My Vaccine Experience. . .Do I Have Rabies Now?

And the vaccinations begin!! =O

I was first recommended to the Tropical Medical Bureau but they were very expensive. So I tried to get it sorted so that my doctor could prescribe me the vaccinations, I pay for them myself and then hopefully the nurse in the doctors (the one I go to is Beaumont Park Clinic) will administer them as this seemed to be cheaper according to a lot of Q&A forums online.

However because I'll be working with animals and risk getting rabies if I'm not vaccinated against it, that would make that way much more expensive. This is because you need 3 injections for rabies over 3 weeks which all come out of one bottle. The bottle of medicine has to be used up within a few hours after opening so I'd have to buy three bottles over the 3 weeks as I wouldn't of been able to use everything in the bottle after it expires. This cost alone would be about €360 not including other injections so that was definitely not worth it! So going to a proper travel clinic was much better as they would have people regularly getting rabies vaccines so the bottle would be used within the expiring time and I'd only have to pay for my own. :] 

The nurse in Beaumont, Gemma, who explained all this to me was excellent and knew exactly what she was talking about. She recommended the Travel Health clinic on Dawson street to me as the Doctor in there (Dr. Collins) was very good and a lovely man too. After I priced the vaccines I'd need on their website, it turns out they were quite cheaper than the Tropical Medical Bureau so I booked an appointment with them. The closest one they had was the following Tuesday (my 20th Birthday) at 10am, so no birthday lie-in for me! But I knew this stuff had to be sorted so I didn't mind at all. :) 

Sooooo, Tuesday arrived and I found the clinic easy enough. The hardest part was climbing 3 stories up to their office on the top floor. That made me think maybe I'm not fit enough to go to Africa as I panted my way through telling them I've an appointment booked while trying to look cool. . .

The appointment wasn't with Dr. Collins himself (who set up and runs the clinic) but Dr. Astrid Weidenhammer. She was really informative and went through each vaccine I should get and how I could combine them to get cheaper deals. She went further than explaining what each one is for and told me how to avoid contracting any illnesses in the first place, how to treat water and fresh food, how to avoid and treat insect bites and went through the leaflet they gave me with all this information in it and more! She gave me advice on what travel insurance to get and what should be covered in it and went through the various options of malaria prevention medicine and which should suit me best. When it comes to malaria tablets, the most effective, cheap and easily taken one is prone to cause depression and/or nightmares in 20% of its recipients so anyone who decides to go for this should really take a trial run beforehand to check if they have those side-effects. I decided to do the trial so that should be an interesting blog post! 

She prescribed the malaria tablets to me and other tablets I can take to reduce swelling and itching in insect bites if I get them. The cool thing about this is she said if I take the prescription to my own doctor they should be able to put it onto a medical card form for me so I don't have to pay as much for them [that only applies to people with a medical card! I haven't gone yet but hopefully the Dr will be OK with it!]. 

Then! She gave me injections there and then to get started. When she asked if I have any questions I just asked her not to show me the needles as I'm not entirely fond of them going into my own body unless they're piercing something! =/ So I faced away as she did them and she talked to me to distract me and gave me a LOLLIPOP so I was happy ^_^

The rabies vaccine didn't really hurt but that's because that one just goes under the skin. The hepatitis A and typhoid combined injection was the painful one as that goes right into the muscle and leaves you with a sore, heavy/dead arm which I felt straight away and it's still sore. :( But must be done! 

That whole visit cost €140 for the consultation and 2 injections. What's cool about this place is they accept any student ID not just the student travel card for you to avail of their discount consultation so YAY! for that. :)

Now that was basically my whole experience of that visit, my sister came afterwards to look after me too in-case I started getting crazy side-effects. Thank you Nikki! The only thought that is with me now involves the way vaccines work. In each one, there's a small amount of the virus itself and then the antidote to fight it so you're body builds immunity towards it. So. . .my body is currently fighting off hepatitis A, typhoid. . . . and Rabies! O__o 

So if I start looking like that rabid dog there then let me know because obviously the vaccine isn't working!! D=

My next appointment is this Tuesday the 18th of June at 12.30 when I'll get my second dose of rabies and a diphtheria and tetanus combined injection. Delightful! In the meantime, I'm observing myself in the mirror quite frequently to see if I'm foaming at the mouth. . .  O.o

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This Busy Bee Needs a Nap. . . zZzzzz

Welcome, welcome, come on in and witness the events of the days that have recently passed and the many thanks I have to offer for the help I have received over them!

So the fundraising gig happened in The Twisted Pepper last Friday and what a night it was! I have so many thank yous to make and I’d like to start with the bands who there would have been no music without! I had so many people coming up to me saying how good they thought the bands were so my thanks goes out to UpBeat, The Mariannes and Broken-Vice who also brought equipment for a backline so I wouldn’t have to hire a whole one so double thanks to them. You’ll find links to all their music at the bottom of this blog. J 

The Twisted Pepper were also so easy to organise the gig with. This was my first time organizing a gig from scratch by myself and the Body Tonic staff, Eoin and Emily, were so helpful with all my questions and always responded promptly. They also calmed me down when I was panicking! There was no cost to hire the venue, just €150 that was to be paid for their sound engineer, Josh, and he was brilliant too!

