We're not leaving for Bangalore until late November or early December, but we've already started preparing. We have to! First off was massive amounts of research about tropical diseases and vaccines. The CDC has a recommendation for all of India, but all of India isn't the same climate and therefore doesn't have the same disease risks. Furthermore, there are differences between urban and rural areas, and some diseases are largely seasonal, associated with the monsoons which we won't be around for. Then there are some CDC recommended vaccines (Japanese encephalitis, I'm looking at you!) that aren't available for children. I guess that makes that decision easier at least!
To complicate matters somewhat, all of the recommended vaccines for India are also recommended for China. This complicates things because I traveled in China 12 years ago, and got some vaccinations before I left- but hell if I can remember which ones! And Robert wasn't sure if he'd had a booster for polio or if he'd had Hep B at all. On Friday he called his old high school to ask if they could send him the immunization records from when he enrolled. They were very nice and said they'd have to search the microfilm (!) but they'd look for him. As a precaution he also faxed an immunization record request to his university. I did the same, faxing a request for my immunization record to my university that had given me whatever travel shots I'd had for China. Robert got his records from his university that same day, and today his high school records arrived in the mail. Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for mine. Sigh!
Anyway, Robert went in and got a bunch of jabs from the doctor today, and a course of the oral typhoid vaccine. Even though the doctor is on our insurance plan they asked him to pay for everything upfront. Apparently insurance companies don't much like covering vaccines for adults. Which, frankly, is ridiculous. Pound of prevention, ounce of cure, all that jazz. I hope our insurance coughs up.
In other news, tomorrow is Jewish Farm School day, and it looks to be rainy. Again! It has rained every single homeschool session up there this spring. Hopefully it won't rain much, the kids are supposed to get to meet the new animals on the farm. Which will be super cool even if it does rain, but better if it doesn't, you know?
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