Eye drops for a winter road trip

Pack eye drops in a bag that rides in the car’s cabin with you, not in the trunk, and carry that bag into wherever you sleep each night. A trunk on a winter trip can drop far below the bottom of Quell’s storage range, Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). Before each dose, check that the liquid looks the way it should, and plan doses around your stops.

Packing list for a winter road trip

• The open bottle, in a small pouch in the bag you keep at your feet or on the back seat.
• A sealed spare, packed in a different bag, in case one goes missing or the trip runs long.
• The carton, which carries the full Drug Facts panel, including the warnings: Caution should be used in those with egg or bird allergies — For use in the eyes only.
• Tissues and hand sanitizer for stops without a clean sink.
• Sunglasses for snow glare and low sun.
• A note of your order number, if you have a delivery on the way while you’re traveling.

Cabin, not trunk

The trunk isn’t heated, and luggage can sit there for hours while you drive and for the whole evening once you stop. Anything inside the passenger area stays near the temperature you set. That makes the back seat, the passenger footwell or a door pocket on the inside a better home for the bottle than the cargo area.

One exception: the floor right in front of a heater outlet can get hot after a few hours of driving. Keep the bag on the seat or away from the vent’s direct stream. The aim is ordinary room temperature, not warm.

Motels, cabins and the car until morning

Every time you stop for the night, the bag with your eye drops comes inside with you. A car left in a motel lot until morning in January is well outside the label’s range by the time you come back to it. That’s easy to forget when you’re tired and only bring one bag in, so make the eye drops part of that bag.

A rental cabin or a vacation house may be cold when you arrive if the heat was turned down between guests. Keep the bottle in your coat pocket until the place warms up. In a motel room, set it on the nightstand rather than on top of the heating unit under the window.

Check the bottle before you use it

If the bottle has gotten cold, let it come back to room temperature before you use it, and then look at it. The eye drops have a naturally milky-brown appearance. This is normal and does not indicate a problem with the product. The label’s Do not use line reads: If this product changes color. If the color looks different from usual, set it aside and open the spare. A pharmacist can tell you what to do with the old one, and the guide to how to dispose of eye drops covers the basics.

Planning stops around your doses

Quell’s label says: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. On a road trip, the easiest way to keep to that is to tie each dose to a stop you were making anyway, such as breakfast before you leave, a lunch break, and the evening when you check in. Rest areas and restaurants have sinks, which makes keeping your hands and the bottle tip clean easier: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Don’t try to fit a dose in while the car is rolling. Use eye drops only when you’re parked, and let your vision clear before you get back on the road.

Ordering before you leave

Check how much is left a week or two before the trip. The site ships from Brentwood, Tennessee and doesn’t promise a delivery date, so ordering the day before you leave is a gamble. Shipping is $10.00 per order and free on 3 or more bottles. If you won’t be home when it arrives, you can ship it to a holiday address anywhere in the US and follow it on the order tracking page.

If the weather keeps you longer

Winter trips run long. A closed pass or a storm can add days, which is where the spare earns its place. If you’re stuck in a stalled car or waiting out a road closure, keep the bottle in an inside coat pocket where your body heat keeps it closer to room temperature.

Dry heater air on a long trip explains some eye discomfort, but not all of it. Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours. The guide to dry eyes when driving in winter covers the vents, glare and the drive itself.