Poking & Proding

Just because I had so much fun that day, I'd like to share some of the joy in preparing for a trip to East Africa. (Plus, should you be feeling the least twinge of jealousy this ought to cure you.) It necessarily involves a trip to the travel clinic. In my case, the Coastal Health Travel Clinic at Broadway and Ash - these people know FUN! And not just because they can empty your wallet faster than you can say, "How much will all this be?"
I recommend being really, really excited about your trip before you go there because you could easily change your mind once the consult starts. For the warm up there's the malaria prophylaxis, the cipro, and then the diamox (see earlier post for how I feel about this and add on that once you've had an allergic reaction to sulfa antibiotics, but you can't remember the reaction so you have to book into see an allergist in less than 5 weeks...guess what, the allergist says you can take diamox because it isn't the same sulphur structure!). The main event is a party of needles. Shots for meningococcal meningitis, typhoid booster, tetanus booster, yellow fever... For extra entertainment I recommend going with someone over 60  for the story on how the risk of death from the vaccination is much increased for over 60 year olds...unless you've already had yellow fever vaccination in which case this is merely a booster so don't worry about it.  Dad couldn't remember, but we went with thoughts that it would be a booster owing to his early start as an intrepid traveller...Good news is that we're both through the 'caution' period and seem to be fine.