It’s a thing: Services that will send a health professional to your home, office or hotel room to treat your hangover for anywhere from $175 to $269.
Ridiculous? That was my first reaction. But in certain limited situations I can see justifying the expense.
There seem to be about a half-dozen of these services operating in big cities around the country, and they all take roughly the same approach. The nurse shows up at the time and place appointed by the client and sets up an IV drip. What it contains — vitamins, pain and/or nausea medication — depends on how bad off you are and how much you want to pay. Treatment lasts up to an hour, and while not an instant cure by all accounts is the next best thing.
Some services also offer treatment at their home offices and by mobile bus for a reduced price. But it seems to me if you can pull yourself together to get out of the house in the first place, your hangover can’t be all that bad.
Critics argue that IV treatment for a hangover “is like using a bulldozer to do something you can do with a shovel… if a person is capable of drinking liquids by mouth there is no reason for an IV.” True enough, but if your hangovers are anything like mine, they hunch on your back and scream for an endless river of water, sports drinks and juice, and will not be sated until the end of the day. It all comes down to whether you have the leisure time to give the monkey all that he requires, or if you have other things to do — and how much you’re willing to pay to buy those hours back.
This is what the marketers call a “luxury service.” But sometimes, like a great single malt or a special wine, luxuries are worth the price. I can envision someday having a blowout last night in Vegas, then summoning “Hangover Heaven” to my hotel room to endure the flight out next morning.
Sadly, in-home hangover treatment right now is only available in a handful of cities like Vegas, New York and LA. Like home booze-delivery before it, though, don’t be surprised to eventually see it arrive in all major cities across the country.
