So, last week, from about Sunday till Saturday I was deathly ill. 104+ fever, sore throat, congestion, etc. I'm feeling 99% better now, coherent, and have been back to the party scene with a vengeance.

But, I've found a terrible thing to be true... I've lost my taste for vodka. It tastes like sour apple cough syrup to me now, when it used to be the sweetest nectar of the gods and the one true love of my life.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Were you able to work your way back into the booze that you loved? I seriously tried about fifteen different concoctions of rum, vodka, gin, etc tonight at the bar and nothing satisfied my desires. I'm beginning to worry.

uh oh! you have been reprogramed!

Did you do a lot of puking while being sick? Sounds like maybe your taste buds are jacked up.

I've never had this problem, for the record. It's just a thought.

Remember you don't have to drink to have fun! Drink ice water for a few weeks and pretend its Vodka.

You may need to re-educate your taste buds.

I suggest getting a good Reisling (Mosel 2002 is a good one), some fresh fruit such as nectarines, and some Camembert cheese, and then relax with a good movie or book and munch, sip and enjoy. This combination will reawaken the tastebuds, and you can then move on to slowly working in other combinations.

A nice Chardonnay, some smoked salmon and Brie also is a nice grouping.

Eventually, you should be able to fully enjoy a glass of Absolut or Fris again.

Remember you don't have to drink to have fun! Drink ice water for a few weeks and pretend its Vodka.
Hmm... Maybe the water will taste like vodka now!

And if you drink enough it will treat you like vodka too! :p


These people become drowsy, lightheaded, and weak. They have trouble coordinating bodily movements and thinking straight, looking and feeling as if they just stumbled out of the local bar.

Full Article from WebMD (http://my.webmd.com/content/article/42/1671_51282.htm)

I got so deathly sick from Firewater(Alcohol Poisoning 4tw) that just the smell of it makes me gag. Same goes for hot damn or any cinnamon drink. Oddly enough, I can use mouthwash/gum/candy/etc but nothing with alcohol in it.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Were you able to work your way back into the booze that you loved?
Tequila.

Got so sick on it 2 times in 2 months that I can't stand it.

Even the smell of it sickens me and that was 10 years ago.

Have the Same problem with Sweet and Sour mix, drank a beer pitch full of Camacazies in 96 seconds to dunk my ring in college and now i cant stand the smell of hte stuff let alone the taste.


Rev

I think that only happens with the liquor you get sick off of the first time. Seems like everyone has one they had a bad experience with early on and now can't revisit very easily. Tequila is mine, same as many. An absolute debacle in college involving several bottles of Cuervo and my nearly pristine liver. I can't do more than a shot or two of the stuff anymore.

Since then, I've had years of random nights where too much Jager or Vodka sent me to worship the porcelain altar without any lasting effect. So, the sudden change this week has me stumped.

I suggest getting a good Reisling (Mosel 2002 is a good one), some fresh fruit such as nectarines, and some Camembert cheese

Good lord. Either that or you wake up next to a guy with a lisp.

This happened to me years and year ago after a bad night with Jaeger. Just give it a break for a few weeks. Do other alcohol. Then come back.

God, I wish I could taste vodka that was the "nectar of the gods"... Alas, I'm in college. I taste pure rubbing alcohol that comes to me via $8.99 plastic handles of the finest charcoal filtered vodka available in safeway's liquor isle. /sigh

Good lord. Either that or you wake up next to a guy with a lisp.

OMG, that is too funny, but it does give an interesting insight into the way you view the world.

I guess anyone who enjoys anything better than meatloaf and mashed potatoes and beer must have something wrong with them.

But, I do know that the guy drinking the Jaeger usually ended up puking in the parking lot, while I did not have that problem. I prefer kissing the nape of an attractive ladies neck in between sips of a good drink (wine, brandy, vodka martini, etc), where you seem to be the type to prefer kissing the rim of the toilet bowl after guzzling down as much as you could of whatever flavor of the day mondo-drunko beverage. /shrug, to each their own.

And Sanchek, I have never been able to touch tequila in the past 25 years after finding myself sitting on my motorcycle in front of the house, not recalling how or when I left the bar, and doing a slow fall to the left (ala Arte Johnson on his tricycle from the old Laugh In series), and then spending the night on the bathroom floor. It happens to many, at one time or another.

I'm not that worried about the tequila incident. That was over ten years ago, and I can stomach it well enough to eat at Mexican restaurants again.

My problem is the vodka. I didn't get sick drinking vodka. I caught the flu or whatever that was going around here, and now that I'm well I can't find a taste for the bread and butter drink I've been drinking by the gallon for years.

God, I wish I could taste vodka that was the "nectar of the gods"... Alas, I'm in college. I taste pure rubbing alcohol that comes to me via $8.99 plastic handles of the finest charcoal filtered vodka available in safeway's liquor isle. /sigh
Run that stuff through a Brita filter a few times and it comes out smelling and tasting about the same as the top shelf vodkas.

Run that stuff through a Brita filter a few times and it comes out smelling and tasting about the same as the top shelf vodkas.

That's a fucking great idea, wow. Gonna have to try this.

/nominates for Nobel Prize.

