I had my next-to-last doctor's appointment yesterday. This one was supposed to be for a physical so I didn't go to my main doctor. He's a friend and there's just something about being naked with and inspected by somebody who you occasionally hang out with. So I called up the doctor I'd been with when I first moved here.

"I'm not one to insist on removing my clothes."
Turns out he didn't even have me take my pants off. And while I did want a good going over, I'm not one to insist on removing my clothes. He did, however, write prescription after prescription. Lomotil, an anti-diarrheal; Cipro, the antibiotic made famous by the anthrax attacks; oral Typhoid vaccine; two refills of Albuterol, an asthma inhaler; and a year's worth of Lariam, the anti-malarial with various psychological side effects.

My insurance isn't gonna cover everything. The oral Typhoid vaccine is out because it's not covered and my other doctor can give me the injected version which will be covered (not as good a vaccine, though.) I won't be able to get a whole year's worth of Lariam, but I may be able to get at least six months worth for about $40. That'd be fantastic since it's normally $40+ for a single month. The Cipro... great deal. $300+ worth of it for $20. I'd been planning on spending some serious money at least on the Lariam. If this works out it'll save me big.

"Getting mugged, kidnapped, killed."
I was having some serious doubts about safety in the last week. About getting mugged, kidnapped, killed. It was brought on by the comments I mentioned previously about people's suspicions I would chicken out or get myself killed. The mugging part's not completely terrifying. That I'm reasonably prepared for having lived in a few cities. But I was kinda freaking out about my relative inexperience when it comes to extended travel and whether I was up to dealing with the crime situations in Mexico and points south.

I'm more or less over it. Yeah, there are dangers but they're manageable if you avoid unnecessarily hazardous places and activities. As usual we ignore the dangers we know and exaggerate those we don't. I worry about being kidnapped in Mexico City but not being run over by a bus on my way there.

But the one thing that allayed my fears most was a recent visitor to Mexico's story about a tiny Japanese girl who spoke no Spanish and very little English traveling alone through Mexico. Surely I can at least survive.|