Travel Doctor

We’ve already seen the travel doctor once (12 Sep) where we explained our trip, that was an early visit as we wanted to make sure we would have enough time to get any vaccinations we might still need before we leave.

Today (29 Oct) Jon called them to find out the outcome of his research. We’ll need:

Malaria

– Doxycyclin for Cambodia, Loas and northern + eastern border areas of Thailand

– Doxycyclin also needed for Tajikistan

– Not needed for Uzbekistan (we are there too late) and Turkmenistan (SE corner only)

Japanese Encephalitis

– Recommend we get this in Australia before we leave

– 2 injections, 1 month apart

– $150 per injection

Tick Borne Encephalitis

– Hard to get in Australia (2 injections, $150 per injection)

– Needed for forested areas of Mongolia, Russia and Stans

– Widely available in Mongolia and Russia for Euro30 per injection

– Must use same brand, so go back to same place best – 2 injections, 2 weeks apart

– 1st injection gives 50% coverage, second 90%+ coverage

– Paul (our travel doctor in Brisbane) will look up names of clinics in Beijing or Ulan Bataar (I will add these here later when we get them).

Appointments

– 1st appointment mid Jan for Jap Encephalitis #1 ($150ea) and Typhoid ($60ea)

– 2nd appointment mid Feb for Jap Encephalitis #2 ($150ea) and malaria / antibiotics

I’ll make those appointments tomorrow so we can ‘tick’ those off our list too.

Wednesday 9 January we had our first ‘real’ appointment, this time we were getting our first vaccinations. Typhoid and our first one for Japanese Encephalitis. Never nice to get a needle up your arm, but neither of us have any adverse reactions to the vaccinations so all good.

We also had another chat to Paul (our doctor at the travel clinic) and he had changed his mind about the Tick Borne Encephalitis (TBE) after talking with the director of the clinic about us. He gave us some research documentation to read so we could make our own decision, but basically he now recommended we get vaccinated before leaving, and not in Mongolia. We needed to be quick in making this decision, because it would take more than a week to order the vaccine after getting permission to use it. The next day, after reading the research, we called to let them know they should order the TBE vaccine for us both.

Thursday 31 January. Another visit and another needle up our arm. Or, that was the plan anyway.

This time we had a different nurse who checked the number of days in between our first and (this one) our second Japanese Encephalitis vaccination and she told us we were too early! The previous nurse had actually made the appointment for Tuesday, but because the TBE vaccine hadn’t arrived we postponed until Thursday. We couldn’t wait any longer as we also had to get the stuff for the first aid kit this time so we could pack it up for in the car (which is loaded tomorrow). And now we are told that even though it is 2 days after the original appointment, we are too early!!! Grrrrr, that means going back another time!

We had to wait so long for the TBE vaccine to arrive, we almost missed the option to get it as this vaccine also needs time in between the first and the second one, but on Friday 8 February we are now finally getting our second Japanese Encephalitis and our first TBE vaccination. Then all we need is one final visit on Friday 22 February for the second TBE and then we’re done. Three whole days before we fly, and we thought we had heaps of time when we started organising this…

Medical Insurance

We have been with Bupa for quite a few years and asked them what to do with out insurance during our trip. We have been told we can suspend our medical insurance and re-activate upon return to Australia.

They told us we would also be covered for anything we pick up along the way and bring back to Australia as long as we make sure we pay a month premium before we get back to ensure it will start immediately. So if we pick up any medical issues on our trip that need medical care after we return to Australia, we are covered as we would be if we had be if we had lived in Australia. They have even sent this to us in writing after Jon called them a few times to chase them to put this in writing.

First Aid Kit

We’ve got a lot of stuff in our first aid kit. Most of the things we are taking we already had as we’ve always had a decent first aid kit anyway. The things we needed to add for this trip were mostly just the various antibiotics we might need along the way. The most important one in my opinion being for tummy upsets! Hopefully we won’t have to use them, but based on previous experiences there will no doubt be a time when they come in very, very handy!

This is what we’re taking:

And then there is a separate box with

Lots of things we hope we will not need. Better to be safe than sorry I guess!