VACCINE time: A NURSE & A NEEDLE!!

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I'm the patient now, not the nurse!!

I’m the one giving the injections and giving out medicine not taking it!!! Looks like I need to take care of myself before I leave to take care of others in a third world country!! Africa has quite a few things that I need to be careful of and watch out for!! Such things like Hepatitis, Malaria, Rabies, Polio, Typhoid, Salmonella, YELLOW Fever from mosquitoes and MONKEYS…

 So, I spoke with my doctor here on Maui, and reviewed the Center for Disease Control website along with what my organization requires/recommends for travel to Kenya and my goodness -- it’s A LOT!! So far, here is my checklist of all the immunizations and medication items that I need to get:  

• Flu vaccine
• Hepatitis A vaccine
• Hepatitis B vaccine
• Inactive Polio vaccine
• Typhoid vaccine
• Tetanus shot
• Yellow fever vaccine
• Malaria prophylaxis – I could be taking these pills for over a month!
• Meningitis vaccine
• Rabies vaccine
• Antibiotics to bring with incase I come down with something
• Sleeping pills and EAR plugs!
• Diarrhea medicine
• Constipation medicine  ^^ cause you never know which one you may need!
• Motion sickness medicine (I get really car sick and we will be driving for 6-8 hours some days in big cruisers thru unpaved dirt roads across the Rift Valley – I should probably pack barf bags too!)
• LOTS of bug spray!!!!! && probably anti-itch cream as well! I have to spray all my clothes, sleeping bag, underwear…EVERYTHING I am bringing with this special Permetherine spray in hopes to not get bitten by mosquitoes with nasty diseases!!

With all that…I will be a walking pharmacy and immune to everything!!! While, I am not a huge believer in vaccines and never get my annual flu vaccine even, I think for this trip I should not take my chances….

~ The only time you run out of chances is when you stop taking them ~