Back to Kaiser today to pick up our stockpile of pills. We walked out of the pharmacy with:
- Malarone (Malaria): We’ll take one tablet the day before going into Malaria-risk areas, one tablet every day we’re there, and continue taking tablets for 7 days after we leave.
- Typhoid EC Capsules (Typhoid Vaccine): Our Typhoid vaccine isn’t given as a shot, it’s a series of 4 pills we take every other day. Once it kicks in it should be good for 5 years. We have to keep them refrigerated as they’re “alive” according to the pharmacist. I did a quick Google search to find out exactly what’s “alive” about it, but no luck with a quick answer.
- Acetazolamide (Altitude Sickness): We’re expecting to need this in the Nepal / Tibet areas. We take 1 tablet a bedtime the day before we begin an ascent. We’re not expecting to scale any mountains, but it is recommended for even general travel over 8,000 feet.
- Azithromycin (Antibiotic): I’m allergic to penicillin and so was concerned about access to non-penicillin based antibiotics in some of the more rural areas. Azithromycin is basically just a super heavy duty antibiotic helpful for diarrhea and other ailments. Cipro is also a name a lot of people are familiar with, but we were told that some of the places we’re going are resistant to Cipro, hence the the prescription for Azithromycin.
So we now have a small traveling pharmacy to take with us. The bad news is that it set us back almost $700. Sheesh. Of course costs may vary with your medical plan, and how much of your annual deductible has already been used – but regardless it’s no joke. I think the Malaria medication was really the bulk of the cost since we each needed about 2.5 months worth.
