Vaccinations -- The Early Rounds

            Before traveling the world, it is generally advisable to get your vaccinations – well, that’s what they say.  I, for one, have decided to take the doctor’s advice and get the recommended immunizations.  Holy crap!  There are a lot of diseases in the world out there!  Goes to show how much further behind the so-called “third world” countries are in terms of the availability of preventative medical care.  Did you know that there are many different diseases that are carried by different kinds of mosquitoes in different parts of the world?  Yikes!  That’s a little scary because I am highly susceptible to mosquito bites.  Those mosquitoes love my Type O blood!  Seriously.  Go look it up.  ;)

            Being highly prone to mosquito bites and having a loving, somewhat worrisome mom mean that I get to have all of those charming vaccinations.  The vaccinations recommended by my doctor include yellow fever (some countries won’t even let you into their country unless you have the vaccine and a special yellow card with proof of vaccination), tetanus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rabies, Japanese encephalitis, malaria, typhoid, and some others.  What fun!  Ugh.

            A couple weeks ago, I received four of these lovely, painful reminders of how “safe” America is from most of the diseases of the world.  My arms still hurt from the shots.  At the time, I also received prescriptions for malaria, typhoid, travel sickness and some other things.  Holy crap that was a HUGE bag of pharmaceuticals!!  I still have to go back for the rabies and Japanese encephalitis and the second dose of the hep A and B.

            This morning I started my typhoid regimen.  One pill every other day for eight days.  The nurse warned me these could make me sick because they contain “live cultures.”  OK, that in and of itself is just creepy.  I have to keep the darn pills refrigerated!  Well, I’m sad to report that the nurse was right.  I feel like crap.  I have a headache, body aches, dizziness, fatigue and one very unhappy tummy.  It’s like a miniature version of the Gremlin Stripe is wreaking havoc inside my body.  No good!  I hope this feeling only happens on the first dose.  If I have to feel like this for the next week, I might punch someone in the face!