After working today, I came home to find an email from the South Africa country desk-marked urgent! Oy! It seems that I must get a yellow fever vaccine, and quickly! South Africa has recently changed its policy regarding this vaccine, and I will not be admitted into the country unless I have it 10 days in advance to arriving. Thus, I MUST get this before June 24th. Good thing I only have a few shifts left at work.
Of course, the public health department in my hometown doesn’t provide it, so I must head to either Des Moines or Iowa City. Since I have friends living in the Iowa City area, I’m actually kind of excited because I can see them again before I go. Tomorrow I shall be scheduling the vaccine, hopefully for Friday. And I am hoping it’s easier to do than the polio booster, which was a pain to get.
This just goes to show that the next two years will be full of little surprises that can shake everything up! Flexibility? Yes please!
-Jen
The yellow fever vaccine isn’t so bad, at least not for the first 10 days. Then, after you’ve put it out of your mind, you are likely to get side effects (fever, achy, generally icky). They’ll prolly tell you all this when you go to get it anyhow. I was so confused when my side effects showed up…but then I remembered about the 10 day thing.
Oh I’m not worried about the actual vaccine-just the time frame I have to get it. Shots don’t bother me much anymore.