A Shot in the Arm......or Two or Three or Four

So a couple of weeks ago I went and got my immunizations for my trip.  I admit to being a little worried about it as I really don't like shots.  The nurse at the Peachtree Travel Clinic was great though.  She told me that 98% of people don't like shots and the 2% that do kind of scare them.  They also said that 100% of the people in their office fell in the 98%.  I had to get 4 shots (Hep A, Tetanus, Polio and Yellow Fever), two in each arm and 2 oral vaccines (Typhoid and Malarone).  They said they  have a philosophy that shots shouldn't have to hurt (especially with so many) and they really didn't!  I remember walking in and praying, "God please help this not suck." and they this was an answered prayer.  It was so cool, they had me ice down my arms to numb them and then gave me a kids pinwheel to blow out on while they gave the shot.  They said they used to just tell people to exhale, but people would hold their breath and that didn't work, so they went to the pinwheel....the whole process was brilliant.  I guess the record for shots in a day was 8 or 9, I feel bad for that poor person.

The oral typhoid was a riot.  It's a pill that you take every other day over a week and have to keep in the fridge to keep alive (they promised me you couldn't actually get typhoid from it).  I went on a business trip to Macon right after so I had to tote around a cooler to keep my typhoid alive.....things I never thought I'd say.  The other guys on the trip from the partner company gave me a little grief like, "Shouldn't that have a biohazard sticker on it?", but were really supportive and shared some stories of their immunizations (they were both former military and got a ton of shots in not as kind of ways as I got them).  The typhoid also got to travel to Panama City, Florida last week, talk about a well traveled virus.  Took my last one today.

Well hopefully all these things, and a good antibiotic, keep me happy and healthy in Africa!