Vaccinations and Visa Application

O.K. so yesterday I went to get my vaccinations. My primary physician doesn't "house" these vaccinations in her office, so she sent me to an agency that specializes in vaccinating international travelers. This agency prepared a spiral-bound booklet for me on India. It contains information such as recommended vaccinations, procedures on contacting the U.S. embassy to let them know you'll be in the country, important phone numbers (Indian police, etc.) The scary part is that for each of these recommendations, my brain was able to conjure up a short story on when and how I might need to use it. I once had a professor in college tell me that I had watched too many movies. At the time I was insulted, but the fact that I could come up with so many scenarios in milliseconds may confirm his observation.The nurse recommended four vaccinations, Hepatitis A (ouch!), Tetanus, Polio and Typhoid. It's a little intimidating when they show you a world map identifying the diseases and frequency of diseases found in the world, and the country you're about to visit appears in a lot of them. However, before I allowed my brain to participate in a "fear free for all", I reminded myself that as a teen-ager I received these, or at least some of these when visiting the Philippines, and nothing happened, other than sore arms. The other interesting part is what they recommend for you to take to prevent malaria. This particular agency offered three options. The first pill had side effects like hallucinations, depression and the like. Obviously, this was the least expensive option. The second option is relatively new and is supposed to be the best one. The down-side is that it cost $9.60 per pill. Multiply that by 36 days in India and a few days before and after. Maybe I'll risk it!?! The third option wasn't explained too much, except to say it was like an antibiotic. So before I left the office spending thousands of dollars based on fear, I told the nurse that I needed to do some research. Basically, I think I'm opting for plain old "Deet".

On the bright side, a few days ago we received a letter from Dr. Girish Kaul outlining the cities we would be visiting. Among them is Shimla. I'm psyched about this. Shimla is part of the Himalayas and has beautiful vistas.

I hope we get to spend a couple of days there.