Motion Sickness .. Mal De Mer
I spend a lot of time preaching to people to depend less on medicines, more on lifestyle changes, milder drugs, alternatives. But not when it comes to my pain!
I’ve had motion sickness my whole life. Mal de mer, (other words for motion sickness). I’ve had it all and it sucks. As Mark Twain said, “At first you’re afraid you’re going to die, then you are afraid you aren’t.”
Long flight or short, by the time I’d get off the plane I was jelly-kneed, covered in sweat, needed a bathroom desperately, deep into a horrible headache. It took more than an hour to recover from a 30 minute flight to Boston. And at the end of each flight I had to get into a car (yes, I get carsick) and feel all the symptoms come back.
I was about 50 years old when my doctor suggested a low dose of Xanax for my motion sickness. Before I met her I’d run through Dramamine (too sleepy for the rest of the day, which makes business meetings after travel impossible). Acupressure wrist bands, ha! amateur hour. Flat ginger ale, sleep through the flight, dry crackers, look at the horizon — Arghhhhh!
My doctor had my inner ears/balance tested, no issues. I tried a glass of wine on the airplane, an instant hangover. This was getting serious. I was flying eight – ten times a year for work, two or three times a year for fun travel. And think about it, every flight is two flights because I have to come back home.
When my doctor offered a 2mg dose of Valium (she prescribed the generic diazepam) for my flights, I jumped on it. I felt nothing different when I took it, and nothing was great! I didn’t feel high, I just felt normal the whole flight – what a joy!
About a year later I went to an acupuncturist for the first time. I had chronic lower back pain, occasional stabbing pain in my upper back and a shoulder that wouldn’t rotate in its cuff. My acupuncturist insisted on going through my entire history so even something so removed from back pain as motion sickness came up. He smiled, “I’ll see what I can do.”
I went for six sessions and it did nothing for my back. But suddenly I realized that on long flights the diazepam couldn’t still be working on hour five or six or ten, but it was! I credited acupuncture. I stopped taking the diazepam (but I superstitiously carried it with me for several years). I flew without dread and enjoyed my flights! Oh joy! Oh rapture!
And then it ended. One day I noticed that old feeling welling up in my stomach when I was in a cab in New York City (home for me). At first it just seemed like a memory, but it got stronger. The next time I flew it wasn’t good. And the way home was six hours of the worst motion sickness I’d had in years, it was so bad.
I knew I couldn’t go back to this awful travel problem. I’d had seven years of drug-free, nausea-free travel. And a couple of years before that when diazepam took care of the problem.
I raced back to the acupuncturist. He admitted (as he had in the past) that he was not at all sure how or why the acupuncture had worked. But we gave it a try, no luck.
Time for drugs. My doctor had retired to I emailed my new doctor, laying out my problem, asking if she could just prescribe a tiny diazepam dose for my upcoming six hour trip to California. No go, I had to come in for an in person visit. There were no appointments available before my trip.
Just then Emma Yasinski, our senior writer, published an article about motion sickness. With no other options I scanned the article. No, that doesn’t work for me. No, not that one either. But the Bonine is worth giving a try.
So I bought some chewable Bonine and boarded the flight reluctantly. It worked! I’m on the return flight now. The plane is literally approaching the landing strip doing that juttery side-to-side quivery that planes do before landing. It normally gets me baaad. I’m still typing!
I took that Bonine six hours ago, I supplemented it with natural ginger. Since I didn’t think it would work, might it still be a placebo effect? Who cares? It works! I really need to listen to myself, mild drugs, a little herbal support and what a difference.
