Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Got my shots!

I had an appointment with our "travel and tropical medicine clinic" today. I went in not expecting much because I work in healthcare and have my hep B, tetanus, pneumonvax, and flu shots plus I had chicken pox, measles, and mumps as a child but....that didn't protect me from getting more shots today.
The appointment was quite informative--I was impressed with a part of my clinic that I didn't even know about before. They gave me information on general travel topics (like jet lag) and on Kazakhstan itself.
Vaccinations they recommended for Kaz are Hep A and Hep B, influenza, tetanus/diptheria, measles, pneumococcal, varicella, and typhoid. They also recommended a rabies pre-exposure vaccination series--yoiu still need treatment if exposed to rabies but it is much less and easier to have done in other countries. I got my first rabies exposure shot and my first Hep A shot today. I also got the pill form for the typhoid vaccination because it has better protection and lasts longer than the shot.
I also got prescriptions for cipro (for travelers diarrhea), ambien (in case of bad jet lag), scopolamine patchs (for air or motion sickness) and a prescription for good compression stockings for the long airplane ride.
They loaded me down with tons of good information--more natural treatments for jet lag, diarrhea, etc to do before resorting to pills, a book called "Travel Health Companion", and countless phamplets on things like checklist for things you should carry with you, heat exhaustion, safety when traveling, pretravel planning for a child, international adoption medical needs, food and beverage precautions, health care abroad, and some general information on Kazakhstan.
They gave me a catalogue for travel medicine--information and products for safe travel. The website for this is www.travmed.com if you are interested.
It was a really great visit and I recommend a travel clinc to all of you.

7 comments:

Kelly and Sne said...

Sounds like you are going to be well-prepared. Good not to wait until the last minute. I had a little panic when I thought we were leaving before I had a chance to take the oral typhoid vaccine (the only one my Dr. had). I picked up typhoid once in Mexico and don't want a repeat performance. Keep in mind that it is only 50-80% effective so you should watch what you eat and drink - especially in rural areas.

Karen said...

It's just so amazing how much stuff we have to remember to bring along. I'm simply overwhelmed.

McMary said...

To Karen,
I am right there with you--overwhelmed with all we have to remember period--good thing we have people like Suzanne Ruley that keep everything organized and are willing to share with us.

Suzanne said...

Hi McMary-

This is my first visit to your blog. Sorry it's taken me so long. I'll add a link to yours on mine, so I can check it daily.

Regarding cooking gourmet foods, if you can follow a recipe well enough to make a tater-tot casserole, then you can make any recipe. The trick is finding the store(s) that sell the fancier ingredients. Lucky for me, there is no shortage of stores like that in the San Francisco Bay Area.

And so you know, if I cook a full meal once a week, it's a big deal!

-Suzanne

Chrissy and Russell said...

Hi there -
Thanks for your comment on my blog! I hope you do order the "Our World" poster - it's fabulous. I loved it because it has both the St. Louis arch (where we live) and a huge yurt in Kazakhstan. How cool is that? Actually, the company that made it (oopsydaisy art?) had LOTS of great posters/canvas paintings on their website. There was another one I really wanted - a painting of a bunch of people at a dog park in a city. People and dogs of every size, shape, color. I loved it. (But they're kind of pricey!)
Congrats on getting through most of your shots. I've got one more hepatitis shot to go. Not my favorite thing ever. I chose the pill form of the typhoid vaccine, too... simply because I'm a huge needle wimp. :^)

lisa said...

Hi, just got your message on my blog, Looking for Sam. I had only just discovered your blog this past week. Thanks for all the shot info. I am also in the same "age bracket" as you. Please email me when you can @ lsbblues@aol.com. I would love to chat. How cool is all this at our age?!

Kim said...

We had the same type of appointment before we left and I was very impressed too. They gave us some Cipro, I think it was called, and lots of paperwork on Kaz. You are well prepared!