When you think about planning a trip around the world- what comes to mind? For me it was exotic places, interesting people, new foods, probably some “unique” bathrooms and hopefully lots of fun and good experiences. What doesn’t come to mind? Vaccines and immunizations. Yes, that is right… and lots of them.

A few weeks ago I plopped myself down in front of our computer to reaseach which vaccinations I would need. I figured it would be probably two or three, maybe a booster or two. As I read through the CDC website listing out the necessary vaccinations the list kept getting longer… and longer.

In my head it went something like this: “Tetanus, ok no problem, probably need a booster anyway. Hepatitis B, ok got that. Polio, didn’t we eradicate that? wait, that was small pox. Ok, moving on. Yellow Fever. check. Typhoid …didn’t my Oregon Trail family die from that? Ok, so Tetanus, Hepatitis B, Polio, Yellow Fever, Typhoid, Hepatitis A (hmm i guess its a different vaccine), japanese encephalitis, rabies.. wait rabies?” Pretty soon I had a list of about ten vaccinations that I would need before leaving the country. Go figure. Ten. I give the list to the hubby, “compare it to your records and see what you need.” His list of necessary shots? About HALF that of mine. Great, just great.  Not that I’m scared of shots or anything, just that I don’t want to be a human pin cushion.

Fortunately our health insurance covers many of them, so atleast that will save us some $$. I’ve heard stories of people spending more than $1000 to get immunized for around the world trips.  Some of the vaccines require two or three dosages, so the prices can be deceiving.  Who knew that vaccines were so expensive?  For people without health insurance, several local health departments offer travel vaccines at a fraction of the cost at a private travel clinic.

I went to the dr for my first Hepatitis A shot the other day and the RN says to me as she inserts the needle… “this one might burn”… wait what??? It didn’t burn, but it got me thinking about how many of these I could take at once. I think two is my maximum, one in each arm. Plus, some of them cannot be given in combination with others.

<Sigh> Its going to be a long couple of weeks….

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