Hot shots

Since I am not sure if I will be able to get on to Blogger from China, I scheduled a few posts before leaving home. This is one of them. Rest assured that if I can't access my blog from China, I will update you all in great detail once I'm home!

For someone who is usually more prepared than the boy scouts, more eternally ready than the US Coast Guard, it's still quite unclear to me how I almost forgot to check out the shots I might possibly need for this trip. It wasn't until a few weeks ago, about two weeks prior to departure, that I woke up one morning and realized that, huh, I might need to get my shots updated before leaving for China.

So as a good Dutch girl, I didn't even bother contacting TriCare or my PCM, but called our county's travel clinic instead. After all, in spite of the Dutch health care system being what it is (described as "universal" at best, "socialist" in less favorable circles, and "authoritarian" at worst), if any Dutch person wants to travel to faraway places that require extra vaccinations, they are kindly, but firmly, invited to pay for these themselves.

After receiving an estimate of a few hundred dollars, and having begrudgingly set up an appointment, I reluctantly informed husband-dear of this new expense. After all, although husband-dear is used to an employer telling you where to go, for how long, and what to do there, his employer is a little better at making sure you are then provided with everything needed to do your job, for free. Let's just say our university's budget isn't quite what the Air Force's is, and this would be yet another expense added to our bill.

But husband-dear took the announcement in stride, thought for a moment, and then said, "Why don't you check with the base clinic? They have an immunizations office too."
"Yeah, for active duty people. Going on deployments. You know, doing their job. Not spouses whose school is too cheap to spring for their shots."
"Just give it a try."

So I called the base clinic, and I kid you not, they said they could provide me with my immunizations for free. My vaccinations. For free. Free, people, free. The shots I needed for China would have cost me close to $300, but I thanks to the base clinic, it cost me absolutely nothing.

Now I am grateful. Very much so. After all, $300 is at least two half ironman triathlons. A third of a ticket to Holland. Lots of coffee. But I can't help but wonder why TriCare would pay for this. I mean, they won't pay for a whole bunch of other stuff (say, fertility treatmens), but they will pay for you to get really expensive shots you need for a trip you don't necessarily have to take? It boggles the mind. But at any rate, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the American tax payers out there. Know that thanks to your generosity, I will now not die of Typhoid or Tetanus while over here. You're too kind.

Oh, and you know what's even better? I finally got vaccinated against Hepatitis B.
As a good Dutch girl, I never got those. You see, in Holland, at least when I was growing up, you were only vaccinated against Hepatitis B if you were a member of an "at risk" group. In other words, unless you were a nurse, a practicing lady of ill-repute, a man lying with other men, or a down and dirty drugs user, you were not getting vaccinated against Hepatitis B.
For the past years, I've been able to avoid getting vaccinated, but the people at the base clinic don't play like that. If their regs tell them you have to have a shot against Hepatitis B to go to China, you will get that shot against Hepatitis B before you leave for China.

So I got my shots. In the arm. Without any of the "does this feel OK?", or "this will only sting a little" I'm so used to. No explanations, no reassurances, just two (very painful) shots and a band-aid from a man in uniform.

Well, again, it was free. And the best part? When I got home, I realized the sergeant had given me a Scooby-Doo band-aid. OOH-RAH!