I would have been running around frantically on the night if it wasn’t for my sister Nicola who worked on the door for me, greeting everyone with her charm and my mam Carmel for being MC on the night and opening up the night with a few songs so thank you ladies! And thanks to my uncle Rob for getting the drum kit to me and Session Hire & Sales for hiring out the rest of what I needed for the back line at a really cheap rate. The raffle went down a storm as people ran for the bottle of Whiskey on offer (won by one very lucky Joe!). I’d like to thank Lannigan’s and The Boar’s Head pubs in Dublin for their sponsorship as well as Edele Barnwell, Nicola Carney and Michelle McCormack for donating gifts as prizes too. And of course I’d like to thank EVERYONE who came along as without you guys, I wouldn’t have raised anything so thank you Saoirse, Kirsty, James, Michelle, Andy, J

Leah, Roisín, Johnny, Sarah, Chris, Aidan, my uncles Fran and Tony and Aunty Maria, Niamh, Gavin, my dad and my movement facilitator from college Michelle Cahill. It was also lovely to have a mini KnockanStockan reunion with Kev, Eamonn, Joe and Gearóid. And of course there were so many people there I didn’t know who came to support the bands and the cause so just as much thanks goes out to all of you. Thank you Amy, Lorcan, Colin and Iwonna for sponsoring me the next day as ye couldn’t make it the night before too. I think that’s all I need to thank for the event (I’m really sorry if I left you out!) and I’d like to let you know we raised €438.20 ! ! Which is a good ol’ chunk off what I need to raise so I’m delighted and really really appreciate all the help I’ve gotten.

Now I never had time to update you after the two days bag packing in SuperValu as I was whisked off to Dublin straight away for the gig! But I’m ecstatic to let you know we raised €545.18 from only two days there with maximum of four tills open at a time and mostly just 2 of us packing at a time! (And may I just add the first day was very very quiet too! :O )I couldn’t of done this without my kind helpers so thank you Mam, Kate and Chloe and special thanks goes to my little brother Seán who stuck around with me all day Friday and helped me pack, even though he only did it because he had nothing else to do or anywhere to go, I do really appreciate it. (",)

People were so generous with their change and donations and I got many well wishes for the excursion that really touched my heart. There were a good few people who donated €5 each which I thought was wonderful and two people I know, Symone and Esther, donated €10 each (you mad things :P ) but there was this one mammy and her son that was about 6 or 7 years old that almost made me cry with their sincere generosity. The boy was very shy but wanted to help out packing the bags so I gave him little jobs to do and he was delighted. The mother was asking about the fundraising and said how much of a good cause it was and donated €7 to “get me started on my way” and then turned to her son saying “You have money you could donate to the girl don’t you? Change in your pocket?” and he looked so shy but had the cutest smile on his face and took out about €4 worth of change from his pocket. Now remembering being that age myself and how great having any money was- as your income is pretty low- I didn’t want him donating like his mother was encouraging him, I’d feel so guilty! Seeing his mother wasn’t going to leave with him making a donation I encouraged him to throw in one of the smaller coins as his mam was cheerfully saying “You’ve got to start doing these things when you’re young!” The boy then walked over to the collection bucket and dropped all his change in. I couldn’t believe it! I felt awful that he had given me all the money in his pocket but he had a shy smile on his face the entire time and his mam made sure to congratulate him in doing a good thing. I know this may sound like no big deal but I seriously felt like crying at the time. So, the least I could do was tell them I have a blog they can follow and when I’m in Africa they’ll see the things I’m doing and animals I’m working with and hopefully remember they helped me get there. She then asked me to write the blog address on her receipt which I did and so I really hope they do find this and see how much such kind hearted people are appreciated. Especially when you see a mother teaching her son to be so kind, it really was so lovely! It’s amazing how little acts of kindness like that can really brighten your day and stay with you to turn to memories that can cheer you up in an instant when you remember them. 

Thank you all for your help so far, it means so much to me.

And the time comes to announce how much we've risen so far! Drum roll please dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum!. . . One thousand four hundred and twenty euro! Over half way there! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!! Thank you thank you thank you. :D

I have no set plans yet for more fundraising activities. In the meantime please share around the blog and I’m open to anyone who would like to donate, they can do so through online banking (contact me for the details!) or through the PayPal link at the top of the page. My 20^th birthday is next Tuesday so if anyone was to give a gift, that would be it! :P Also, I’m back in the market doing my FacePainting so if you know of an event or anything I can work at let me know, I’ve a lot of saving to do. . .

The next you’ll be hearing of me will most likely be my experience with all the vaccinations I have to get L Eeeek! And I don’t really enjoy big needles in my arms to be honest, but I can’t be infecting you all with rabies when I get back o.O Wish me luck!

Ceara (:

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PS. If you were at the gig and like what you heard, check out the links to the bands below and have a listen to their music! :) 

UpBeat ~ https://www.facebook.com/UpBeatOfficial/app_2405167945

The Mariannes ~ http://www.breakingtunes.com/themariannes

Broken-Vice ~ http://www.youtube.com/user/BrokenVice?feature=mhee