Poison! Poison everywhere!

I didn't meet with my friend on Wednesday. I decided that because I was coming down with a cold, it would be best not to meet with her because I might get HER sick, too. I called her on her cell phone about cancelling the meet and we talked briefly before she suggested we have an e-mail chat instead. So we did. And the last thing she said to me in her last message was: "Let me know if you need anything!!!" I didn't think I would take her up on that, even though I started feeling a lot worse later on in the day. Jen and I split a can of chicken noodle soup and I took a nap, and that helped me feel a little better, but I eventually started feeling a whole heck of a lot worse. I was tempted to e-mail my friend and say, "Nik, help. I need medicine."

But, I didn't do that. I figured I would tough this thing out until Friday. Friday, when I should FINALLY have my check in the bank! And I can FINALLY get some medicine. Meanwhile, I thought of relying on this medicinal tea that I have to help me feel at least a LITTLE better. Or at least to soothe my sore throat. But when I looked up the ingredients in a vitamin/herb encyclopedia I have, I was dismayed and frustrated to learn that the ingredients in this tea (lemongrass and licorice root) were harmful to the baby. Darn! So was chamomile, so drinking chamomile tea to help calm my nerves was out of the question! Double darn!! (My nerves were pretty bad last night. I don't know why. I was SO jittery! I tried to relax on the couch and close my eyes but I kept nervously opening them again and when I felt footsteps behind me, I was literally shaking when I turned around and looked left to right before seeing it was Jen. Ironically, after I had REGULAR tea and some toast later, it helped calm my nerves.)

I tried to remember what kind of home remedies I could use to alleviate my stuffy nose, head congestion, phlegm buildup in my chest and body aches, but with my head feeling like a bomb went off inside of it, it was hard to think! I DID take hot baths, and that helped the body aches. I had no idea how to help my stuffy nosel I had some Halls cough drops but that did VERY little to help. So, without much relief in sight, I soon grew miserable in the SHORT span of just two days. (I'm one of those people who don't get sick very often, so when I DO get sick, I get REALLY sick!) I was feeling a sense of panic to get my hands on some medicine SOMEHOW! Of course, I wasn't going to use anything that would harm the baby. I have NyQuil in my medicine cabinet, but I was NOT going to take it because I knew it wasn't safe.

Then Jennifer ended up getting sick, too, much to my dismay. I tried my all to avoid her catching my cold, but it happened. The both of us were just a couple of sickies lying on the couch, watching her "Peter Pan" movie. (When Mama gets sick, EVERYBODY gets sick!) Fortunately, we have children's cold medicine -- AND fortunately, it wasn't yet expired. So when I gave her some medicine to help her sleep without struggling to breathe and without being up all night, sneezing her head off, I took a moment to read the ingredients. It had an active ingredient which a nurse had told me I needed to make sure was in the cold medicine I bought for myself. And it also had....pseudoephedrine.

My jaw dropped. Pseudoephedrine??!! Seriously??!! The same stuff cops and city officials have been cracking down on the sale of because it's used in the production of meth??!! Yes, there it was, in plain ink. Pseudoephedrine. And I knew that very ingredient is a COMMON ingredient in cold medicine. I wasn't updated on any changes that have been enforced in the sale of such medicines. Would they ask for my ID? Look up my record? (Not that I even HAVE one!) Make me give a thumbprint? Blood? A sworn statement I am NOT a drug addict?? I had no idea what would await me in my attempt to purchase cold medicine for myself when the time came, but I knew exacyly how I would respond to it: "Listen, lady/pal. I have been sick for 3 days and I feel like crap! If you don't let me buy this cold medicine, I'm going to tear somebody's head off!" (Well, at this point, I'm desperate for relief!)

Fortunately, it didn't come to that. When I went to the drug store, I talked to the pharmacist. He asked me about my symptoms. I pointed out the medicine the nurse told me to get and he shook his head and said, "This is for a cough." (Something I don't have. My BIGGEST grievance is head congestion.) I asked him if pseudoephedrine was even safe during pregnancy. He asked how far along I was and I said, "I'm in my sixth month." He said it should be okay. All the same, he picked a medicine that was pseudoephedrine-free. I wondered if there were any other medicines with the pseudoephedrine in them or if he was just choosing this one on account of my concerns. In any event, I'm happy to FINALLY have some kind of cold medicine to take! I am looking forward to FINALLY getting a good night's sleep -- and being on my way to a quicker recovery!