20220103 : motion sickness

Leia (my dog) must have told you - I was out yesterday. It was a nice day and I had a great time. 

But not for one of my nurses. She was miserable all through the drive. I felt very sorry for her. It was worse on the way back - took longer and jerkier due to the traffic.

 I could empathise very much with her plight. I knew exactly how she might be feeling.

I used to struggle with severe motion sickness earlier. I used to be ok if I was driving. However, any passenger seat was almost a guarantee to bring up everything.

If I didn't throw up. It usually was because I was drowsy or asleep having OD-ed on avomine (an anti nausia tab). This was also one of the main reasons why I loved the bike and hated anything with four wheels.

This was my big worry when being discharged from the hospital 2 and half years ago. I had not much movements, I couldn't speak, I had a tube from my throat and I couldn't sit. 

I had to go lying in an ambulance. It was a 1 hour ride across silk board (a well known junction in Bangalore and notorious for it's traffic jams). I would throw up surely. It would be a miserable time without being able to sit up or without being able to cough with aspirations. I was thinking it is going to be a U turn and back to the hospital.

But nothing happened. It was longer than an hour with a detour. But nothing happened. I was surprised/ shocked with the anti-climax.

After that, I undertook few more trips to the hospital. Both planned and unplanned. Heck I even survived a trip to Mumbai and back.

It was a mystery to me for a long time - until I could weild the phone a little over a year ago and have a discussion with Dr. Google.

I gathered vomit reflex and gag reflex (among other things), are controlled by the brain stem - which is the bit of my brain that got fried the most. That explained it .

So as I go through rehab and recovery, that is one bit I am hoping the brain will not be able to repair 😂