Shots on me, everbody!

My arms have had it. Had enough of these needles (I don't know how intravenous drug users do it. Is the high really worth it? I suppose it is if you do it all the time. I digress.) The needles in my deltoids are all in preparation for six months in South East Asia - an area more prone to some disease and sickness than New Zealand. Rabies, Typhoid, Tetanus, Hep A and B - I'm more or less immune to them all like I have some array of super powers, except I feel no different. But, like travel insurance, people say its necessary. A mass of anti-malaria and anti-diarrhea drugs also ready to be popped and I feel like I'm ready to go exploring.

These vaccines and meds have been the only major preparation I've done for this trip (aside from growing a beard/ mo, but that's a story for another day. Or maybe never.) and I've had to probably get more than what normal people get because I'm not exactly sure where I'll be headed. So far, Thailand, then Vietnam, but intentions to go to Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia. I wanted this trip to be planned as little as possible and I was on the fence for the longest time about getting the vaccines in the first place.

Although I don't have to tell you which side of the fence I eventually fell onto.

My main arguments were cost and time - rabies shots alone cost $115 each and you need at three of them over a minimum of a month. (You mean I have to pay for you to stick a needle in my arm?) The others aren't too badly priced and they last for anywhere between three to 20 years, apparently. I got all but one of the shots my doctor recommended. No Japanese Encephalitis shot for me (though would it be considered irony if that's the disease I actually caught while there?) It was too expensive and the chances of contracting it are slim.

And while some vaccines just need one shot and you're done, others need an entire course (not as tasty as it sounds). As previously mentioned, to become immune to Rabies you need a full course of three shots over a period of time. Ideally longer than the month I had before leaving, but do-able in a shorter time frame. I'm not one to plan things far in advance.

I suppose shots and meds are needed, moreso for that peace of mind that you can get bitten by a rabid dog, or other animal, and still hopefully be ok. Not that I'll now be going out looking for something to bite me. ("Here, doggy! WHO'S a cute little mangy dog? You are!") And like travel insurance, or my mum would argue all kinds of insurance, its necessary - the one time you don't get it is the one time you'll probably need it most.

My arms will just have to cope.

  

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