human pincushion

Today I spent two hours at the doctor's office to get:

1 meningitis shot
1 tetanus shot
1 hepatitis A shot
1 tuberculosis skin test

and to give:

3 vials of blood to determine varicella (chicken pox) immunity and test for anemia.

This was all prompted by the vaccinations that I have to prove before I can begin at Hospital A. All I *needed* was the tetanus, skin test and chicken pox.

My doctor recommended the meningitis and hep A, and I figured I'd rather pay for the vaccination now than accidentally contract it later. The anemia is just to see if the gluten free diet has worked and to make sure I'm actually absorbing nutrients now.

So now I'm all bandaid-ed and damn that tetanus made my arm sore!
And the nurse apologized while she was giving me the shots. She said, "I bet you didn't wake up this morning thinking we were going to poke you this much!"

I have to go back Friday to get the skin test evaluted. I get my chicken pox results sometime next week, and if I have immunity (even though I never actually got them), then I can check that off my list of things to do. I wonder what happens if I'm not immune? A vaccination? I dunno, but I hope it's quick because I have to send my paperwork in by June 1st.

Oh, and I also had to pay for my own background check. Lame.

I'm still super excited to start, though. :o)