Wednesday, May 28, 2008

One week and counting

Tonight, I took my first of 53 or so malaria pills. Mefloquine. Some associate this with crazy dreams, paranoia, delusions of being a dumpling, etc.. I, however, took it the whole time I was in India and had but one little paranoid night in Delhi. But I still contend that anyone who wakes up in the smoky darkness of a Delhi night and hears an alarm clock going off that can't be located will be paranoid.

At any rate, this is the real deal. Once that malaria medication has started, you know it's serious. In the side effects of mefloquine (which include but are not limited to dizziness, drowsiness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hallucinations, increased feelings of sadness, etc.), I found "hair loss". Now my hair did start falling out in India, so instantly I began to fret, but after some cross-checking with others who lost hair to India, I can safely say that the hair loss was not necessarily due to mefloquine. I sure hope it isn't. I rather like having hair.

Current emotions: fear, exhilaration, curiosity, panic, resignation, excitement.

T - one week to Pangolin Town.

3 comments:

Baczooski said...

My hair fell out a bit in the Dominican Republic, and I was on doxycycline. Maybe it's diet, or stress, or humidity, or those damn kids that always want to touch your hair.

I'm so excited for you! I can't wait to start hearing about Mali. I'm gonna put a letter in the mail ASAP, so we can have our first "how long does mail take to get to Mali?" experiment.

bro grabs!

-Chev

Anonymous said...

you're hilarious

Unknown said...

I'm surprised you're not taking Malarone. That's what they gave me for Kenya, and it was awesome. I did have to take a pill everyday, but I did that with a vitamin at breakfast, and it was no big deal. No malaria, no weird dreams, no paranoia. Anyway, I guess it's too late for advice on what kind of malaria medicine to get. I think Jeff takes one like what you're taking, and he's been doing this for a while. Cheers.