prescription Medicine in Bahamas/Caribbean/cruising

[Jaqun]

My Wife and I are a couple of years away from casting off as full time cruisers. I am currently trying to figure out how to get medicines like Humira that need to be refrigerated in remote locations? Also, we are selling our residence so I am not sure what you do for your residential address?
Looking for any insights especially for people on Humira and similar medications.
Thanks

[James M B]

When I sold my house and moved aboard I got a mailbox at a UPS store. This gives me a street address. They will also forward mail once I go down island. (don't know the cost of that yet) but I have been working on making everything possible paperless.

[Woodland Hills]

St Brendan’s Isle will handle your mail if you are in America.

[gonesail]

I hear you can use the marina address for driver license and such. But you need to stay in one place to do that.

[Jaqun]

I'm intending to be able to move around the Caribbean and Mexico. Looking for the best way to keep my medications coming in

[jt11791]

Originally Posted by Jaqun

I'm intending to be able to move around the Caribbean and Mexico. Looking for the best way to keep my medications coming in

Arrange with your doctor to get 3-6 months supply (or more) at a time. Have a friend or relative visit and bring your meds, or fly yourself to pick up.

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by jt11791

Arrange with your doctor to get 3-6 months supply (or more) at a time. Have a friend or relative visit and bring your meds, or fly yourself to pick up.

This is the correct answer with the caveat that visiting foreign countries with someone else's prescriptions could cause you a great deal of legal trouble. Easier to fly home every 6-12 months yourself or possibly visit a doctor in the country you are visiting if they have access to the same types of prescription medicines.

[Geoff54]

I don't think many people appreciate the problem. Humira is not a “regular “ prescription medication in a little plastic bottle from CVS.


Getting a prescription for a 3-6 month supply isn’t the problem. I don't know Humira specifically but all the “mab” drugs are VERY expensive and I doubt any insurance company is going allow multi-month supplies. Injectables come from specialty pharmacies, are shipped once a month in insulated boxes with cold packs and have to be transferred to a refrigerator with 24 hours or so of being shipped, which doesn’t work very well over long distances and across borders. Either that or formulated and infused .


I need one of the “mab” drugs which can either be injected weekly or infused monthly. My wife and I are planning to take a year off and the winter plan (as yet unproven) is to establish residence in Florida and to be within reach of an airport once a month so that I can catch a puddle jumper to Miami. This is not a great plan and I am nervous about the possibilities of getting stuck somewhere so, if you come up with a better idea, please post it here – I would welcome an alternative.

[Jaqun]

Geoff 54
Yes this is the problem. Are you going to get an actual residence in Miami?
I am going to discuss my options with my doctor next week but I think the issue is probably really going to be with my insurance company. I am nervous about tipping my hand and putting up red flags in case I need to do a work around.
I will let you know how I make out. Please feel free to let me know how your idea works out. someone out there must be doing this.
thanks

[jt11791]

There is a lot of small plane traffic between Florida and the Bahamas. Try talking to some aircraft charter companies about flying in meds. Maybe befriend a pilot? Possibly there is a doctor or pharmacy in Nassau that you can make a deal with to stock what you need.



For residency in Florida, many cruisers including myself use St. Brendan's Isle https://www.sbimailservice.com/

[Geoff54]

Originally Posted by Jaqun

Geoff 54
Yes this is the problem. Are you going to get an actual residence in Miami?
I am going to discuss my options with my doctor next week but I think the issue is probably really going to be with my insurance company. I am nervous about tipping my hand and putting up red flags in case I need to do a work around.
I will let you know how I make out. Please feel free to let me know how your idea works out. someone out there must be doing this.
thanks

Sorry for the slow reply.
Yes, the plan is to rent the cheapest small apartment that we can find that is in a safe area, as convenient as possible for the airport and a major hospital. That way I can be a legitimate Florida resident and I will have somewhere to to stay for the couple of nights that I will be there each month. I'm thinking that, for me, I should go with a infusion once a month so that I can avoid the hassle of transporting syringes and keeping them refrigerated. I've done both infusions and injections and there are advantages and disadvantages to each. 'Don't know of that is an option for you.

The only alternative that I can think of, is to keep my current medical arrangements and fly back and forth to New England. This would make it easier to arrange but cost more, both in time and money. We wouldn't be able to rent out our current home which would have probably paid for a small apartment and the necessary flights.


I just don't think that getting stuff delivered outside of the US would work. It would only take one official somewhere to hold up your shipment for two or three days and a months worth of meds would be ruined. And please don't risk using anything unless you are certain that it has been stored properly. Different med but doing that caused me to be admitted because it shut my kidneys down. I was lucky and made a full recovery but just not worth the risk.



I wish I had a better way but....