Shots

[indigo_rose99]

Ah the glamor of travel... Which includes many painful shots!  Do they tell you that?  'Cause I don't remember that in the advertising.

Before I left for Taiwan, I went by to have "travel shots."  I got a tetanus shot, the first Hep B shot (of 3), and a renewal on my MMR.  As I was only going to Taiwan, I did not get malaria or typhoid pills or shots.

Of course, I ended up in India.  Ah, to feel so insecure... 

At the last second, I had to Skype the travel clinic because I was not going to make that second Hep B shot.  Did it Friday morning.  The nurse supported my don't-drink-from-water-pitcher-in-India stance.  She talked me into the typhoid pills.  *sigh*  The immunity lasts for 5 years, and better to do it now and not need it than... 

Which is why my left arm hurts, and every other day I'm taking a strange pill with water.

Did I mention the glamor?

Comments

[texpenguin.livejournal.com]

Don't suppose you happen to have health insurance through United, Humana, or Aetna? If you do, then you have free membership with White Glove, a company that provides healthcare at your home/office/anywhere, 7x365, 8am-8pm, for the cost of a specialist copay. The reason I mention it is that they can do things like travel shots/meds with just 24-48 hrs. notice. They also do a bajillion other things (usually same day or next day). I've had pretty good luck with them so far. Had them to my office last week to get a tetanus shot as I had scratched up my hands on old rusty carpet tackstrip over the weekend...

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

Really?!

Because the travel clinic said that my Humana coverage would not cover the shots. I did it out of my own pocket. They said I could bring it up with Humana on my own if I wished.

Never heard of White Glove.

[texpenguin.livejournal.com]

Well, with White Glove, you pay the copay for the visit, and then you pay whatever you would have paid anyway at the doc office (coinsurance on certain treatments/tests, or prescription copays). Immunizations are covered 100% with our Humana plan, so silly me, I assumed travel immunizations were immunizations. I just called Humana, and the travel clinic was right--they don't cover them. Really stupid if you ask me, because if I get Wild Nile River Rot or whatever on a trip, guess who gets to foot the bill to get me better? You'd think travel shots would fall squarely under 'preventative services'.

Given that, the only advantage White Glove offers for travel shots is ease of scheduling quickly and wherever you want. Now, when you're really sick, and the last thing you want to do is crawl out of bed to go to the doctor to get the meds to get better, then White Glove definitely wins. They triage over the web and a phone call to get an idea of what's wrong, then they send a NP or MD to your house with testing supplies and goodie bag with things like Gatorade, soup, crackers, OTC meds, etc. And, if you need a prescription filled but you can't get out to do it, they'll go pick it up for you and bring it back, or they'll leave enough samples to get you through to when you or someone else can get your meds.

I promise I'm not being paid by White Glove or anything, I just really like the service and want them to do good business so they'll be there next time I need them, so I talk it up when I can! They've partnered with Humana, so any Humana member in their service area can be seen without paying the monthly membership fee. You'd want to contact WG to see just where their Austin service area ends. I'm not sure if you're too far north or not.