Medical matters
by Silvia

Travel Insurance
Medical Kit and First Aid
Vaccinations
Female Contraception
Lasic eye surgery

Before leaving Dubai, we took a first aid one day course which gave us the necessary basis to counter emergency situations. Hopefully, we will not need to use all these skills.. but one never knows.

Preparing yourself for such an adventure requires some proactiveness, particularly in terms of health. Before leaving, we wanted to make sure we have covered the following points:
- All required vaccination
- Proper insurance coverage before, during and after the trip
- Enough medical kit
- Enough knowledge to use the 3kg of medical stuff
- New anti conception method for Sil
- Lasic Eye surgery for Chris

Travel insurance:
we looked at various companies, either Dutch or international for the best coverage model at the best price.
There is no secret about it: a good insurance is expensive, and all policies have their limitations.
We chose ISIS Premier policy as our insurance for the following reasons:
- coverage amount: EUR 3,500 on luggage, unlimited actual costs on health, EUR 850 dentistry.
- Own risk premium: EUR 50 per incident on luggage
- possibility to get insurance before and after the trip
- coverage period: 1 month prior departure, 12 month of trip and 2 months after return
- price
- payment of medical costs directly by insurance in most countries
- Daily insurance rather than monthly premiums (Which is handy if one has to interrupts his travel)

Our final cost structure with ISIS was:
Insurance 1 month prior to departure: EUR 60
Insurance during 12 months of travel: EUR 697
Insurance for 2 months after return: EUR 115

Medical kit and health:
- Tropenzorg medical kit
- aspirins, ibuprofen, advil
- 1 dose of antibiotics for each
- disinfectant powder (this also ensures the wound dries up immediately)
- waterproof and regular plasters
- dental repair kit (to play dentist when bored!)
- deet insect repellent
- "trekzalf" (fantastic cream which basically extracts anything under your skin that's not supposed to be there)
- tons of huggies baby wetties (they are disinfectant and are also great to clean oneself with in case of lack of shower)
- nestosyl (for itch relief, small wounds and insect bites)
- multivitamins
- immodium to counter the Rangoon runs during that 20hour-long bus trip)
- norit
- athlete foot cream
- motion sickness tablets (to double as sleeping pills)
- knee brace for trekking
- i. shower (Yup for women only)

we will buy anti malaria on the spot when needed (Malarone or Lariam)

Vaccinations:
Many vaccines need to be repeated or taken at a certain time interval to be effective, so its needs to be planned a bit in advance. Luckily, most of them are valid for at least 5 years.
- hepatitis A and B(2 or 3 vaccines)
- yellow fever
- cholera
- tetanus
- polio
- meningitis
- diphtheria (DTP)
- vaccination certificate and Yellow fever book

For women only:
I used to be on the pill but have decided this would be very inconvenient during our trip for various reasons being:
- you need to carry a 12 month supply and hope it will not get stolen
- you need to carry condoms, since the pill is not safe during those inevitable Delhi belly's and when you need to take antibiotics.
- last but not least I am sure to forget it since I am a confused woman the best of times, let alone during this trip.
I have therefore done some research for alternative birth control (don't want to haul up a mountain being 6 months pregnant after all) and have decided to try a product called implanon (Organon). This is a small tube which is placed on the inside of your upper arm This tube releases the same amount as a daily pill and is valid for up to 3 years. You can however remove it anytime before that and be fertile again immediately.
One other advantage is that you will probably not get any periods, which is of course ideal for this trip.
There are plenty of other options (which all probably better then the pill!) so have a look around.

One extra tip if you decide to go with implanon, is to have it placed by a certified trained doctor, otherwise there is a fair chance things can go wrong. The first time my regular MD placed it he pulled it out by mistake. Thankfully he noticed it, but I have heard of women who had the same experience, did not notice it, and became pregnant.

Lasic Eye Surgery (chris)
I have been wearing glasses for as long as I can remember.
Like probably every fellow 4-eyed human being, I've been through particular phases with my glasses:
1) thinking they looked totally cool,
2) being extremely insecure about it,
3) totally forgetting about that I ever wore them, having to mind the excess acne that was sprouting on my face,
4) Having to take them off every time I tried to make out
5 ) Buying the first cool (imitation) designer brand,
6) Buying really expensive designer brands when the stock market was doing so good,
7 ) Hating rain, fog, water, dust and anything that came between my glasses and the outside world
8) Wishing that I too could squash normally, dive pleasurably, sun bath without ridiculous prescription sun-glasses
9) Realizing that the economical weight of breaking 3 pairs of glasses a year would one day bring me bankruptcy or madness

So I finally decided to get rid of them and treat myself to a Lasic Eye operation.Going away was certainly a catalyst to the decision as I knew that I would be more comfortable without the glasses:
- Not having to worry about loss and breakage
- Being able to buy any $5 sun-glasses in the street
- Not having to walk in the jungle half blind
- Not minding the occasional monsoon rain
- Not having to take with me 5Kg of glass cleaning cloth, liquids and sprays

I had the surgery in Vancouver, at Lasic Eye Center (Dr. Sutton) which was great/ Not only was it one fourth of the price in Holland (only USD 1000 for both eyes, which in itself, for a 80 seconds operation, is not that cheap..) but the operating surgeon has done more than 25,000 operations, so I guess we can say he is quite experienced.

The operation went super well and I now can see at 100%!.

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