdA, Gto.)