Medicine Man
At last I have finally had a day when I am not coughing up disgusting amounts of mucus and hacking explosively in the endless tale of The Cold I Caught From Daycare. This has been a particularly nasty one - it's taken well over a month in my estimation to wreak its total pattern of foulness on me - prior to that the H had it for ages, and now even the super-immune D has succumbed. D had his tonsils and adenoids sensibly removed at the age of 6 and never seems to get throat-related lurgies. But this one got us all good'n'proper.
As is usual in the sweet irony of life, the nastiest part of the malaise for me struck on holiday. After some completely ineffectual antibiotics prescribed OVER THE PHONE (is that legal - anywhere??) in Kota Kinabalu, I ended up a week later pleading with a Chinese pharmacist in some dodgy basement chemist to sell me something strong enough for the job, telling him that my husband was about to divorce me if he didn't get a decent night's sleep. He sold me some vile looking luminous pink linctus that had Made in India written on it, and which set me back the princely sum of 8 Ringgit. As I was walking out of the shop he said to me "Oh, half an hour after taking this medicine, your hands will begin to shake. Don't worry, this is normal".
Sure enough, about 30 minutes after the first dose I became aware that my hands were trembling noticeably, which they continued to do for several hours. I guess that there must have been a meaty old slug of some kind of amphetamine in the syrup, as I felt totally wired after each glug. It was bad enough to cause me to spill stuff and it was probably just as well that I wasn't driving anywhere. And I think it did help a bit with the cough. But the shaking was the most obvious effect, both to me and to others. By perfect coincidence, I purchased the medicine on the very day we flew to Brunei, which is a dry state. For four days, I looked for all the world like I was undergoing the DTs. This, plus a few sleepless nights due to constant coughing really helped complete the image. It's the later period Sue-Ellen look; a drunk, a tramp and an unfit mother.
As is usual in the sweet irony of life, the nastiest part of the malaise for me struck on holiday. After some completely ineffectual antibiotics prescribed OVER THE PHONE (is that legal - anywhere??) in Kota Kinabalu, I ended up a week later pleading with a Chinese pharmacist in some dodgy basement chemist to sell me something strong enough for the job, telling him that my husband was about to divorce me if he didn't get a decent night's sleep. He sold me some vile looking luminous pink linctus that had Made in India written on it, and which set me back the princely sum of 8 Ringgit. As I was walking out of the shop he said to me "Oh, half an hour after taking this medicine, your hands will begin to shake. Don't worry, this is normal".
Sure enough, about 30 minutes after the first dose I became aware that my hands were trembling noticeably, which they continued to do for several hours. I guess that there must have been a meaty old slug of some kind of amphetamine in the syrup, as I felt totally wired after each glug. It was bad enough to cause me to spill stuff and it was probably just as well that I wasn't driving anywhere. And I think it did help a bit with the cough. But the shaking was the most obvious effect, both to me and to others. By perfect coincidence, I purchased the medicine on the very day we flew to Brunei, which is a dry state. For four days, I looked for all the world like I was undergoing the DTs. This, plus a few sleepless nights due to constant coughing really helped complete the image. It's the later period Sue-Ellen look; a drunk, a tramp and an unfit mother.
posted by MotherFluker @ 9:12 pm
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