In my 28 years, I’ve traveled quite a lot.

That said, I’ve never before had to be vaccinated before I’ve gone anywhere. I’ve had my usual US mandated vaccinations in order to attend public school and college… but never specifically for travel purposes.

Before I was even planning this trip, I had spoken at length to my friend Kristen, the one who I’ll be visiting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and she had told me about the vaccines she and her family had to receive simply to be allowed into the country… so when I started planning this trip, I knew there would be needles in my future.

Since I’ve never needed any “non-standard” vaccines before, I called up my General Practitioner when I was ready to really start throwing down for the trip, and she confirmed that I definitely would need shots, but since she’s not a travel specialist, she recommended “Passport Health,” which is a travel medical specialist group a few towns over that she’s worked with previously.

Ok, great!! I’ll call them up and probably pay a specialist co-pay and get my shots, right?

WRONG!

I called up Passport Health and found out that they don’t take *any* insurance and that I’d have to pay $85 simply to even have my initial consultation, and then all the injections would be at full cost.

WHAAAAT?!

Now, mind you, I had a feeling my injections likely wouldn’t be fully covered since they’re not mandatory for health in the US and they’re not for business-related travel… but FULL PRICE for the consult AND the medicine?! I was about to freak out…

In my frantic scrambling and panic, I ended up contacting a friend who works for J&J and she was able to pop into their medical insurance office on campus and ask if they had any recommendations for what I’d need and where might take insurance in the local area.

She. Saved. My. Life. (Ok, really just my sanity and my bank account…. but it’s semantics really when you get down to it!)

She found out what injections I was likely to need based on my itinerary AND got a the name and contact info for a local travel medical practice that took my insurance. I was able to make an appointment within the same week and that’s where the REAL fun starts!

I arrived at the office about ten minutes early to fill out my new patient paperwork, and once it was done I was actually *promptly* escorted into an exam room. Within five minutes, I had seen a nurse who took my vitals, and to my extreme surprise, the doctor was in almost immediately after the nurse left! I chatted with the doctor about where I was going, and she determined that I needed 3 vaccines: Hepatitis A, Yellow Fever, and Typhoid. She also recommended that I take anti-malarials daily, and also bring an emergency 10-day antibiotic supply.

Sounds like a lot, right?

I thought so too.

However, she explained to me that only the Yellow Fever and Hep A vaccines were injections, and I could actually get them right that day, along with the required “yellow packet” confirmation that I would need to get into countries that require the Yellow Fever vaccine specifically. SWEET SHOTS! I WAS TOTALLY PLANNING ON THAT! Then the anti-malarials and antibiotics were take-along prescriptions (I would start the anti-malarials a day before heading off to get it in my system and working), and the Typhoid vaccine was actually a refrigerated oral vaccine that I’d get and administer to myself over the course of a week. I’d *never* heard of that before, so I was really interested in how that would work out. But first, the injections at the office….

Mind you, I get allergy shots every week, so I’m pretty used to getting jabbed in the arm with needles, as I’ve been getting the allergy shots for almost a year now, so I wasn’t too nervous about getting the vaccines without much warning. That is, until the nurse came in, smiling, and told me that, and I quote, “The Hep A one isn’t too bad but most people say the Yellow Fever vaccine is like getting stung by 1,000 bees all at once!”

E.X.C.U.S.E. M.E.?!

WHY WOULD YOU TELL ME THAT?!

Of course now I’m panicked and not happy about getting my vaccines and I’m incredibly tense when she’s administering them, even though I had NO INTENTIONS of being anything other than slightly uncomfortable because… well, getting stabbed with a needle is never particularly pleasant. I glared at her throughout the administration and then when it was over I looked at her incredulously because the injections were FINE. A bit uncomfortable since there is a lot of fluid in the Hep A vaccine but that was really the biggest discomfort. This woman had me all riled up for no reason! I suppose for some people if you tell them to expect something awful and then it’s not bad, it’ll be better in the long run… but I had told her I get injections weekly and I wasn’t concerned! Not fun, nurse lady, not fun.

Anyhow, after that I was free to go, so I hopped along to work and then I had derby that night with no adverse effects. Score!

I picked up the Typhoid prescription at my local pharmacy a few days later, and had no problems with that at all. It’s actually really cool — it’s a live virus in the pills which is pretty freaky when you think about it and the bottle has EVERY WARNING IMAGINABLE on it. I followed the instructions and as I said, I had no trouble at all.

For the antibiotics and the anti-malarials I ended up going through Prime Therapeutics Mail Order because the prices were way better than via my local pharmacy (for the 90day supply of anti-malarials, it was 33% less to get them through the mail!).

So, all in all, my best advice for getting your medicines and vaccines in order is to start EARLY, ask around, and don’t just go with the first travel medical practice you find just because they say “no one” will take insurance for what you need. I absolutely saved hundreds of dollars by not rushing my medical choices and it’s going to help my trip significantly in the long run.

Now I just need to figure out how to re-up my anti-malarial prescription when I run out of my 90day supply on the road… #thestruggle