If there’s one downside of travel for me it’s vaccinations. I’m not a massive fan of injections and the thought of having to get multiple to go to a country I want to visit, does put a slight dampener on the whole trip.
In December, my husband and I are heading off to Ecuador to do some volunteering with VESA Abroad and as such we went to the travel doctor to find out what jabs we needed. I knew Yellow Fever was mandatory (and I have to carry a certificate to say I’ve had it), but I’d had other vaccinations when I went to Vietnam a couple of years ago so I figured I’d be fine.
Turns out I was wrong!
The very lovely doctor (and he was great, we chatted about books for ten minutes!) checked my vaccination book and told me I was missing my final Hepatitis A/B jab, so I needed to have one of those. Then he asked me when I’d last had a Tetanus booster and I had to confess it was close to ten years ago – so add another needle to the list. Finally he recommended a flu jab so my immunity was high. So count them up – 4 needles. I wasn’t particularly thrilled.
My darling husband got away with just two vaccinations as he’s a nurse and has had pretty much every vaccination you can think of. He also got a jelly bean from the nurse and I didn’t! LOL!
The only other vaccination the doctor suggested was for rabies. He didn't think we'd be at a high risk, but we should think about. One of the problems with the rabies vaccination is that it's three injections (yuck) but I believe it does last forever, so no booster jabs needed. We are visiting an animal rehabilitation centre so it might be sensible and I have been reading a few websites which make a bite or lick from an infected animal sound really scary! Better to be safe than sorry I say.
Anyway aside from having to get a whole heap of needles, I'm starting to get excited about the trip. Yes, it's still months away but I'm already thinking about what to pack...
