Nolina,

Have you discussed this with your doctor?

I ask because my doctor allows me to temporarily increase my medications when I have an activity planned that will raise my pain/symptom levels.

For example - every summer I go on vacation with my whole family to a lake house that my family owns. It's a lot of stress on my body to travel there, sleep in a bed that is not mine, do family activities, etc... so my doctor increases my medications during my vacation week.

She also allows me to increase during the holiday times so that I can be more comfortable to travel and spend time with my family.

Also, my husband is a cancer survivor. He has some mild nerve pain in his feet on a daily basis as a result of the chemotherapy. Normally he does not need pain medication, but for things like family vacations or when he goes to a major sports event and he has to do a lot of walking or standing he has a big increase in his nerve pain in his feet.

His doctor prescribes a small amount of pain meds to use on these rare occasions when the nerve pain escalates due to increased activity. This allows my husband to be able to enjoy a family vacation, go to see a NASCAR race.... in fact he is going to a NFL football game this month - and he will be able to enjoy the game and do all the walking and standing without having to worry about the increased nerve pain because his doctor allows him to take pain meds for these types of events.

The only downside is that because my husband uses the pain meds only rarely, he gets a bit lightheaded and loopy when he does take them - so he makes sure to plan ahead so that he never has to drive to or from these types of sports events.

I don't know what types of meds you take or whether you have a doctor that would be willing to work with you to make travel more comfortable, but maybe it is something you can discuss with your doctor.

Take care,
Liz