Here I am! In....that country who's name I can't say yet!

Well, I am here!

The second leg of my trip went to Frankfurt, Germany and it was a real long plane ride.  But! There were very few people so I got an isle to myself to stretch out and try to sleep. (This was unsuccessful by the way.)

The third plane trip I got to meet another Reece's Rainbow family on their way to adopt as well!  They are so nice. So nice in fact they are letting me split the cost of renting and apartment here so I don't have to be all alone while in the capital city!

Although, perhaps now they wish they hadn't been so nice. You see, after the 1st plane ride where I nearly barfed, I remembered my doctor had given me some patches to help with nausea/car/airplane sickness.  People going on a cruise or who have Parkinson's disease use it often as well. I was thrilled when I remembered they were in my bag! They are small patches called scopolamine, and you just put one behind each ear at is slowly releases medicine over 72 hours.

Several hours in to my first set of patches, I was feeling much better on the nausea front.  But I was feeling much worse on a few other fronts. My head started to hurt suddenly and severely, but I thought it was from the planes, changes in pressure, not eating enough/drinking enough water, being at a lower altitude than I'm used to or some combination of those things.

Then it got worse. I started to feel almost drunk.  Like my body was moving in slow motion. Things stopped making sense.

And then, I started hallucinating.  Talking to people who weren't there, mostly Bug or Baby Man. I thought I heard him crying and ran around looking for him.  I had entire conversations with Hannah, only to blink and she had vanished.  I couldn't remember, but at one point I put my boots on because I thought we were going somewhere because I thought I had something to go and do right that very second. Thank goodness for my awesome Reece's Rainbow buddies, they tried to keep me in line and kept me from walking out the door in this very strange state.  I think at some point I was told to take the patches off, and I did. I googled the medication and sure enough....

Scopolamine patches may cause side effects. Tell your doctor if any of these symptoms are severe or do not go away:

• drowsiness
• disorientation
• dry mouth
• blurred vision
• dilated pupils
• confusion
• hallucinations
• difficulty urinating

Nice.

If it's bold and italicized, those are the things that were happening me last evening and even on in to this morning when I got up to wander around and try to find my babies because I could hear Baby Man crying.....and then I remembered where I was and he wasn't here with me. My head still feels like its stuffed with cotton, and my vision is fairly blurry.  Like I can't read the screen on my phone or on this computer unless they are pretty much arm's length away.

Why do I always get the crazy side effects??? I also had a reaction to Septra that I was taking last week for a minor infection. But after 3 doses I had an extremely stiff neck and strong headache that four motrin didn't even make dent in.  Of course these are the symptoms they say "Tell your doctor if you experience these symptoms." Well it was a Saturday so no sense in calling him, I figured I would just play nurse (oh wait! I am a nurse!) and stop taking the Septra and switched back to the first antibiotic I was given and finished that instead. The stiff neck and headache disappeared a couple ours after I should have taken the next dose. It seems to have done the trick.

I never had problem taking medication, and had absolutely NO allergies until I got meningitis about 3 years ago and had an allergic reaction to both Vancomycin and Rocephin.  I was informed that I was "very lucky it was viral meningitis and not bacterial because if it had been the bacterial you would most definitely be dead".  Isn't that always wonderful to hear from your doctor? 

Now I am ranting, but seriously I can not afford to be allergic to any more medications. Especially when I am on the other side of the planet depending on the kindness of strangers to keep me safe. And now of course I'm going to spend quite a bit of time attempting not to get car-sick or train-sick (I have to catch an overnight train this weekend to our daughter's orphanage) since I can't use the patches again.

However, its not all doom and gloom! I am hoping to catch up with my brother in law's girlfriend, she lives in the same city I am in right now. Hopefully we can see some sites and do a few fun things today and again tomorrow after our adoption authority meeting! I hope she can teach me more about her beautiful country, and that my eyes become UN-blurry enough that I can really enjoy it.

The only solutions to this recurring problem I think is to stop taking medicine by never getting sick ever again. That should TOTALLY work with 5 kids.....right?  Anyone?.......