Me: "Maybe we should go to Ghana."
Him: "Sure. They have judo there."
Me: "Let's go get a book about it at the library."
So we got the book, arranged for a volunteer assignment, bought plane tickets for as much as a small country in Africa costs, and then found out we needed yellow fever vaccines. We have insurance through school for the next few weeks, and we plan to capitalize on that BIG TIME since they recently refused to cover my birth control. I'll show you Aetna.
Our doctor coincidentally had grown up in Africa (her parents, who were also doctors, were missionaries), and all the vaccines that we had written off she scared us into getting.
It's a wonder how "I've had two friends die of ___" will change your mind about vaccines.
Mack ended up getting out of there with three shots, but I had to get five. FIVE.
Buuuutttt, before I got my shots, I heard Mack in the next room screaming out in pain and I flashed back to when I was a toddler and had to get an allergy test that involved repeated shots and my blood pressure went up to 135/84 (normally mine is 100/60) and I had to start pacing so I would not explode from anxiety.
By the time the nurse came in with my tray, I'd learned that Mack was screaming out in pain about something else because he is a weinie, but my nerves were shot and dread was pulsing through my veins. And there I sat, staring at a tray of syringes with sharp needles, really wondering if meningitis was all that bad.
I finally let go of my very first world problem by thinking of all the Africans I'd be meeting who'd probably really enjoy a free vaccine that would keep them from getting Hepatitis A. And we got on with what the English very appropriately call jabs.
In addition to meningitis and Hepatitis A, I got shots for polio, T-dap (which is tetanus and some other things you get when you're a baby) and yellow fever.
And now I have a little bit of every disease. Forgive me if I don't move for the next day or so. I'll be sleeping.
6 comments:
I'm so excited for you and your trip!! Way to go on getting the shots ... five in one day is a lot!! I have had to get blood drawn two times in the last week and always get very mentally worked up, usually for nothing.
I think you totally deserve a day or two of naps and being lazy!
Well, have fun in Ghana! It sounds awesome! I would say send me a postcard, but I'm afraid I may catch something! :)
You know, a few shots will be hindsight once you get to those rain forests. I cannot wait to hear your stories and see the pictures.
Oh yeah, Whitney is going over to Botswana for a month - she leaves next week. Two of her friends from residency are working for a pediatric AIDS clinic over there ... FB or e-mail her if you have any questions. She's back the 27th of April.
i don't think you were technically a toddler when you got the allergy shots, were you? weren't you more like 8 years old? And you got a new watch. Just keeping things real : ) accurate.
No, I was not 8. I was like 4. Maybe younger. Mom and Greg were still married and we lived at Higgins Drive. And, man, you are such a hater... how long are you gonna be jealous that I got a watch after being repeatedly stabbed? ;)
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