Yep, I Hate Monkeys. And Rabies. And Vaccines here. And Monkeys.

The day after we got home (February 27) I was taken to the doctor to check out my monkey bite.  The doctor’s office is located in an ancient looking building on a nearby University’s campus.  The doctor’s office had a bunch of people in it all lined up to talk to him.  When we came in my professor started talking to him (in Telugu, so I have no idea what was being said) the doctor said something to a nurse that was in the room who then motioned for me to sit on a bed that was in the room.  The doctor didn’t talk to me at all and he never even looked at my bite.  The nurse pulled a curtain out so that the rest of the people in the room wouldn’t be watching.  She had a small pile of things on the bed (syringes and my vaccine) and she started drawing up something in the first syringe.  I assumed it was the rabies vaccine and asked her where she was going to give it to me, she pointed to my arm and then my hip.  Great.  Not only was I getting two shots, but I had no idea what the first one was, and the second one was going in my hip… basically a shot in my bum!  When she was about to put the first shot in my arm I started panicking because she hadn’t prepped my skin with an alcohol wipe or something like they’re supposed to.  Not seeing any sort of alcohol wipes, I hurried and asked my professor about it, he then nodded and pointed to a small cut out piece of newspaper that had some tiny cotton balls on it and said that’s what those were for.  The nurse grabbed one, rubbed it on my arm, and then gave me the first shot.  My roommate had come with me and thankfully she happened to have some Band-Aids with her so she gave me one for my arm.  Then the nurse started drawing up the rabies vaccine (the nonexistence of sterile technique here completely terrifies me).  Once she did, she started waving the syringe and needle around like it was some wand talking to my professor and motioning for him to wait outside.  Seriously, it freaked me out how much she was waiving around that needle!  Well she gave me that injection and then I was relieved thinking that it was all over and that I would never have to have this experience again.  Wrong.  I didn’t realize that the rabies vaccine was a multiple injection deal, and the doctor said I would have to come back 4 more times!!!  AH!!!!  So now, not only was I stressed about the whole rabies thing, but I get to worry about getting some sort of disease or infection from just the nurse giving me multiple shots.  Because there is no sterile technique, nothing is really clean, and even the nurse doesn’t wash her hands…. I’m going to die.  So now, from this lovely experience, I am really really hating monkeys right now.