Last week I realised that I have to get on with arranging the various vaccinations to go to The Gambia, hence my unsuccessful call to NHS Direct. I went to my doctor’s and filled out the form and phoned back a couple of days later to see what I needed done. When the receptionist looked at the form and then prefaced her advice with “Ooh, I knew it would be a lot and I was right. It’s not only an armful but a legful too”, I wasn’t feeling too positive. Then she ran through the list – hepatitis A, typhoid, yellow fever, diphtheria, malaria, tetanus and polio. *gulp* As someone who is not keen on going to the doctor’s anyway, to be presented with this long list, knowing that a number of them would involve injections, was not joy to my ears. So somewhat reluctantly I made an appointment for last night.
It was certainly an armful, although fortunately some of the injections were combined, so I didn’t end up like a pin cushion. The nurse was also able to do all the injections in one session so I don’t have to go back and endure yet more. I might suffer flu like symptoms today and I still have to pay out a fortune for a private prescription to get the anti-malarials, so there could still be (financial) pain to come. Better than dying of some awful (and preventable) disease though.
On other matters, yesterday at work someone I work with was lamenting her now complicated love life and said “men are like buses” and the chap I sat next to piped up “You mean you have to pay £1.50 before you can get on?” [insert own joke about Oyster cards here]
6 comments:
At least you can sit down, you could of had them in your butt !
I was a bit nervous when I got there as I didn't know where the nurse planned to stick the needle. I was very relieved when she asked me to roll up my sleeve!
As they say, no pain, no gain!
However, hope you don't get any flu like symptoms
Fortunately, I don't seem to have any symptoms. Maybe I am so full of evil bacteria that I can't tell when I have things like yellow fever added to the mix!
You could always get NHS Direct to give you their opinion.....
hmmm...
maybe not such a wise suggestion, based on your previous encounter with them.
Yes, I can't imagine I will be seeking any advice from NHS Direct in the near future, even if I was dying. I'd probably be dead before they got through their list of questions.
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