I was on an oversea trip returning from India and I stopped in Europe for a short visit with a customer. I got in late and with the time zone change had trouble sleeping that night. So I went to the meeting the next day feeling a little groggy. About mid morning I reached into my bag to take some Advil and knock down the throbbing in my head but instead of taking 2 Advil, I ended up taking one Advil and one Ambien. The next 20 minutes were interesting. The pounding in my head was getting a little better, starting to feel a little more relaxed but my eye lids were starting to feel like lead.
From this point on, I went from being mostly useless to completely being out of it. Trying to follow the conversation was like wading through mental quicksand - I always seemed to be a sentence or two behind in the conversation and I was just praying that nobody asks me a direct question. I excused myself, splashed some water on my face, got some caffeine and tried to figure out how I was going to get through the next 3 hrs without embarrassing either myself or the team. Luckily we had a couple other employees to help cover and ensure that I stayed out of trouble for the next 5 hrs.
Note to self for next trip - DIFFERENT VIALS FOR ADVIL AND AMBIEN!
--Todd G., Rapid City
My second trip to Finland we had a 2-day strategy session planned at some nice resort. It was August and the weather was great. I had left my Claritin at home thinking surely I wasn't allergic to anything in Finland-- wrong!
The second day at the resort I was suffering so bad I could not keep my eyes open during an important meeting. Nothing worked, not caffeine, not cold water, not getting up occasionally... my eyelids just kept slamming shut on their own. I wasn't even sleepy-- just allergies irritating my eyes.
I was told later that the VP giving the main presentation was not thrilled. oops.
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