Okay so I didn't die. The needles alone were not as bad as I thought they were going to be. It was the aftermath that I should have been worried about.
With the pre-needle suspense building up inside my head, I was getting more and more stressed out. I felt sick to my stomach and was near tears by the time I was in the actual room waiting for the doctor to come in. John D. and I were waiting in the same room and at the time I was so annoyed with him for cracking so many jokes but in hindsight, I'm glad he was there. I probably would have run out of the room if I had gone in alone.
Soon the doctor came in to give us all the information we needed but thinking back, I couldn't tell you a thing she said to me. I just nodded and fake-smiled until she left.
Next was a nurse. She pulled out a couple sets of needles - two for John and two for me. Then she left us to stare at them for a good ten minutes until yet another doctor came in.
I went first. The doctor jammed the yellow fever needle into one arm and it wasn't so bad. To be honest, I didn't even notice. He moved over to my other arm with a needle that contained vaccinations for Hepatitis A and Typhoid. That one was much worse. I could feel the pin going into my arm and it was not pleasant. I held my breath, which probably wasn't smart because it tensed up my whole body. Finally, it was over for me.
I closed my eyes during John's turn and then ran out as soon as it was all done. We each dropped $270 for these shots. I thought it was amusing that they gave us the needles and then made us pay. What would they have done if I didn't have the money? It's not like they can suck the yellow fever out of me (although I wish they would).
After waiting around for about 15 minutes to make sure that no one passed out, we were all released. Then I went to the Cord office to meet Laura for lunch but as we were sitting down to eat our sandwiches, I started to get really dizzy and nauseous. I bet she can attest to the fact that I was really out of it. I attempted to recall some current news events (because we're nerdy and that's what we talk about over lunch) but I could barely form a coherent sentence.
By the time I got home after lunch, I was feeling so sick and my arms were very sore from the shots. I tried to do some work but ended up spending the rest of the day in bed. I slept for about 12 hours last night and felt quite a bit better in the morning. I'm still not sure if my loopyness was a result of the live yellow fever inside me, the self-induced stress or merely a lack of sleep.
The worst part about this is, I discovered that I have to go back in a month to get an update on my measles, mumps and rubella. Luckily they're free but if I get as stressed out as I did yesterday, there's no telling what will happen.
Although, my favourite part about yesterday's awful adventure to the travel clinic was realizing that I'm actually going to Uganda and Rwanda this summer. If that's what I had to do to get to Africa, it's worth it. It's not something I would want to do every day but perhaps every other day if I had to.
Next big challenge: raising enough money to get to Uganda in order to put these vaccinations to good use.
