The Patch

It’s almost travel time, and if you’ve heard about our last visit to Switzerland at all, you may have heard about the miserable trip to get there. I have flown quite a bit and often feel ill, but that trip was by far The Worst. And if you understand how the migraine, the motion sickness, and the nausea combined to make me use up pretty much all the airsickness bags in my section of the plane, you might understand that while I until then I had never thought that would keep me from travelling, I was beginning to reconsider. Enter The Patch.

In December, during minor medical procedure, the nurse asked if I have trouble with motion sickness or nausea and would I like a patch? A what? The patch was a dime-sized transdermal patch that they stuck behind my ear to counteract feelings of nausea. It worked like a charm and when I had my check-up this year, I begged asked my doctor if he could prescribe some more of these snazzy things. He could! He did! More than enough, and boy, do I feel like a woman with money in the bank.

Every time I think of the upcoming voyage, I recall with a song in my heart, “I have a Patch!” Sometimes the song doesn’t stay in my heart, and I get excited all over again and go about showing off my patch to members of the family.

“Have I shown you my Patch?” I ask with a goofy smile.

“Yes, Mom. At least 53 times.” And then they look at me as if I were talking of illicit drugs or something. They look at me as if they weren’t there! As if they didn’t remember!

They were there, and I call the terrified looks on their faces. How can we get mom to stop wretching long enough to get her off this plane? Will we be left at the mercy of the airplane people?

It was not good, and they would do well to remember and rejoice, because this time, Mama will be skipping off the plane wearing her Patch.