Sea sickness patch: what not to do

Of course, that’s not me in the picture but that’s how I looked the other day after a misadventure with a Scopolamine patch.  I thought I’d pass along my lesson learned. 

As I’ve written about before, I’m very prone to sea sickness. Earlier this year I tried the Transderm Scop patch. It’s a prescription drug, Scopolamine, that’s delivered through a small patch that you wear on your neck, behind your ear. You apply it the night before you need it and it lasts 3 days. The patch seems to work well for me and doesn’t make me pass out cold like meclizine (Bonine) and dimenhydrinate (Dramamine).

Unfortunately, the morning before our departure from Stuart on Tuesday, I messed up! I woke up, realized I’d put the patch on too far forward (too visible) so I moved it farther back on my neck. Then I put in my contacts and went about my morning routine.  About an hour later I noticed that I was having trouble seeing and that I couldn’t read my phone or see close up. I got a little freaked out and then I looked in the mirror, wow! My eyes looked like the photo above, ridiculously dilated.  I thought it had to be from the patch so I took it off.

Then I spoke with our friend who was docked next door and he told me that he’d done the same thing and that I must gotten the drug directly in my eye. Yup. I’d rinsed my hands but not washed them and then put my contacts in right after relocating the patch. There’s oil on the patch so a rinse is ineffective, you need a good soapy wash. Yikes! So I took out my contacts and waited about 8 hours for my eyes to return to normal. Oh, and I got seriously sea sick on our trip down to North Palm Beach :/

So yes, if you read the info packet that comes with the drug you’ll see that you really shouldn’t get it into your eyes because it causes huge pupils and blurry vision. Lesson learned: read the inserts and wash your hands thoroughly before sticking your fingeres in your eyes.