The scene of the ouch

The scene of the ouch

Yesterday I went to the doctor...well, not the doctor but the PA...or no, it says she's an NP, whatever that is...but I no longer have a doctor because the one I'd had forever decided to move on and do I ever miss having a doctor who knows me and can answer my questions intelligently and knows what SHE is doing...well anyway, that's another issue.  I went for my vaccinations and pills.

Tetanus.  Typhoid.  Malaria.  Ciproflaxin.

First the nurse goes thru it all, getting my weight and blood pressure and all that.  She writes down the above.  We check and see I had my tetanus booster last year.  Yay, one less shot to take!  And then she tells me she thinks I might have to go to Grand Forks for the Typhoid and Malaria stuff.  I told her my husband had gotten it here last week.  Oh, okay then.

In comes the NP.  She looks over this stuff, we talk about it, she pulls up the CDC webpage and asks me to find what we're looking for. www.cdc.gov/  Travelers' Health.  Indonesia.  Gets alarmed when she sees "Yellow Fever" because I had not asked for that vaccine, and I pointed out that they're just saying anyone coming to Indonesia from a country where Yellow Fever is present needs to follow those instructions...she's still hesitant.  I pointed out that the US is not one of those countries.   Then we find the list of malaria vaccines and she's a bit boggled by this.  She asked which one my husband got last week..."I don't know, should I call him?" I asked.   No, we can look it up.   So she pulls up his name in the clinic directory and gets his Rx for Mefloquine , hastily read the instructions.   Back to my Rx, she types in "1 tablet the week prior, 1 tablet during, 1 tablet 4 weeks after travel" and I told her it's supposed to be "1 tablet each week of travel and each week for 4 weeks after"...we're going to be gone 3 weeks, so I'd need.... (shh...the answer is 8)...she says "I'll just write it for 30".    So Sarah, if you're reading this, I can stay with you for a few months extra!!

And then the Rx for the Ciproflaxin, just in case.  That one went pretty smoothly, I think.  I haven't actually filled the Rx yet so maybe not.


And then the nurse comes in with the shot for Typhoid.  I hate shots.  But it went in real smoothly, no problemo!  Until a few hours later and I can barely move my arm!  OUCH no one told me this would hurt!  I guess they didn't know since they didn't even know we had the typhoid vaccine in-house.   One day later and still it hurts when I move my arm certain ways.  But I won't get typhoid!