I’ve talked about how I had a lot of ear infections as a kid. It didn’t bother me as much as it probably should have, because I usually took an oral medication that I loved. It was horrifically pink and it tasted so good. I forgot my dose one day and my mom had to bring it to school and I lit up like I’d missed Christmas morning which baffled every adult in the office who had expected me to whine about taking medicine.
But that wasn’t the only treatment I would get prescribed. Indeed, the circumstances conspired to deal me a heavy blow when I was dealt an alternate medicine.
My family was on a road trip. We generally went on at least one a year. Often it was a 12 or more hour drive to visit family in California, occasionally it was a family reunion in Montana. I can’t remember where we were going. I was probably around eight at the time. And I had an ear infection.
I had to take medicated ear drops every few hours. This was no delicious pink liquid. I did not light up with joy when it was time for a dose. In fact I sobbed when my mom came near with the dropper because it left the most intense itching I’d ever experienced in its wake. I wanted to claw my own skin off. I wanted to dig a hole through my skull to rip the itchiness out of me. But I couldn’t do anything.
So instead I sat in the backseat rocking back and forth whimpering about how badly it itched. I would have happily endured the pain of the infection because nothing could have been worse than the relentless unstoppable itching. If you’re wondering if my parents were worried that I was having an adverse reaction let’s just say that was the least of the things that went unnoticed in my childhood.
Eventually I rebelled, refusing to let more of the wretched stuff near me and my parents realized that perhaps something was wrong. We still waited until we got home to see a doctor who asked in horror if they’d continued to give me that medication when I was clearly allergic.
That’s how I had the worst roadtrip of my life even worse than the one where my mom bought a palm tree that was infested with ants and I woke up repeatedly covered in bugs, developed a lifelong aversion to being itchy, and found out I was allergic to sulfa.
