Ouch #2

I have started the preparations for my next trip. Thus far I have only traveled to Europe and within North America. All quite benign, first world locales where you needn't worry about some "Virus X" phenomenon. My latest adventure, however, will prove a little more audacious. I will be heading to Panama! And while there, I plan to enter the rainforest. If you'd have asked me a few years back if I'd be doing this (entering a tropical rainforest, that is) I'd have told you that you were out of your freaking mind! In university I'd totally sworn off the jungle. My favourite classes were Microbiology and I'd learned enough about infectious disease to be afraid of what lurks in those crazy forests in South and Central America and Africa. However, much older and wiser, I am now somehow ignoring those instincts and taking some chances - but not without vaccinations of course! Yesterday I got yellow fever and typhoid fever, as well as a script for anti-malarials and Cipro. Fun, fun! I wasn't expecting to get the shots when I went there - a note to those who visit a travel clinic: they actually have the vaccinations on site and will stick it to you right then and there - in every sense of the word... it was an expensive visit! Getting intramuscular injections requires preparation. You see, I am quite lucky that I don't have any strength training planned again until Thursday because my arm is still sore! And I wore a white sweater (thinking only on a minus 40 C day to wear my warmest sweater), so the doctor had to put a band-aid on my arm because it was still bleeding a bit. Money and sore arms aside, my immune system is kicking into high gear, and I've been counseled to eat only well-cooked meat, no swimming in lakes or rivers (only the ocean), and no unprotected sex. Gotcha. I'm good to go.