We are less than one month out from our trip!!! J and I are very excited, and are gearing up for the big day. Today, we took the opportunity that MLK offered to us with no-work and went to our primary care physician for some immunizations and to stock up on some prescriptions for travel medication. This was one of the less-fun parts of our trip preparation.
We are very fortunate in that our primary care physician is a big traveler himself, as he is one of the official doctors of the PGA Tour. He takes a month off from his practice every year to travel with the Tour, and J and I love hearing his stories about going to Korea, Australia, China, Japan, and Scotland for the tournaments. It also gives us the added side-benefit that he is pretty experienced with travel medicine, and had some great suggestions for us in terms of what we should bring and expect while we are on the subcontinent.
For our trip, we had to schedule several immunizations. J had to get three shots today, and fortunately, I only had to get one, as I am a huge weenie. We both received a Hepatitis A vaccine. J had to have his DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis) vaccine, which I received last year. We still need to schedule a visit to our local travel clinic for our Typhoid vaccines, as our PCP does not carry that vaccine. We had to make sure that we scheduled our vaccines far enough out that they would be effective when we left, and fortunately, discovered that the vaccines only take about three weeks to take effect. He prescribed us with Malarone, which is an anti-malarial pill. We will start the Malarone approximately three days before we leave, and will continue to take it for a week after we get back. I'm particularly thankful for the Malarone, because mosquitos seem to always be particularly attracted to me wherever I go.
Our doctor also gave us several prescriptions that we hopefully will NOT need while we are on vacation, but nonetheless, will be useful to have! He gave us each a round of Ciproflaxin (broad-spectrum antibiotic) to bring with us and a prescription for Levsin, which is a sublingual medication that treats nausea, stomach cramps and diarrhea.
Now it's time to add to the first aid kit with other necessities, and hopefully, we will not have to pull it out while we're on our trip!
