Shots & Pills … ✔️

We’ve been busy with all kinds of prep work for our upcoming adventure. Including consulting with a travel clinic and getting shots and such.

Exotic travel destinations sometimes come with inherent health issues.  Thus, it is smart to determine in advance what precautions are advisable.

For our first trip to Africa in 2009, we visited a county health clinic in Vienna (that's Virginia, not Austria). For RTW2017, we visited the clinic at Baylor University in Houston. This time, we decided to go online for our travel consult.

I don’t recall who on the RTW2023 roll call posted their experience with the Costco online travel clinic. But thanks anyway. It worked like a charm once we determined that the service is available in Colorado and selected our Costco pharmacy of choice. Simple and efficient. And inexpensive at $39.99/person.

True, inputting detailed information about all the stops we’ll be making over 200+ days was time-consuming, but at least the info could be copied over for the second passenger. Within 48 hours of providing our info, we had individual travel booklets ready to download … with beaucoup information. All of the precautions were recommended … nothing was required.

Almost immediately, Mui had a call from Kyle, the pharmacist at the Costco location we had selected. We set up a phone consult for a few days hence to give all parties involved a chance to review the information we’d all received. Taking the time to do so made the consult go really fast. We knew which precautions we wanted to take … had questions about others. Within an hour, we had appointments set up for vaccinations and a list of meds for which we’d need to get a ℞ from our Primary Care Physician.

Today, three weeks after our consult, we’re done with all the vaccinations. Well … the typhoid fever vax is in progress since we opted again for the oral version because it is good for five years versus two years.

No adverse reactions from any of the vaccines … maybe a tiny bit of tenderness at the injection site. The COVID-19 booster shots we got this afternoon will more than likely knock Mui for a loop — as it usually does — but he should be back to his energetic self within 8-12 hours.

As for meds. The ℞ have all been filled. The vials — in original packaging — are in the “med box” waiting to be packed in Mui’s carry-on.

With just 11 days left before we leave for Miami for our pre-cruise stay — more like shopping trip — it feels good to have another ✔ on our RTW prep list.Read more