Super Shots

Apparently when you travel to places outside the US, there is the potential for you to contract some strange disease or at least a much higher risk of getting something that is more rare here in the states. As a result, our team headed over to the Center for Family Medicine clinic at 20^th and Cliff Ave.

Mark Huntington, MD PhD

Snidely Whiplash

We had a group appointment. The whole team showed up, filled out the dozens of papers required before liquids of varying sorts are put into our bodies by jamming hollow tubes of steel through our skin and into the subcutaneous regions of our bodies. We sat and listened to a doctor tell us about what we needed and what we needed to be careful of while traveling abroad.

Team 4 leader at the clinic is Mark Huntington, MD PhD. When he came into the room to share how the only safe way to travel is in a bubble, I was stunned to see that Snidely Whiplash was not just a cartoon character in my dreams but a real life doctor. Dr. Huntington is a really cool guy.

Once he explained the vaccines we would be getting we were pulled from the room, one-by-one and lead to a height measurement, weigh station and blood pressure cuff. Then we sat on the crinkly paper and in came a silver platter of all the shots that were about to be jammed in our arms and legs.

When it was my turn, I had apparently grown an inch (at 40 years old I’m now a full 6’4”) and I gained weight (private info but I will tell you I’m over 100 lbs). The nurse started wiping large areas of my arms with alcohol, I asked for a sip to clam my nerves but she just scowled at me and rubbed harder. Now came the moment of truth, shot after shot after shot!

1. Measles
2. Mumps
3. Rubella
4. Rabies
5. Tetanus
6. Meningitis
7. Yellow Fever
8. Polio
9. Hepatitis A
10. Hepatitis B
11. A prescription for Typhoid Fever
12. A prescription for Malaria
13. A prescription of general antibiotics

We are all vaccinated, immunized and inoculated. I was sick for three days and didn’t eat as the metamorphosis to a super human immune system took place, but the worst thing of all is that my wife says I’m forever on bathroom cleaning duty.