Beware the Malaria Pill

I completely understand the desire not to get malaria, but please take note: those suckers can have some side effects. And, yes, I did take the kind with the fewest side effects and experiencing side effects is rare. Alas, I am the 1%. Here is a run down of how awful I felt, just so you can consider your future use of malarone, and not because I want to complain: fever-like chills, inability to sleep because of said chills, nightmares when I did sleep because of said chills (I dreamt I killed someone, and then, almost as bad, I dreamt I ran into my highschool cheer leading coach), nausea, vomiting, dizziness (like, WHOA), headache, and being a crabby pants, wet blanket in general. Basically I could not function and just wanted to lay in my bed and gently rock myself through the delirium. I began the malarone two days before the trip and within 12 hours began feeling nauseous, had chills, and became dizzy. The symptoms became increasingly worse with time. I'm pretty sure I experienced all the symptoms of malaria without actually having malaria. Why go through that, miserable, for 25 days if actual malaria lasts only a week, right? So, I stopped taking my malaria pills two days ago, and I am slowly coming down from the symptoms. I make sure to Deet myself out every morning and away we go! I'm not saying you shouldn't take malaria medicine, but just know it has the possibility of completely ruining your trip. Knowledge is power! (I am really not a negative person, but this was a very negative experience I feel others should consider when traveling to malaria zones). Happy travels :)