Shots, Shots, Shots, Shots

I went to the travel clinic today to get any needed immunizations for our upcoming trip to India.  We spent some time talking about where in India I was planning on traveling to, what issues and diseases were where, and what can and cannot be immunized for.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that you can pick up while traveling in India http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/clinician/none/india

We quickly rule out Yellow Fever since the US is not a country in which Yellow Fever is found and India does not "have it".  Since we will not be spending extended periods of time in rural areas we decide the I do no need Japanese Encephalitis.  I ask about rabies and am told to just avoid the urge to pet anything.  If I would get bitten the treatments now are not nearly as bad as they used to be and generally covered by insurance - which the immunization is not.

I know that I am due for Tetanus and Typhoid since I have passed or nearly passed the expiration date on those tow immunizations.  The doctor asks me about Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B.  He especially recommends Hepatitis A since that is unfortunately pretty easy to catch.  I said that I already had my Hep A and Hep B vaccinations - I did those before our trip to Mexico.  "Really?" he asks, "Because my health record only shows that I did one shot of each and Typhoid isn't listed."

I know that I had at least two (and I thought three) rounds of shots to get those before our trip.  I then proceed to spend at least an hour and a half dinking around with calling the other clinic, getting a release form signed, faxed back, and waiting for them to look up and fax back my records.  In the meantime I chat with the doctor and the nurse about our plans for surrogacy and how our fertility journey has been going so far.  They were both very nice and wished Mark and me the best us luck.

The records finally come in and it says that I had a combo Hep A and Hep B shot, and then a full Hep A and Hep B shot.  They said that the combo shot isn't always as effective as the full shot so they recommended a full Hep A and Hep B to be safe.  Before our trip next year I should get tested to make sure that I am immune to both Hep A and Hep B and may need one or two more shots.  Two shots in each arm and quite a while later I leave with a helpful tip for all of you....Make sure you have all of your immunization records.  Do not assume that they will all be in the computer.