The CDC

One of the pieces of information I received prior to starting my journey to South Africa was a website set up by the Center for Disease Control (The CDC) for travelers. I looked up the website and found out about the immunizations that I need for the trip. Then I called to schedule a routine yearly physical. I haven’t been to see the doc for a yearly physical in about 18 months, so I thought it would be a good time to both get a physical and get a booster immunization shot.

One immunization that is recommended that is not part of the regular booster routine is for typhoid. Typhoid is a water borne disease that was devastating to central water systems in the later 19^th and early 20^th century. Until the doctors figured out it was the water system that was spreading typhoid, it hit urban areas very hard. Once they figure out what was going on, the chlorination of water was utilized effectively to stop the spread of typhoid in the water systems. However, it can be a problem is some countries and thus the recommendation to use the typhoid vaccine.

I figured that typhoid was one vaccine that probably wouldn’t be at the regular doctor’s office, so I headed down to the City County Health Center to pick up the vaccine. It cost me $72 for 4 pills that I have to take every other day. That should make the vaccine effective by the time I leave and for 5 years after.

I thought the nurse that gave me the medicine looked familiar and when I read her name tag, it dawned on me that she was in the production of Doubt at Billings Studio Theatre. We visited for a little while about the show and I recommended that she audition for A Flea in Her Ear this coming season. Then I headed back to work with the air conditioner turned way up because my vaccine needed to be refrigerated and it was quite warm out today.

I’ve tried calling the nurse at the doctor’s office where my physical is scheduled, but she wasn’t in today. I wanted to know if I could get my other shots I needed at that office or if I needed to go back down to the City County Health Department to have the shots. When I did get a hold of the nurse, she told me they did have the booster shot I needed and could give me the Hepatitis shot I wanted. I am scheduled to get the booster and first shot right before I leave.

I did a little more check at the CDC website and I probably should have had my shots for the trip to Europe last summer. I turned out OK, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I will be a little more prepared this time around.

If you want to catch up on my trip to Europe last summer, I posted a link on the right side of the website.

It was a Tuesday

It was a Tuesday and it did not start as a particularly good Tuesday. I was still a little worn down from the City Council meeting the night before. We had had a “Goldie Locks” meeting that Monday night. It was not that bad, but not really that great either. It was better than I had expected it to be considering we were taking on changing the sexually oriented business ordinance due to the recent emergence of a juice bar/strip club downtown.

The entrepreneurs of this establishment had decided to move forward exploiting a loophole in our current ordinance, which prompted the council into pondering an interim ordinance to close the loophole. I expected a fairly heated public comment period on the ordinance, but turned out to be a surprisingly subdued hearing and we got out of our meeting at about 10:30 PM, our average closing time for a city council meeting.

The meetings are always a little draining and facing work on Tuesday is never all that much fun. I did my best to get as much accomplished on Tuesday morning as I could, but I was checking the clock every half hour waiting till it was lunch time. Lunch is always a demarcation point in my day. It means I only have a half a day left. Well that may not mean much to others, to me, that is how I mark my progress through the day. I had the usual lunch at Subway and upon returning to the office I saw that my voice mailbox held a message.

What I heard when I checked that message gave me a shot of adrenaline that stayed with me for three days. It was a voice message from the American Council of Young Political Leaders asking me if I would like to take part as a delegate in an exchange they were organizing. If I was interested, I should give them a call back and we would visit.

Of course I called the woman back to find out about the exchange. There were a couple of different trips in which I could participate. I checked my schedule, and even though it was coming up quickly, the exchange to South Africa worked best with my schedule. I confirmed that I would be very happy to join the delegation. That evening when I got home, there was an e-mail in my inbox that had some paper work to fill out. I completed the paper work in short order and faxed it out the next day to officially confirm my participation in the exchange.

Hearing about being a part of the delegation to South Africa definitely changed my dreary Tuesday into a Tuesday I will remember.

The link below show the Wikipedia information on South Africa.

South Africa