57 - Fear

Tomorrow I take the next step in my traveling adventures this summer. Tomorrow I fly out to Portland, Oregon for a business seminar. Tomorrow I once again face my greatest fear.

There are people out there who have aerophobia, which is the fear of flying. Although this could be a distinct phobia in and upon itself, it could also be part of any number of other phobias that could relate to flying. For example, claustrophobia—the fear of enclosed spaces; or acrophobia—the fear of heights; even possibly the fear of crashing or the fear of not being in control.

I don't have any of those. The closest I can find to my fear is emetophobia—the fear of being nauseated, which is typically associated with motion-sickness. Although I find many things can trigger my motion-sickness (boats, sitting in the backseats of cars, merry-go-rounds), they never really bother me as much as getting motion-sick on a plane.

In order for me to step onto a airplane, I first have to visit my doctor to get a precription for scopolomine. The brand my pharmacy carries is called Transderm Scop. It's a little patch that gets placed behind one of your ears and it does wonders preventing motion-sickness.

I always have to start this process days ahead of my flight out. That's because I get nervous the pharmacy won't have it in stock, that they'll have to order it, that it won't come in until it's too late to fill the prescription, and that I'll have to fly without it. (I don't have nightmares as such, but when I get close to my fly-out date, I will have dreams about this scenario happening.)

Once I've got the patch in my possesion, I'm usually fine right up until the actually day I fly out. Then I get a bit nervous again for fear that the patch won't work or that it will fall off and I'll end up vomitting and feeling like shit for the entire flight. (Trust me. It's not a pretty sight when it happens. Many times I will scare flight attendants and medical professionals just by the way I look when I'm in that condition.)

So, I have all my usual "comforts" (beyond the patch) with me for the flight. I have a bag of ginger snap cookies (ginger is good to combat nausea); I'll get my usual ginger-ale when the drink cart comes around (yeah, it's not very KFB diet-friendly, but I think being comfortable on the flight takes precedence); I have my iPod full of my favorite tunes and podcasts (so I'll be listening to Patrick and Gwen on their Zen Is Stupid and The Mindfulist programs—it'll be a good time to catch-up!); I've got some movies loaded on my iPhone; and I think this will also be the perfect time to do some deep meditation.

I've got my KFB kit all packed and ready to go, so this'll be it for now. The next time you hear from me I'll be in Portland!

Later dudes!