So today I had my first appointment for getting the medical folks at the lab to sign off on my readiness for international travel. For starters, I had to get up to date on my immunizations, which I haven't really had any of since 1991. For travel to Russia and Kazakhstan, Occ. Med. recommends that I get immunized against Typhoid Fever, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Tetnus, and Diphtheria. These all come in the form of shots.

Now I'm not a big fan of needles and I distinctly remember once, as a small kid, having to be strapped down on a guerney before they could give me a shot on account of my attempts to punch the doctor. Today was somewhat less dramatic. As usual, I made jokes with the nurses to calm my nerves and the lady at the reception desk promised to give me a lollypop if I didn't scream. When it came time to actually get the shots, the first one happened before I realized it. It literally was painless. It was sensationless to the point that I thought she was kidding when she said it was over. I am amazed at the extent to which medical technology has advanced since 1991. The nurse said that the reduction in pain is because they are now able to make much sharper and thinner needles. All but one of the shots was totally sensation free. The last one contained a compound that stung a little bit, but nothing that would make me flinch or wince or any of that. I basically was in awe of the benevolence of the entire process.

All of the shots have possible side effects that don't sound too exciting, so we'll see if I suddenly feel like ass over the coming hours/days. But for now I feel awesome and... immune.

The Occ. Med. people also gave me a huge amount of stuff to bring with me on travel. My favorite is a laminated fold-out that has pictures of various things I might need to communicate across a language barrier:

So cool.

They also gave me Cetafen (aches), Cepacol (sore throat), Proprinal (pains), Sudafed (congestion), Pepto-Bismol (nausea/leaky ass), Loperamide (leaky ass), Ciprofloxacin (really leaky ass), Zolpidem (knock-your-ass-out), as well as an assortment of bandaids, bandages, and alcohol wipes.

Concerning the Zolpidem (also known as Ambien): it is a prescription-strength sleep aid for people who need to shift their schedules by ~12 hours in basically one day. They said, "if you take it during a flight, be sure that you have at least 8 hours before you have to get off the plane. We had one guy take it 4 hours before he arrived and he was basically in a coma when they landed." Sweet.