prelude: btw, I'm on meds...

A week before departing to my first destination, I had to pay a visit to the travel nurse at Kaiser to get all my vaccinations. Basically, she printed out my itinerary (SF -> Singapore -> HK -> India -> Shanghai), and then printed out a bunch of packets on diseases you can get while traveling to each location.

Pretty much every disease ended with something along the lines of "and you could die from it..." I don't know if part of the objective was to freak me out, but it did. So I ended up getting 3 shots: tetanus, polio, hepatitis A, and also had to pick up some prescription malaria pills.

O the malaria pills =/ After going through a whirlwind of physical and emotional chaos this past week, I decided to do some extra research, and found out I was prescribed the worst kind of malaria pill out there: Mefloquine!

Here are some of the side-effects:

Mefloquine may have severe and permanent adverse side-effects. It is known to cause severe depression, anxiety, paranoia, nightmares, insomnia, seizures, peripheral motor-sensory neuropathy,[2] vestibular (balance) damage and central nervous system problems. For a complete list of adverse physical and psychological effects — including suicidal ideation — see the most recent product information. Central nervous system events occur in up to 25% of people taking Lariam, such as dizziness, headache, insomnia, and vivid dreams

and they failed to mention that there are other medicines with less risk of severe side-effects and which are equally effective for malaria prevention are available like Malarone and doxycycline... the daily ones that my colleague is taking.

Damn you kaiser!

She definitely didn't mention the suicidal part, so I actually didn't read about that until this morning -- and I have to admit that the thought weirdly crossed my mind yesterday when i was breaking out in my hot and cold sweats... in a very non-melodramatic way like oh... I guess I wouldn't be too upset if I died today.

Anyway, sorry if this entry is getting a little too creepy in any way, I promise you I am feeling more than fine right now and I don't want people to get the impression that I'm going crazy, cuz I'm not. I am definitely still having a VERY positive experience here. Work is going REALLY well, and really the only time I feel it is generally when I'm alone at night.

It's a weekly pill, and I'm supposed to take my next one today. Should I? Do I take my chances with malaria and death... or do I continue on in feeling all messed up inside? it's a toughie...