Growing up, we all develop all sort of habits, mine was kind of unusual. In our household there were two types of drugs you will find in my dad's drawer, parastamol and vitamin C tablets. I wouldn't expect any less it is a house filled boys which means a day doesn't go by without any of us coming up with headaches or running nose. We don't really have much assess to the parastamol even if we did, we never liked how it tasted but for the vitamin C tablets was our favourite. It is about 40 capsules in a container, the reason behind our likeness for this tablet is not something spectacular.
Unlike every other types of drug with a bitter taste vitamin C tablets are different, there are other types of vitamin C tablets but the one my Dad buys is the one with the orange colour, it taste like candy. For us we never really considered it a drug, we are always permitted to take at least 4 in a day depending on the situation but since we all had access to our dad's drawer and due to the larger number of vitamin C tablets in the container, it is not something that our dad could easily detect. Due to its sweetness, we prefered to take it multiple times, to our dad he felt like we were following instructions but eventually he figured it out and he decided to start buying the other type of vitamin C tablets, it looks whitish and taste like fermented lime juice.
They say old habits aren't easy to let go, any time I visit a drug store I always make sure I get a vitamin C tablets, I'm quite aware that even vitamin C tablets have an overdose but it never occurred to me that it was possible, I mean what harm could vitamin C tablets do to me that is what I always thought. To me, buying the tablet is like going to store to buy groceries, whenever it finishes I go to the store and get a refill. Since it is not the kind of drug with popularly known overdose effect or any addiction rate, no prescription is needed in purchasing it. It is as easy as purchasing candy from the store, the funny aspect of it is that I keep the empty container of the vitamin C tablets like a trophy.
Well everything changed about 5 years ago, I kind of disclose this in a meeting some time ago and everyone couldn't stop laughing at me. About 5 years ago I was working at opebi and everything was business as usual. I take 2 tablets of vitamin C every morning or more depending on the level I'm craving something sweet. It is funny how I don't consider it to be a medicine, I mean it taste really good. Well I guess the drug decided to prove me wrong in the the most weirdest way possible.
If I could remember correctly, it was a regular Monday and I was at work. I worked as a personal assistant to an auditor and he was someone that travels a lot but whenever he is around we usually work a lot. On this specific day we were on a work rampage and I happen to have my vitamin C tablets container in my bag. Whenever I get bored I just take about two of it and chew it, it was like eating candy. The work continues and suddenly power supply was caught off, normally it was the duty of the security men in the apartment complex to put on the generator in such a situation but they were taking longer than expected.
My boss was beginning to get impatient, he wouldn't ask me to do it but from the expression on his face he was really eager to get things done as fast as possible and frankly it is to my own advantage if he was able to get the work done before afternoon, I get to go home early. So I went outside to power on the generator but on getting there I realised there wasn't fuel in the generator, I reached for the petrol Can and poured it into the generator. I was about to cover up the generator petrol tank when I noticed something weird. I realised throughout the exercise I couldn't smell the petrol, I thought probably I wasn't paying attention, so I put my nose closer to the tank and still yet I couldn't smell anything.
That was when it dawned on me that my sense of smell is unavailable, I went into the office picked up a deodorant but I still couldn't smell anything. I became terrified, this was the first time I was experiencing something like this in my life. I couldn't figure out what the source of problem was. The only thing I could figure out was that my nostrils feel awfully dry. As humans we can never truly know how valuable each of our senses are till will lose them. Throughout that day I couldn't think straight, I thought about going to the hospital but in my part of the world getting quick diagnosis is not cheap.
I decided to put my research skills to work, I went online and searched for possible causes of loss of smell, I found thousands of answers with all sort of gigantic science terminologies. Eventually I stumbled upon an article, it was all about drug overdoses and possible consequences. The funny thing is that, the article didn't really mentioned vitamin C tablets but that moment my mind was redirected to my precious candy. If I was being honest, that day happens to be the day I had consumed the highest number of vitamin C tablets. It wasn't really hard for me to put 2+2 together and figure out what the source of my problem was.
All this was happening around 10-12am in the morning, so I decided to give it sometime while sniffing through anything to check if my ability to smell is back. It was around the evening time that I noticed I could perceive something but I wasn't sure because it felt like it was just my imagination. Gradually it got better but it was until the next day before I could smell things properly. It was after some weeks that I got in touch with a my brother who happens to be a biochemist. He was the one that enlighten me about possible consequences of vitamin C tablets overdose, it wasn't funny, I never knew my favourite candy could be so deadly. It was the first time in my life that I find it easy to abandon vitamin C tablets without taking it for months. During those time I wouldn't say I missed it, I was just way too terrified to get near it.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Not just drugs" in hive learners community.
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