Mary in India

Sitting there at the Kaiser Travel Clinic with Remi was weird, I was about to get my 4 injections needed for India. Tetanus, Polio, HepA/HepB, and Rabies. My 5th vaccine was via pills for Typhoid.

I told her about my previous reactions to vaccinations. The last one being when I was 18 years old for MMR booster (measels, mumps, rubella) and I had passed out. So she told Remi to buy a juice from the vending machine outside. Which turned out to be an excellent idea.

While Remi was gone she gave the tetanus, so easy and quick. No pain. She prepares the polio vaccine and right as I am sighing relief at how easy that was the darkeness came. Anyone who has passed out (not from alcohol) knows this feeling, the peripheral vision starts to fade, you turn pale, sweaty, feverish, dizzy, neausea, etc. All of that hit me so hard. I didn't need to say anything as she turned to me with polio ready and noticed my face, she pushed my head between my legs and said, "Don't sit up, you'll pass out." Sweat poured from me, she wet some towels and put them on my neck and back. Told me to breathe. I felt so sick. During this time she says, "Do you want me to do the polio or wait till this passes?" Knowing it would only drag everything out I asked her to do the polio, so with my head between my legs she pinched in the polio in my left shoulder muscle. I sat there for 15 minutes in agony, not sure if I was going to lose consiousness or just throw up.

Remi had knocked on the door, he had juice. He missed the whole scene which I was grateful for, I felt like such a baby. She decided this was all I could manage for today and that HepA/HepB and Rabies will have to wait till next week. I cringed, coming back here for more of this? Are you kidding? Why does this have to happen to me, every time. It's awful.

Remi wheeled me on the rolly chair into the next room, the doc turned the lights off and told me to lay down on the bed on my side. She told me I would need to lay like this for 15 minutes and drink my whole juice before she'd let me go.

God, I felt like such a wimp. Remi only 2 weeks earlier had received tetanus and MMR and all he said was, "I guess I felt a little dizzy for a minute".