Gene to the Rescue

I hardly slept at all last night and I woke up feeling terrible.  But, Ian and I trudged through the snow to the meeting.  Gene said that he wanted to take us down to the pharmacy to see if he could get us some better medicine.  We agreed and Ian reminded me to tell him that I can't take anything with ephedrine in it.  We walked to the pharmacy and Gene showed us where the Sinback gym is along the way.  He translated my symptoms to the pharmacist and showed her the translation of ephedrine that he'd looked up on his phone.  She said she understood and gave us a box of ibuprofen and one of a cold medicine called outcoll.  There was a water cooler in the pharmacy, so I took the pharmacist's recommended dose and Ian and I went out to wait for the bus.  The buses were running really late, so I went down to the corner to catch a cab.  I waited for about ten minutes and every cab that passed was already full, so I walked back up to the bus stop where Ian was still waiting.  He was just hanging up the phone and told me that Gene had called him.  Apparently, the pharmacist called Gene (how she had his number, I have no idea) to tell him that the medicine actually did have ephedrine in it.  Since I had taken the medication fifteen minutes prior, I was now a ticking time bomb.

Ian and I got on the bus, figuring it might be easier for me to catch a cab downtown.  It was on the bus that my body began it's ephedrine induced meltdown.  For those of you not blessed with a sensitivity to stimulants, this is what that includes:  heart palpatations (that easily lead to a panic attack), cold sweats, dizziness, fading vision, nausea and a general sensation of panic and agitation.  When I finally got into a taxi, Gene called me and said that he would take my last three classes, so that I could go home.  My first two classes were very strange.  I couldn't concentrate and I'm pretty sure everything I wrote on the board was just squiggles.  I gave up, handed them their worksheets and sat down.  I can only hope that they didn't think that teacher was having a mental breakdown.  The cold medicine was very effective (ephedrine really does work), but it simply swapped my cold symptoms for those of, I'm not sure, coming off something cold turkey.

So, Gene showed up and I ran him through the lesson plans for the other classes.  He said something about maybe not being able to go home tonight, because he'd miss his last bus.  I told him that I wasn't going to leave unless I knew that he would make it home.  He figured out that he could take the train (actually cheaper, which is nice), but he would have to end the last class early.  I told him that it would probably be no problem to do that.

So, I grabbed a cab home, turned on the heat and tried to take a nap.  The ephedrine wouldn't let me sleep, so I watched a Korean movie on Netflix called "Treeless Mountain."  If you're interested in Korean cinema, that might be a good one to start with.  It's subtle, but smart.

Ian has made me a big bowl of ramen for dinner, so I'd better get after it.  Good night!