I'm a pharmacological mess...

Well, where do I start? Somehow on the Mantrip I contacted Giardia. That's this nasty parasite that sometime's known in Mexico as "Montezuma's Revenge" (although I guess in this case, since I got it in the Weminuche Wilderness, it should be called Weminuche's Revenge). Basically it gives you major intestinal distress (trying to keep from being too specific so I don't gross you out). Well, since Elise and I are leaving in less than a week to backpack in the Rockies again, I decided that I should do something about it. So I called my friend, Dr. David Jackson and he got me a prescription of a nice drug called "flagyl" that's supposed to take care of the nasty little creature that's having a party in my intestines. I've talked to a couple of people who have taken flagyl and thay all complained that it made stuff taste like metal - that sounds like fun. Nothing like a mouthful of chicken-a-la-steel. On the other hand, hopefully the flagyl will keep me from any embarrasing backcountry moments. It's weird, I don't really know how I got Giardia. We filtered all of our water. The only thing I can think of is the one time I dunked my head into this nice creek to cool off. Lucky me, I guess I got one of the buggers on my mouth or something...

So, drug number two... Acetazolamide. This is a beautiful little drug that keeps me from experiencing altitude sickness. I don't really get it bad, but I do get the headaches every time I go to the "big mountains" if I don't take it. I take this drug for a couple of days before ascent and for a couple of days at altitude. This one has a strange taste issue as well... it makes all carbonated bevarages taste like alka-seltzer. No cokes while on this stuff.

On top of all of that, I have some strange sinus/allergy/cold thing going on, so I'm mooching off of Elise's Allegra supply. I'm not really sure if I have allergies or not - that all seems a little like voodoo to me. I'm also not sure Allegra or any of it's related allergy medicines even does anything. Sometimes I wonder if I would feel better if I just had a sugar pill.

Anyway, I'm putting my trust in the knowledgable pharmicist at Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market that all of these drugs won't interact and cause me to grow extra fingers and toes or lose my ability to chew or something else weird. I'll let you know if I have hallucinations or anything...