Vaccinations; or I am full of dying viruses.

Today I began round one of vaccinations I will need before I go to Haiti. I went to the Emory Travelwell clinic, where I received a huge packet of information and spoke with one of the doctors there. Another patient who is affiliated with Emory is flying down to Haiti on Monday with the University of Miami to work as a nurse, so she sat in on my appointment so that the doctor could be more efficient. She told us about malaria in Haiti: that it's the most dangerous kind and that if we have flu-like symptoms for up to a year after our return, we must immediately go to the doctor and tell them that we were in a high-malaria-risk environment recently. On the CDC's malaria website, there is a section with people's accounts of their experience with malaria. One of the stories in there is about a relief worker who went to Haiti and decided not to take his anti-malarial drugs because of the side effects. He came home, exhibited flu-like symptoms, and ended up being misdiagnosed by his doctor as having the flu. Then he got MUCH worse and spent ten days in the ICU to the tune of $23,000.

This is the point where I realized how incredibly real the situation was. I know it isn't a game, and I know that I have committed myself to something incredibly serious and possibly dangerous, but it didn't seem real until then. I am excited to have this opportunity and to do something that could be important, but I am scared. I am scared of mudslides and malaria and riots. I can only prepare myself so much for these things over the next two months, though, and I refuse to paralyze myself with fear.

I walked out of the clinic with a big yellow folder with information on typhoid fever, rabies, malaria, food preparation, traveler's diarrhea, preventative methods, and prescriptions for cipro and chloroquine (my anti-malarial). I also have three new holes in my arms: I got the seasonal flu and hepatitis A vaccines in my left arm and typhoid fever vaccine in my right. I could actually feel the hep A going through my arm and into my shoulder; the nurse did her best to alleviate the pain and even rubbed my arm and shoulder a bit to keep them from getting too stiff. (I told her that she is a treasure and should teach a class, to which she emphatically replied, "NO.") The flu and typhoid shots were nothing, but now my typhoid arm hurts!

When I return from my road trip, I will be getting round one of my rabies vaccination, a diptheria/tetanus booster, and an H1N1 vaccine!

Oh, also, this was in my packet, and it amused me.