Wow, so today, is more of a mild day school-wise, just one class. At 8:00 in the morning of course, but nevertheless it is my only class on Tuesdays, so I scheduled an appointment with Passport Health here in the Boston area. Let’s just say that I hope that I am not only exposed to various unhealthy people and living situations, but maybe just maybe that a rabid mongrel dog might just try and take a chunk out of me. I am prepared for it. I will never forget when the doctor at the school health clinic after giving me the tetanus and Hep A told me that I was now safe to step on rusty nails and eat poop. Two things I have never had any desire to do, but safety first…I have contributed to the retirement of many a researcher today, I also can’t really raise my arms much above my head. Flu and Japanese Encephalitis in my left (as I am left-handed and must maintain some amount of movement) and Rabies and Yellow Fever in my right. A few of them need return visits as well as a polio booster and malaria pills for every day that I am in a danger zone. I think that 8-9 out of my 11 countries are danger zones…
So woe is me, but not really. I am now more prepared…this is feeling even more real. When I think of all of the shots that I have to get to travel to these different countries I am reminded of how blessed I am that these vaccines are available, but also that I don’t regularly have to worry about such devastating diseases on a regular basis. Vaccines are a wonderful invention, I am grateful for them, and will probably be more so when I don’t feel like Pup from Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman and start foaming at the mouth. But if all else fails, there is always, Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure…
