Healthy Nomads

First vaccination for our adventure! Check out the pink walls in the exam room.

Most of the planning for our trip has been fun – e.g., buying gear, researching destinations, donating extra stuff to charity, etc. But there are also some parts of planning that are expensive and/or painful. One that is both expensive and painful is vaccinations.

We had our initial visit with a travel doctor on Friday. We were a little put off when we arrived at the office to find the walls covered in pastel colors and flowers and toys littering the waiting room. The sign on the door said “Pediatrician.” We thought we must have made a mistake walking into the wrong office, but apparently it’s pretty common for pediatricians to offer travel vaccines because they already carry and administer vaccines for children.

We spent about an hour reviewing our immunization records and our itinerary. As we expected, most of the vaccinations we had for our previous travels only last ten years at the longest, so we need to get boosters for nearly everything. The doctor then presented a hefty list of vaccinations she would recommend for us.  She recommended that we start with the Yellow Fever vaccine since a Yellow Card (proof of vaccination) is required by many of the countries on our itinerary. After a quick physical to determine if we were healthy enough for the vaccine, she administered the vaccine and had us wait around for fifteen minutes (most severe reactions to the vaccine happen within fifteen minutes). Our arms were a little sore for a few days, but it wasn’t enough to stop us from our normal weekend routine of downhill skiing, cross country skiing, grocery shopping, and game night.

One vaccine down, plenty to go…