Credit where credit is due. The Vodka/Birtta thing isn't exactly an A.Ro invention.

http://www.google.com/search?q=vodka+britta

Britta filters are expensive; but not as expensive as a bottle of Grey Goose (or whatever you prefer). So, a bottle of Popov and a Britta filter might be a good investment.

Maybe it's just that I went to an engineering school and dated a Chem E major, but our vodka-shine efforts long predated Google.

Maybe it's just that I went to an engineering school and dated a Chem E major, but our vodka-shine efforts long predated Google.

Quit lying, nothing predates Google. Everyone knows that.

I can use mouthwash/gum/candy/etc but nothing with alcohol in it.

Mouthwash has alcohol in it.

http://www.crest.com/prohealthrinse/index.jsp !

You're just burned out. Trust me. Try something else for a while, then go back. Makes those Screwdrivers taste much better.

I tried damn near everything that night. Rums, tequilas (gack), jager, different vodkas, you name it. I'm afraid my tounge is revolting against my alcoholism or something.

What an awful punishment. :(

Decreased Parotid Saliva Gustin/Carbonic Anhydrase VI Secretion
Taste and smell dysfunction has been reported to occur in patients with a variety of clinical problems. We wanted to investigate a specific group of patients in whom taste and smell dysfunction occurred putatively related to a specific biochemical abnormality in a salivary growth factor [gustin/carbonic anhydrase (CA) VI] considered responsible for maintenance of taste bud function. Methods: Eighteen patients developed loss and/or distortion of taste and smell after an acute influenza-type illness. They were evaluated clinically, by psychophysical tests of taste and smell function, by measurement of parotid salivary gustin/CAVI by a radioimmunoassay and by measurement of serum, urine, and salivary zinc. Biopsies of circumvallate papillae were obtained in 6 patients and examined by transmission electron microscopy. Similar studies were performed in 55 asymptomatic volunteers with biopsies of circumvallate papillae performed in 4. Results: Taste and smell acuity were impaired in patients compared with healthy volunteers and parotid gustin/CAVI, salivary, and serum zinc concentrations were lower in patients than in healthy volunteers. Taste buds in circumvallate papillae of patients exhibited severe vacuolization, cellular degeneration, and absence of dense extracellular material. Conclusions: These results describe a clinical disorder formulated as a syndrome of hyposmia (decreased smell acuity), hypogeusia (decreased taste acuity), dysosmia (distorted smell function), dysgeusia (distorted taste function), and decreased secretion of parotid saliva gustin/CAVI with associated pathological changes in taste bud anatomy. Because gustin/CAVI is found in humans only in parotid saliva and has been associated with taste bud growth and development these results suggest that inhibition of synthesis of gustin/CAVI is associated with development of taste bud abnormalities and thereby loss of taste function.

Please. In English.

Parotid Saliva Gustin/Carbonic Anhydrase VI = the stuff that keeps your tastebuds safe. Fever messes that up. Your tastebuds probably died. Good thing is, tastebuds have a life expectancy of about 10ish days. They do regenerate, though it's not known how. There is the potential that your taste for vodka won't return with your new buds, but you may be able to train them to like it.

I skipped chemistry and biology to for more hand's-on coursework and that was perfectly understandable. Herr Sanchek is slipping!

Tastebuds only live for 10 days? Wow that's pretty interesting so I guess every set I've ever had since I can remember has hated Brussel Sprouts =)

Good luck in your taste re-education Sanchek, vodka is a terrible thing to waste.

Well, Thursday night found my tastebuds back in their happy place, so I guess all's well. At least, what I can remember of it was.

Now if only they could keep me from being hungover the entire next day.

First his braincells, then his tastebuds.. makes sense.

Drink a gallon of floor polish Sanchick

I wouldn't want to end up like you have. Or was that from huffing paint chips?

Well, Thursday night found my tastebuds back in their happy place, so I guess all's well. At least, what I can remember of it was.

Now if only they could keep me from being hungover the entire next day.

There's actually something you can do, though it involves a needle. It's 2 medications, but they work so well that you're not even the least bit hungover the next day. And Sanchek, congrats on your reacquaintance with your only true love. :D

Can you use them on a regular basis? How expensive are they? Side effects?

You can use them anytime. They are expensive in that you need at minimum a medic to administer them, and there are no side effects. They basically reyhdrate you, get your blood sugar levels back on track and allow your body to use the fluid and glucose that it's deprived of. That's what a hangover is. Basically an imbalance of what your body needs to make you not feel like shit.

Oh, so basically medical hair of the dog?

Bingo. Make friends with a medic hun. I'm almost sure it's against some kind of unwritten rule in paramedicine to not have this stuff kept at arms reach.

IV bag with a lactose ringer. Thats what you want.

LR is wonderful, but not best for this purpose. It's got a relatively high level of potassium, sodium and can affect the acid base balance if administered incorrectly. It can also present cardiac and respiratory considerations when given too fast. With this in mind, NaCl is a much more desirable choice. Given concomitantly with Thiamine 100mg IVP and D50% 25g IVP, NaCl would probably serve the soused better than LR. But, considering that your vodka-buds have returned from their unexpected sabbatical, wouldn't it just be cheaper to stay a little tipsy all the time? ;)

Any other ways to administer the NaCL? A salt lick?