What Happens when You Take Chantix - an Observer's Viewpoint

Recently, an older-than-I female relative, who will remain unnamed because I simply would like to not be killed by her for causing any further embarrassment, decided to begin a prescription of Chantix. Chantix is one of the newest medications used to help people stop smoking. It, like so many other medications these days, has a list of possible side effects. Some of those listed are in reference to strange dreams and flatulence. They don't tell you that these are extremely sexual dreams, or that the flatulence could drop a cow.

So when I go with my young son to visit this relative, I smell this stench. It's not a typical smell you find in the bathroom. It can only be described as a 'stench'. I find that this is the flatulence the pharmaceutical warns of. It's bad, very bad. My son hides behind the chair in the living room and refuses to come out. This is a child preoccupied, as many are, with body functions, particularly 'farts'. He stands behind the chair, covering his mouth and nose with his little hands, grimacing. I think it's hilarious, except for the stench. She tells me I should be ashamed of myself for laughing at her predicament, but it's one of those situations where you're faced with someone who is normally prim and proper (and expects you to be, too), and she is telling you about having to do her job, which entails crawling, literally, on the floor, under other people's desks, fixing their computers, and all I can do is picture her with her derriere in the air, tooting this horrible stench. She told me "it's not funny, it's not like I can pass it off as being somebody else, they all know it's me. I can't help it, it's the Chantix." I couldn't help it, and I know it seems insensitive, but I burst out laughing at that point.

She also tells me, after she decided she wasn't going to be mad at me, that the dreams are really getting to her. Either she is being pursued by something or someone, and only half the time does she know what or who is chasing her. The dreams are so real that she said even though she knows it is only a dream, she is still furious with her pursuer for several hours after awaking.

Well, she did quit smoking for a while, close to a year, but when her job became too stressful, she picked up the habit again. She is planning on retaking the Chantix in the near future, and I am hoping she does not have the same side effects again. Otherwise, I won't be able to take my overly verbal four year old there.