Ouch!

Thursday evening, the team experienced its first round of immunizations for travelling to India in August, and the St. Joseph County Health Department came to the GCC campus to administer the injections!

Starting at about 6 p.m., team members began rolling in to have their "destiny with the dosages", and with the exception of the tetanus shot booster (which can be notoriously a little uncomfortable in the shoulder after it's injected), each member emerged feeling better prepared for the the upcoming trip both psychologically and physically.

As a general rule, most team members opted for the "Twin-Rix" Hepatitis A & B immunization, and while it's expensive ($50/dose and given in 3 separate doses), once finished, will allow immunization against those disease strains for life.

Most also requested Typhoid (a single dose injection that protects against the primarily water-borne pathogen), and a few also took advantage of several "booster" as well, including Tetanus, Polio, Measels & Mumps.

On their own, each team member will be consulting with their physician to get properly medicated for Malaria as well. Usually, we have found that most physicians tend to steer clear of Larium and its generic form, Mefloquin, and we have had bad "field" experience with Doxycycline (a general antibiotic that also possesses decent anti-malarial properties) as it tends to cause stomach irritation and severe skin sensitivity to sunlight (of which there is an abundance in India). We have had pretty good luck with the drug called Malarone as an anti-malarial, and have usually found that it "bundles" well with a general antibiotic called "Cipro" (short for Ciproflaxin, i believe) for intestinal safeguard against nasties that might be ingested.

Because a few of the injections are required in multiple doses, we will be offering a second opportunity to receive them on Thursday, July 19th, from 5:45 - 6:45 p.m. in the Meeting Room at GCC.

If you plan to be here on the 19th for more injections, please remember the following:

* You can raise support to cover your shots, but that increases your total support required amount accordingly.

* You need to let either Skip Dodge (sdodge@gccwired.com) or Jeanna Tripp (jtripp@gccwired.com) know that you are planning to attend and what you will be needing in the way of shots before you get there so that they can relay to the SJC Health Dept.

Finally, you can also contact the SJC Health Dept on your own if you would like to do so or missed the opportunity to get your shots here at GCC. You can, of course also ask your family physician to recommend and administer your injections.

-sj