Trent has traveled around the world in the last year, so he is up to date on all his vaccines.  The kids and I, well, we are a different story.  The 3M Relocation people gave us a list of “recommended” vaccines, and after reading and re-reading the list, doing some internet research on various diseases & illnesses we will be exposed to, I decided to follow through and get some vaccines.

So last week after school,  I took the kids into an International Travel Clinic.  You cannot go to your regular doc for this, as they don’t have all the vaccines on hand for world travel.

I took my list from 3M, totally prepared to get all the shots we need, and wouldn’t you know, our doc is from Korea, and she insists that I will not be at risk for any disease in Singapore.  She says everyone in Asia goes to Singapore for their medical care, and that I’ll be just fine without any vaccines.   She poo-poo’ed us, and stopped just short of calling us nuts for even coming into the clinic.

After much discussion, nurses coming and going from our little medical cell (you know how they leave you in those rooms forever and it feels like prison) and phone calls to Trent, I was finally able to convince our doctor that we must get our vaccines.   The kids made the best of the two hour visit and tested each others knee reflexes.

They all thought we were crazy, but in the end the kids got their Hepatitis A shots.  Our daughter also got a chicken pox booster.  I got the Hep A & B shots.

Look at the size of that needle!  It was nearly an inch long, and this nurse took her time squeezing the juice in.

Obviously, son #2 didn’t want his photo taken, haha.  Poor kid, he had to watch the three of us get stabbed, and by the time it was his turn, he was ready to run for the hills.

Lastly, we decided to take the oral Typhoid pill instead of the needle, because the coverage for the pills is 5 years (versus only 2 years with a shot) but mainly because we really didn’t want another shot.   So we take four pills over 8 days.  On an empty stomach with room temperature water.  Why?  Because it’s a live virus and warm water will kill the virus, and the empty stomach part is because it has to get to the small intestine before it starts dissolving, so if your tummy is empty, it will get there faster.  TMI, right?

I realized that my growing sons eat constantly, so I knew it would be a challenge to find the perfect time for them to have an empty tummy.  Morning when they first wake up?  NO!!  They are starving after fasting for the entire night of sleep.  After school?  NO!  They are starving from going all day with only school lunch.  After swim practice?  NO!! They are starving from Coach Bob working them so hard.  Before bed?  NO!! The doc said not to take this pill and go right to bed, in case they had a reaction.

What did I choose?  After school.  They were not happy, but I set the timer so they waited the required one hour after taking the typhoid vaccine, and when it chimed off the last minute, oh were they ever happy to dig into their cereal!!  (they eat cereal for breakfast, snacks, lunch, snack, dessert, and bedtime snacks )  🙂

I get to go back two more times in the next month for my vaccines for Japanese Encephalitis ( a terrible mosquito born disease where 25% of the cases are fatal.  yes, I’ll take the shots.  I’m Italian, so I have sweet blood & the mosquitos love me ).

And that was our exciting adventure to the International Travel Clinic!