Sharp Pointy Things--Round 1

Today I went to the Travel Clinic. And there's only one reason for that--to get injected with all sorts of stuff. I started out with a consultation. We looked over the list of countries I will or might visit. So he basically recommended everything except Japanese Encephalitis. The Hepatitis B vaccine is a 2 course vaccine so I have to return in a month. The merciful thing about that is that we got to spread out the other jabs over two times. Yay!!! That meant I only had to have 4 injections today.

So I sat there in the waiting room dreading the moment they would call my name--like a prisoner on death row. It only takes 3 injections to kill a prisoner--I was getting 4. It finally happened. I went in and sat in a nice comfy black chair. There laid out on the desk were all the shots to be administered. Yikes. They looked so menacing. The nurse asked how I am with shots. I said I don't like them but can deal with them. She asked if I'd eaten. No not at all. Hmm... Wrong answer. It turns out I should have eaten. Oh well. (I didn't tell her I did hot yoga and only had one cup of water since last night.) I presented my dehydrated left shoulder.

I got the first one. I barely felt it. Just a mosquito bite of pain. It was over in about 2 seconds. Then before I could act, the second one. This one hurt a little more. It was for Yellow Fever and the nurse said this one might sting for a short time. The nurse got up and said she was going to get me a juice. I didn't know why. Then I started seeing blackness and stars. She came back and I said "I feel a little light headed." She had seen me turn white, so she knew before I did what was about to happen to me.

Then I found out the comfy chair is also a recliner. She put a cold towel on my head. After about a minute I was fine. She came around to the other side and gave me little ice packets to hold. The next two shots were like the first two-just in the other arm. That is to say that the first one was barely felt and the second was a little more painful.

Then I paid my $280 ($40 consultation, $105 for Hep A and Typhoid, $80 for Yellow Fever, $35 for Hep B, and $20 for Measles, Mumps, Rubella). In a month I'll get my second dose of Hep B, Meningococcal Meningitis, and Tetanus).

I have to find out if they have Dukoral in France or Morocco. They apparently have it in Canada but not the Unites States due to licensing issues. That would protect me from Cholera for 2 years, but also confers about 3 months of traveler's diarrhea. So if I take it, I want it as close to possible to my travels in the less sanitary regions.

I also now have a Canadian Yellow Book to go with my US passport. :) I need this to enter most countries in Africa because they need proof of the Yellow Fever vaccinations.