Becca Jane St Clair

Last month was my first trip away with my Mounjaro pen. I had been on weekend trips coming home before Monday (my shot day), but our annual road trip to Germany was the first time since starting on Mounjaro that I would need to take it with me.

First, I knew I needed a smaller sharps bin for travel. I found these in a three pack for £8.50. My original plan was to use one on this trip and then I would have one for our December trip. However, when we arrived back home, I discovered that I didn’t lock shut the sharps container on th last day and I could actually dump the needles (from Mounjaro and my glucose monitor) straight into my larger sharps bin out of the opening and re-use this on another trip! Probably not how they intended for you to use this, but it worked.

I also needed a way to keep the pen cool through travel as while it can survive at room temperature, I felt more comfortable keeping it between the recommended 2°C-8°C. We had around 18 hours of drive time, plus an overnight in a hotel. Fortunately, the hotel we stayed at the first night put my entire case directly into their fridge for me, but the case I bought claimed to keep things cold for “at least 48 hours” plus an additional 12 if I hadn’t had that option.

Of course, I had to test out the claims of the kit before we went away. I didn’t put my Mounjaro pen inside the kit during testing, but I did check the temperature frequently using the thermometer provided — which I also learned was touch sensitive so I had to be careful not to touch the bottom of the thermometer or it would start to rise!

The instructions state to freeze the blue container for no more than 8 hours, so I popped that into the freezer around 1400, and took it out at 2200, then I went to sleep.

I checked it 10 hours later, and the temperature was 2°C. At the 20 hour mark, it had risen to 3°C. It wasn’t until the 61st hour that it started to register a temperature over 8°C and after 78 hours, it had risen to 14°C. 14 is not ideal, but technically fine as like I said above, the pens CAN survive outside the fridge. But somewhere between 49 and 61 hours seemed to be the maximum, which was actually a little better than the 48 claimed!

The kit also comes with a white bottle you are told to fill with “ice cold water” to give yourself another 12 hours of “emergency cool”. Since I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d have access to ice, but we would have our regular cooler along, I filled the white bottle with tap water and put it in the fridge to cool it off while the blue bottle was being used. The claims on the listing are that it will “extend the cooling time for up to 12 hours”, but not that it would keep it below 8. (“up to 25°C”). I took the freezer bottle out when it was 14°C on the inside, and swapped over to the white tap water bottle.

After three and a half hours, the bottle was back down to 8°C, but by 10 hours it had risen back to 11°C. At the 12-hour mark, it was 13°C, which is still within their range and after 16 hours, it was back to 14°C, which again, is still under the 25°C claim.

The kit also comes with two fabric sleeves for the pens, though I’m not entirely sure why. I used one anyway. The bottle says it only holds 1 Mounjaro pen, but I experimented at home with my expired pen and new pen just to see and you can fit two pens in, though it will take small fingers and a bit of jiffling to get them out again. Fortunately, my hands are child sized!

The last item I picked up for the trip was an accidental purchase in that I hadn’t realised I was getting 60 of the buggers. I wanted a sticker to put on the outside of the cannister to indicate it was medical equipment, so I reccomend getting a smaller pack!

The canister came with a QR code sticker that you could also go onto the website to register the canister and add a small message so if you leave it behind somewhere, it can be returned to you if someone scans the QR code.

Now, the very last thing I took along was a letter from my GP explaining that I was on a medication that required needle therapy, and then I translated this into both French and German (and I will get it translated into Dutch for December) so if I was stopped and it was examined, I had permission to have needles. This wasn’t an issue travelling by car, but could be necessary if you are travelling by air where your items will go through security screening. Translating it might have been overkill, but I wanted to be covered for both our port of entry (France) and our final destination (Germany). I will add Dutch in December because Rotterdam is our usual port of entry when we use the ferry.

While we were in the car, I added the case to our cooler for an extra layer of refrigeration and I kept the white emergency bottle in the cooler as well. When we stopped for longer than a quick loo break, I took the case with me in my handbag so it wouldn’t heat up in the hot car. We were staying in apartments/houses for the duration of our trip except for the first night, but I contacted the hotel ahead of time and asked if they could put my medication in their fridge for me and it was no problem.

I highly recommend this case for travel and I feel confident that it will be fine for me if we are travelling on the overnight ferry in December without a fridge to store it in.

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I am not a Doctor or Nurse and the information contained in this blog post is meant for information purposes only. Please consult your GP with any health related questions.

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Read about my Mounjaro journey: https://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/mounjaro-for-type-2/

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