Claritin

I'm not going to publish this blog post until Monday morning, but I'm writing it at nine minutes after noon on Sunday the 14th of August, and I'm writing to explain to you my present condition...

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I have contact dermatitis, a rash from poison ivy or poison oak or SOMETHING. It's really gotten bad in the last couple of days, and I've been looking for relief wherever I could. This morning, I took a Claritin tablet, as I'd been told that it will help with the itching, and since it's non-drowsy I won't fall asleep. Right after taking the Claritin, I headed to the Fort Mitchell Kroger to do the weekly grocery shopping, and while there I grabbed a large coffee from Starbucks, in hopes of staving off the caffeine withdrawal headache I get whenever I haven't had enough caffeine.

Holy cow.

I forgot that the words "non-drowsy" on a medicine box usually equals "stimulant." Combine the Claritin with the large Starbucks, and I was absolutely climbing the walls. I understand why meth addicts scratch up their faces. This was insane.

It all started inside of Kroger. I was just about through the store, having gone aisle by aisle and made it from the produce side of the store over to the frozen section. I was looking at the cornucopia of choices in the ice cream section when I noticed a small shaking and a sudden desire to grab anyone who walked by and ask them if they wanted to race me around the outside of the store. Then I noticed that everything in the store suddenly seemed MUCH BRIGHTER. I threw what was left of my coffee away (not much) and headed toward the check out stand. I didn't get in line right away, though. I wasn't sure I'd be able to safely drive home, so I went to the books section and browsed for a few moments. I ended up in the home office section and had in my shopping cart about ten packs of pens, three packs of pencils, a new stapler, a protractor, and  an executive desk set...until it occurred to me that I didn't really need ANY of that and that maybe the drugs were making decisions for me. I put them all back and decided that--if I really needed them--I could come back and get them tomorrow.

Once my nerves had calmed a little I got in line, checked out, put the groceries in the car, drove home, and put the groceries away. Then, after reorganizing all of the shoes in my closet, I decided to sit down for a moment. After ten minutes of watching TV I tried to get up, only to realize that I had absolutely CRASHED and that the effect was gone.

So I'm never taking Claritin again!...