Hi,

This is my very first post - I'm sorry to say that I have been a lurker and have not properly introduced myself.  I have gleaned a great deal of fabulous information from this group, however.  Thank-you.  In the interest of brevity I will say I am chronic, have preventatives and O2 and am under the care of a good neurologist and headache clinic.

My question:  I have a chance for a very last minute international long-haul flight for a trip that will be several weeks.  I am wondering if anyone has experienced any trouble with taking Sumatriptan injections through security?  Do you take them in the boxes?  Each labelled individually with your prescription?  I would rather suffer through the headaches than risk losing such expensive injections.  Of course I would prefer to enjoy my trip by having enough medication with me, but...

Wendy

Sounds like good advice.

Consider calling the airline and ask for their policies/advice.

Wendy, a second thought: Have you calculated/guessed, how many injections you might need for such a long trip? Question would be local availability of sumatriptan unless you can carry sufficient supply. Carry an Rx from your doc--although I have no idea of whether it would be honored in other countries?????

Should there be some concern about getting refills enroute, a fall back position to discuss with your doc:

1. If you have time to try a pill form abortive to see if it's effective for you, a trial of this med before leaving will give you a less complex option.

2. This is as effective as imitrex but with the advanage of a pill. It became may only abortive after the first trial.
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Headache 2001 Sep;41(8):813-6 

Olanzapine as an Abortive Agent for Cluster Headache.


Rozen TD.
Department of Neurology, Jefferson Headache Center/Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate olanzapine as a cluster headache abortive agent in an open-label trial. BACKGROUND: Cluster headache is the most painful headache syndrome known. There are very few recognized abortive therapies for cluster headache and fewer for patients who have contraindications to vasoconstrictive drugs. METHODS: Olanzapine was given as an abortive agent to five patients with cluster headache in an open-label trial. THE INITIAL OLANZAPINE DOSE WAS 5 MG, AND THE DOSE WAS INCREASED TO 10 MG IF THERE WAS NO PAIN RELIEF. THE DOSAGE WAS DECREASED TO 2.5 MG IF THE 5-MG DOSE WAS EFFECTIVE BUT CAUSED ADVERSE EFFECTS. To be included in the study, each patient had to treat at least two attacks with either an effective dose or the highest tolerated dose. RESULTS: Five patients completed the investigation (four men, one woman; four with chronic cluster, one with episodic cluster). Olanzapine reduced cluster pain by at least 80% in four of five patients, and TWO PATIENTS BECAME HEADACHE-FREE AFTER TAKING THE DRUG. Olanzapine typically alleviated pain within 20 minutes after oral dosing and treatment response was consistent across multiple treated attacks. The only adverse event was sleepiness. CONCLUSIONS: Olanzapine appears to be a good abortive agent for cluster headache. IT ALLEVIATES PAIN QUICKLY AND HAS A CONSISTENT RESPONSE ACROSS MULTIPLE TREATED ATTACKS. IT APPEARS TO WORK IN BOTH EPISODIC AND CHRONIC CLUSTER HEADACHE.

PMID 11576207 PubMed

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Olanzapine has a brand name of "Zyprexa" and is a antipsychotic. Don't be put off by this primary usage. Several of the drugs used to treat CH are cross over applications, that is, drugs approved by the FDA for one purpose which are found to be effective with unrelated conditions--BJ.
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By your original message is a "print" button. It will print all of these messages. He will appreciate the medical citation about this med.

I've flown several hundred times with my sumatriptan injections, mainly domestically within New Zealand but I've also had them with me when flying to Australia, Singapore, Germany and the UK. They are always in my backpack that I use for my carry on, with at least one of the boxes having the standard pharmacy label with my name, GP name, prescription details, etc. In all this time I've never once been asked about them by security.

Similarly I am always carrying my D3 supplies plus sumatriptan tablets, migraine preventives and pain killers and I've had zero issues with these. I don't use narcotic pain killers, but if you have them then there are some countries where you can't import them, like Singapore. With the D3, since they have liquid contents I just include them in my liquids bag.

The only CH related question I've ever had was once when I was asked what the large metallic object was in my bag, which was an oxygen regulator. Once they saw what it was and I confirmed that I didn't have an oxygen cylinder with me there were no issues at all.

People fly all the time with injections, mainly diabetics, so it is fairly routine. Just make sure that if you need to declare them for some country (all have different rules) you do so.